The Nuclear Button & US Presidents

Warfare

History Hit

History

4.5 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 9 August 2021

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s a devastating weapon of mass destruction, and in the United States the power to use it belongs to one person: the President. Since the Truman administration, there has been no requirement for the President to gain approval from Congress or even the Secretary of Defence before unleashing the nuclear arsenal. To learn more about the authority of Presidents Truman to Trump and now Biden, James welcomes William J. Perry, Secretary of Defence in the Clinton administration and Undersecretary of Defence for Research and Engineering in the Carter administration, and Tom Z. Collina, the Director of Policy at Ploughshares Fund, a global security foundation in Washington, DC. They discuss their experiences in Nuclear strategy and the prospect, or reality, of a Second Nuclear Arms Race and Cold War.

Their book can be found here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/692279/the-button-by-william-j-perry/9781948836999.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone I'm your host James Rogers and this is the history hit warfare
0:03.2	podcast if it's your first time here we cover the history of warfare
0:06.8	from Napoleonic battles to Cold War confrontations the Normandy landings to
0:11.1	9-11 and this is an extra special episode.
0:14.7	I'm delighted to welcome the 19th Secretary Defense of the United States
0:18.5	William J Perry onto the podcast.
0:21.3	Secretary Perry served under President Bill Clinton from February 94 to January 97
0:26.0	and he's joined by Tom Z. Kalina who is the co-author of their new book, The Button,
0:31.0	The New Nuclear Arms Race and Presidential Power from Truman to Trump.
0:35.9	They came on the podcast to talk about nuclear decision-making and how, surprisingly,
0:40.2	the US President has sole authority, all the power vested in one person to decide whether or not to press the nuclear button and start nuclear war.
0:50.0	It's been like this since President Truman, and both Secretary Perry and Tom draw on their vast history and the vast history of nuclear decision-making to explain to us why this policy needs to change.
1:01.0	As Secretary Perry argues, our nuclear weapons policy is obsolete and dangerous.
1:06.6	I know because I help design it.
1:09.2	Now I know you love this podcast, you're going to find it fascinating, so please take a second to give us five stars on Apple Podcast and share far and wide.
1:17.0	But here's Secretary William J Perry and Tom Z. Kalina on Presidential Power and the nuclear button. Secretary Perry, Tom Kaleena, it is a pleasure to have you on the history-hit
1:40.5	warfare podcast. Thank you for making the time.
1:43.0	Now let's get straight into this important topic.
1:48.0	There was so much concern during the Trump administration about how the president could abuse his role as commander-in-chief
1:56.0	and perhaps even have darker nuclear ambitions.
1:59.9	With one hand he seemed to seek nuclear de-escalation and peace with North Korea, but with the other hand he
2:06.4	toyed with pressing the nuclear button on Twitter and even threatened indiscriminate bombing of
	...

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