The Nuclear Club

Featuring Jonathan Hunt, assistant professor at the U.S. Naval War College and a fellow of the Nuclear Security Program at Yale University, about his book The Nuclear Club.

Note: The views expressed here are those of the author alone and do not necessarily represent the views, policies, or positions of the U.S. Department of Defense or its components, to include the Department of the Navy or the U.S. Naval War College.

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Episode 1

The group discusses US efforts to maintain nuclear supremacy in the early Cold War, nuclear threshold states, nuclear propaganda, and more up until Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” speech.

Episode 2

Continues the discussion starting in the mid-1950s after “Atoms for Peace”, covers non-proliferation movement leaders like Irish foreign minister Frank Aiken, the flexible response policy and other changes to America’s nuclear posture under the Kennedy Administration, the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty, proliferation optimists vs pessimists, and more through the late 1960s.

Episode 3

This final episode examines President Lyndon Johnson’s approach to nuclear weapons, the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and how Vietnam factored into its scope, the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA), tactical nuclear weapons, the Treaty of Tlatelolco, and more.