On July 16, 1945, the United States successfully tested the world’s first atomic bomb in the desert sands of New Mexico. Less than one month later, President Harry S. Truman ordered the dropping of nuclear weapons on two Japanese cities. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s decision to develop the bomb during World War II, and President Truman’s decision to use it to end that war ushered in the nuclear age and reshaped the nature of the American Presidency.
Issues related to nuclear weapons have confronted every President since that time—from the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, through the nuclear arms race at the height of the Cold War, to today’s threat of terrorist organizations and rogue nations obtaining nuclear weapons.
On October 12, 2009, the Kennedy Library hosted "The Presidency and the Nuclear Age," a one-day conference sponsored by the nation's 13 Presidential Libraries. Our program presented four groups of distinguished panelists, including historians and those who offered a first-hand account of significant events.
The first panel, "The Race to Build the Bomb and the Decision to Use It," highlighted foreign policy decision-making during the Roosevelt and Truman administrations. The next panel "The Cuban Missile Crisis and the First Nuclear Test Ban Treaty," focused on Kennedy era topics. "The Cold War and the Nuclear Arms Race" chronicled the arms race and efforts to curtail it during the presidencies of Richard M. Nixon through George H.W. Bush and the end of the Cold War. And, finally, "Nuclear Weapons, Terrorism, and the Presidency," examined the efforts to halt the spread of nuclear weapons to terrorist organizations and rogue states from the administrations of Bill Clinton to Barack Obama.
Panelists included Theodore Sorensen, Special Counsel to President Kennedy, Kenneth Adelman, who accompanied President Reagan at the Icelandic summit with Gorbachev, and Nick Burns who served in the State Department under Presidents Clinton and Bush (43). Historian Richard Rhodes, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his book The Making of the Atom Bomb, nuclear terrorism expert Graham Allison, and journalists Marvin Kalb, Tom Gjelten, and Leslie Gelb were also among the day's speakers.
President George H.W. Bush and President Bill Clinton provided their perspectives on the issue of nuclear proliferation via video as did Secretary of State Henry Kissinger who addressed nuclear deterrence during the Nixon and Ford Administrations.
Transcripts will soon be available on our "Past Forums" page.
For related teaching resources, please see the following pages:
High School Lesson Plan on the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
Annotated list of weblinks to documents, images, maps, essays, and timelines related to nuclear proliferation and nuclear treaties