John F. Kennedy

  • Sixty Years Under the Shadow of Castle Bravo

    On March 1, 1954, the U.S. conducted its largest nuclear test. The Castle Bravo nuclear test on Bikini Atoll unexpectedly unleashed 15 megatons of explosive force on the tiny island. At 1,000 times the strength of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Castle Bravo’s devastating effects where widely felt across the western Pacific.

    March 3, 2014 - By Peter Fedewa

  • JFK’s Historic Plea for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament

    June 10 marks the 50th anniversary of one of JFK's most important speeches and one of the most powerful pleas ever given by a US president for nuclear disarmament.

    June 10, 2013 - By Joe Cirincione

  • Cuban Missile Crisis: Five Things You Didn’t Know

    Welcome to 1962. Slick back your hair, grab a scotch, and don’t forget to triple check that route to the nearest Fallout Shelter. It is October after all, the month in which the US and the Soviet Union came closer to nuclear war than any other time in history. The nation held its breath as President John F. Kennedy faced off with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in waters just offshore of Cuba.

    October 15, 2012 - By Jessica Sleight

  • Must We Keep Living Under the Sword of Damocles?

    The following is the third in a series of guest posts from graduate students reflecting on the 25th anniversary of Rekyavik.

    Twenty-five years ago, two of the leaders of the world’s greatest military powers sat together at the Hofdi House in Reykjavik, Iceland. They were President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, and they met to discuss the possibility of eliminating all nuclear weapons.

    November 28, 2011 - By admin