A panel discussion was held on how U.S. foreign policy and the presidency have been shaped by the development, use, and spread of nuclear weapons focused on 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. They reacted to video clips of President Carter speaking in Vienna about the SALT II agreement and President Reagan talking about his meetings with Soviet President Gorbachev. The panelists also responded to questions submitted by members of the audience. Marvin Kalb moderated.
Richard Rhodes is the author of Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race. Nicholas Thompson is the author of The Hawk and the Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan and the History of the Cold War.
Carolyn Kennedy made opening remarks and introduced a video in which former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger addressed nuclear deterrence during the Nixon and Ford administrations. These were excerpts from an interview conduced in New York City by Graham Allison for this event.
“The Cold War and the Nuclear Arms Race” was the third panel of “The Presidency in the Nuclear Age,” a one-day conference sponsored by the nation’s 13 presidential libraries held by the Kennedy Library on October 12, 2009.