Presidents’ Nuclear Perspectives

This Presidents’ Day weekend, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation presents perspectives from past and present US presidents, as well as from candidates running in this year’s election. Despite calls from past Presidents, nuclear weapons have assumed a far more central role in US security policy. As the past presidential statements make clear, it is patriotic to the country and the world to oppose policies of nuclear annihilation and to call for US leadership toward ending the nuclear weapons threat to humanity and all life. In this election year, we encourage you to examine what candidates have to say about nuclear weapons policy. As a US citizen, you have the power to voice your concerns and challenge nuclear policy decisions.

Past Presidents

President Franklin D. Roosevelt:
"Truly if the genius of mankind that has invented the weapons of death cannot discover the means of preserving peace, civilization as we know it lives in an evil day."

President Dwight D. Eisenhower:
"Let no one think that the expenditure of vast sums for weapons and systems of defense can guarantee absolute safety for the cities and citizens of any nation. The awful arithmetic of the atomic bomb does not permit any such easy solution."

President Harry S. Truman:
“There is nothing more urgent confronting the people of all nations than the banning of all nuclear weapons under a foolproof system of international control.”

President John F. Kennedy:
"Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident or miscalculation or by madness. The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us …."

President Lyndon B. Johnson:
"...uneasy is the peace that wears a nuclear crown. And we cannot be satisfied with a situation in which the world is capable of extinction in a moment of error, or madness, or anger. "

President Richard M. Nixon:
"A direct clash between the superpowers would almost certainly escalate to nuclear weapons. Over 400 million people in the United States and the Soviet Union alone would be killed in an all-out exchange."

President Gerald R. Ford:
"The world faces an unprecedented danger in the spread of nuclear weapons technology."

President James E. Carter:
"In an all-out nuclear war, more destructive power than in all of World War II would be unleashed every second during the long afternoon it would take for all the missiles and bombs to fall. A World War II every second -- more people killed in the first few hours than all the wars of history put together. The survivors, if any, would live in despair amid the poisoned ruins of a civilization that had committed suicide."

President Ronald W. Reagan:
"Nuclear War cannot be won and must never be fought."

President George H.W. Bush:
"School children once hid under their desks in drills to prepare for nuclear war. I saw the chance to rid our children's dreams of the nuclear nightmare, and I did."

President Bill Clinton:
"I am very disappointed that the United States Senate voted not to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. This agreement is critical to protecting the American people from the dangers of nuclear war. It is, therefore, well worth fighting for. And I assure you, the fight is far from over."

Current Presidential Candidates

President George W. Bush:
The Bush 2001 Nuclear Posture Review called for the development of new, more “usable” nuclear weapons; for developing contingency plans for the use of nuclear weapons against nuclear and non-nuclear states; and for reducing the time required for the United States to resume nuclear weapons testing. Below are statements taken from the Review:

"Nuclear weapons play a critical role in the defense capabilities of the United States, its allies and friends. They provide credible military options to deter a wide range of threats, including WMD and large-scale conventional military force. These nuclear capabilities possess unique properties that give the United States options to hold at risk classes of targets [that are] important to achieve strategic and political objectives."

"Advances in defensive technologies will allow U.S. non-nuclear and nuclear capabilities to be coupled with active and passive defenses to help provide deterrence and protection against attack, preserve U.S. freedom of action, and strengthen the credibility of U.S. alliance commitments."

“Nuclear weapons could be employed against targets able to withstand non-nuclear attack, (for example, deep underground bunkers or bio-weapon facilities)."

"The need is clear for a revitalized nuclear weapons complex that will: ...be able, if directed, to design, develop, manufacture, and certify new warheads in response to new national requirements; and maintain readiness to resume underground nuclear testing if required."

John Kerry:
“George Bush is taking the world in the wrong direction. He is poised to set off a new nuclear arms race by building bunker-busting tactical nuclear weapons -- smaller and more usable nuclear bombs. I don’t want a world with more useable nuclear bombs. I don’t want America to turn its back on half a century of effort by every President to reduce the nuclear threat. I’m running to put America where we rightfully belong -- leading the way to a new international accord on nuclear proliferation to make the world itself safer for human survival.”

Dennis Kucinich:
“A Kucinich administration would work to end nuclear proliferation by actually setting an example for the rest of the world by turning away from the true weapons of mass destruction. Nuclear disarmament would be a priority and the madness of moving towards battlefield nuclear weapons would be reversed.”

Ralph Nader:
"Our foreign policy must redefine the elements of global security, peace, arms control, an end to nuclear weapons and expand the many assets of our country to launch, with other nations, major initiatives against global infections diseases (such as AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and virulent flu epidemics) which have and are coming to our country in increasingly drug resistant strains.”

To find out more on presidential candidate’s position on US nuclear weapons policy, go to
http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/action/urgent-actions/us-nuclear-weapons-policy/index.htm