The Presidency and the Bomb
National Security Correspondent Fred Kaplan shared previously untold stories from inside the White House, the Joint Chiefs of Staff's "tank" in the Pentagon, and the chambers of US Strategic Command.
About This Event
For 75 years, presidents have stared into the abyss of nuclear war, able to destroy the world with a single command. Several of them have faced crisis in which they've thought about, threatened, broached, and in a few cases just barely averted this catastrophe. For his latest book, The Bomb, Fred Kaplan has held exclusive interviews with participants and excavated archives uncovering thousands of once-classified documents relating to these crises and maneuverings. He shares previously untold stories from inside the White House, the Joint Chiefs of Staff's "tank" in the Pentagon, and the vast chambers of US Strategic Command to cast new light on the darkest aspect of our age, from Truman to Trump.
About the Speakers
CEO, Chicago Council on Global Affairs
Ivo H. Daalder served as the US ambassador to NATO from 2009 to 2013. He joined the Council as president in 2013 and took on the new role of CEO in 2023. Previously, he was a senior fellow in foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution and served as director for European affairs on President Bill Clinton’s National Security Council. He is the author or editor of 10 books.
Fred Kaplan
Author and National Security Correspondent, Slate
Fred Kaplan is the national security columnist for Slate and the author of five previous books, Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War, 1959, Daydream Believers, The Wizards of Armageddon, and The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War, which was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and New York Times bestseller.