>> now john wohlstetter talks about the threat of nuclear weapons today and discusses what can be done to safeguard against the ultimate catastrophe. this is about an hour. >> good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining me today, although i don't have something cheery for you. i was thinking how to start this. it wasn't as nice as v

. >> thank you, john. let's give john wohlstetter i hand. [applause] .. whenever it is you are watching i appreciate that. always told by my wife and daughter after presenting some earlier remarks, i should make it much shorter which i will try to do. my hope is to talk for about 15, no longer than 20 minutes and reserve a lot of time for the questions and commentss and counterarguments that not only do eyes the suspect some of you have but i know given some people in this room i know without a shadow of a doubt i welcome. this is, we are told, the most important election in our lifetime and it may be that more people believe that this year than believe in 2008-2004-2004 another election where that is regularly said. for this to be true, among other things elections must have genuine consequences for the making of public policy particularly with regard to domestic policy. we could have separate conversation about the issue of presidential power with regard to foreign policy, military policy but let me say my primary interest in the book and my remarks thi

john wohlstetter talks about the threat of nuclear weapons today and what can be done to safeguard against the ultimate catastrophe. this is about an hour. [applause] >> good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and tank you for joining me today although i don't have summer cheer for you i'm afraid. i was thinking about how to start the speech and a fine english historian andrew -- wrote something in the opinion page for me and the title of it is, it's august, prepare for the cataclysm. we all think of august is the month where everybody is at the beach and sort of chilling out and even in this heavily political season, just enjoying life and for those of us watching congress is in recess which generally speaking means of a lot of lobbyists leave town so there's a lot less traffic. andrew roberts wanted to bring us back to a little historical realities over the last century among the peaceful events that have occurred, in august of 1914, world war i began. on the last day of four in 1939 hitler decided to invade poland the next day. in 1945 for two atomic bombs in this very weak of 1945 led to t

. >> now john wohlstetter talks about the threat of nuclear weapons today and discusses what can be done to safeguard against the ultimate catastrophe. this is about an hour. >> good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining me today, although i don't have something cheery for you. i was thinking how to start this. wasn't as nice as the very fine english historian who must've been thinking the same thing to write something in today's "wall street journal" opinion page for me, and the title of it is, let's all prepare for the cataclysm. we all think of august as a month where everybody is at the beach, sort of chilling out and all that in this heavily political season, just enjoying life. and for those of us in washington, congress is in recess, which generally speaking means a lot of lobbyists leave town so there's a lot less traffic. it's a rather nice time. robbers wanted to bring us back to a little historical reality, so over the last century among the peaceful events that have occurred, in august of 1914 world war i began. on the last day of august 1939 hitler decid