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There's a long tradition of protest when the United States declares war.

Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, there were even plenty of Americans who wanted us to stay out of the world wars. One fight almost nobody objected to? The war on cancer. But with the Trump

administration severely limiting the supply of research funding that has served as ammunition in that

struggle, it seems the U.S. government is no longer looking to lead the fight.

From KERA in Dallas, this is think.

I'm Chris Boyd.

It was Richard Nixon, who officially declared a war on cancer.

At the time, many people thought this all-out approach

would surely bring about a cure within a few years.

As my guest will tell us, there have been many, many breakthroughs over the years,

which have added up to real gains for cancer patients.

But scientists worry those small but compounding winds might slow down,

as the pipeline of federal funding narrows.

Jonathan Mahler is a staff writer for the New York Times Magazine,

which published his article, Trump is shutting down the war on cancer.

Jonathan, welcome to think.

Thank you for having me.

So we'll start with a little background.

How much of the funding for cancer research in this country has come from the federal government

in modern history. Like, does the government fund a lot of cancer research that gets done?

...