I'm Rory Stewart and I grew up wanting to be a hero and I'm still fascinated by the ideas of heroism.

In my new series, I'm taking in the long sweep of history from Achilles to Zelensky and asking, what is a hero?

Simply doing your job, being a decent human being.

A true hero is someone who just kind of shines by

their own light and that light is to be recognised by others. The long history of heroism

with me, Rory Stewart. Listen on BBC Sounds. You're listening to the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service with me, Claire Bowes.

In the summer of 1971, the US President Richard Nixon announced a worldwide program to eradicate illegal drug use.

It became known as the War on Drugs.

In 2019, I spoke to Jeffrey Donfeld, who worked in Nixon's White House, trying to find a way to help addicts to give up heroin.

America's public enemy number one in the United States is drug abuse.

Richard Nixon was a Republican.

In his third year in office, he declared a national emergency over drugs

and asked Congress to agree to provide a total of $371 million

to spend on programs to control drug abuse in America.

In order to fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary to wage a new all-out offenses.

I've asked the Congress to provide the legislative authority and the funds

to fuel this kind of an offensive. This will be a worldwide offensive dealing with the problems

of sources of supply as well as Americans who may be stationed abroad wherever they are in the world.

The war was to be fought on three fronts.

One was an attempt to stop the supply of drugs from countries such as Thailand, Burma, Turkey and France,

getting American ambassadors to press these countries for action.

Second, an education program to de-glamourise drugs and head off demand.

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