National Security and the Public Presidency

 The presidency and national security:

• From Tuesday: The steps in launching a nuclear attack
• Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates: "The secretary of defense is second only to the president in the military chain of command (neither the vice president nor the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is in the chain at all), and any order to American forces worldwide goes from the president to the secretary directly to the combatant commanders (although as a practical matter and a courtesy, I routinely asked the chairman to convey such orders). More important than any of the meetings, the secretary makes life-and-death decisions every day—and not just for American military forces. Since 9/11, the president has delegated to the secretary the authority to shoot down any commercial airliner he, the secretary, deems to be a threat to the United States. The secretary can also order missiles fired to shoot down an incoming missile." 

National Security Council

Intelligence Community'

President's Daily Brief

Cuban Missile Crisis

Presidential power

  LBJ one on one (If you go to the LBJ Library in Austin, you can put yourself in the picture)

Reagan

• The Evil Empire speech:
• Context
• The nuclear freeze
• Moral equivalence

White House spin and the Dreyer memo 

(do not confuse with CMC's David Dreier!)