title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: In fulfilment of NATO's plans to halt a Soviet invasion of Western Europe using tactical nuclear weapons, the 3rd Air Force received its own nuclear weapons when the 20th Fighter Wing deployed to RAF Wethersfield in Essex on 1 June 1952, with Republic F-84F Thunderstreak fighters and Mark 7 nuclear bombs. It reequipped with the North American F-100 Super Sabre in 1957, and the General Dynamics F-111 in 1970. In the 1970s, up to 60 F-111s based in the UK were on quick reaction alert, each carrying multiple B61 nuclear bombs. US Navy Polaris ballistic missile submarines were based at Holy Loch in Scotland from March 1961. During the 1980s nuclear armed USAF Ground Launched Cruise Missiles (GLCMs) were deployed at RAF Greenham Common and RAF Molesworth, as a consequence of the 1979 NATO Double-Track Decision, under which NATO countries agreed to modernise the alliance's nuclear weapons.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: Under the terms of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with the Soviet Union, the United States withdrew its surface naval nuclear weapons and short-range nuclear forces. The GLCMs were withdrawn from the UK in 1991, and the Polaris submarine base at Holy Loch was closed in 1992. The US continued to store tactical nuclear weapons in the UK until 2006, when approximately 110 tactical B61s stored at RAF Lakenheath for deployment by USAF F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft were removed.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: The MDA made fully developed and tested American designs available quickly and cheaply. The first of these was the Mark 28, which was "Anglicised" and manufactured in the UK as Red Snow. Exact copies of American designs were not pursued; the high explosive used in American warheads were more sensitive than British high explosive, and had caused fatal accidents in the US. Its use was not contemplated in the UK after an accident at Aldermaston on 28 February 1959 when two men were killed after a piece of British high explosive fell from a lorry. British high explosive was also bulkier, so a redesign was required.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: Red Snow was far more economical in its use of fissile material than the Green Grass warhead in the Yellow Sun Mk.1 bomb, Britain's first production hydrogen bomb. A Yellow Sun Mk.2 with Red Snow, therefore, cost £500,000 compared to £1.2 million for the Mk.1. RAF Bomber Command wanted Violet Club replaced as soon as possible, so 37 Yellow Sun Mk.1s were delivered by the end of 1959. Deliveries of the Yellow Sun Mk.2 commenced in January 1961, and 43 were delivered by the end of the year. In November 1958. Red Snow also replaced Green Grass as the warhead in the Blue Steel stand-off missile.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: The kiloton Red Beard was developed for use by the Canberras and the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm. Technical problems delayed its introduction into service, but over 100 were delivered by the end of 1961. Up to 48 Red Beards were secretly stowed in a highly secured weapons storage facility at RAF Tengah in Singapore between 1962 and 1971 for possible use by V bombers and for Britain's military commitment to SEATO.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: The availability of US weapons and designs under the MDA led to the cancellation of several research projects. Indigo Hammer and the smaller Pixie were warheads intended for use with the Red Duster and Seaslug surface-to-air missiles; a British version of the US W44 was chosen instead. Blue Peacock, a atomic demolition munition (ADMs) based on Blue Danube, was cancelled in 1958 in favour of the lighter Violet Mist, based on Red Beard. The development of the even smaller and lighter US ADMs led to its cancellation as well in 1961. The US Medium Atomic Demolition Munition with the W45 was acquired instead. Yellow Anvil was a British artillery warhead that was cancelled in 1958.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: In 1960, the government decided to cancel the Blue Streak missile based on the Chiefs of Staff's conclusion that it was too vulnerable to attack and thus was only useful for a first strike, and decided to purchase the American air-launched Skybolt missile instead. Macmillan met with Eisenhower in March 1960, and secured permission to buy Skybolt without strings attached. In return, the Americans were given permission to base the US Navy's Polaris-equipped ballistic missile submarines at Holy Loch in Scotland.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: The Americans initially intended to pair Skybolt with the W47 warhead, an innovative light-weight design from the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory developed for Polaris. The British wanted to use Red Snow, partly for safety reasons and partly because it was not certain that the advanced M47 design would be made available without strings attached. The technical problem was that Red Snow was heavier, and therefore the range of the Skybolt would be reduced from . A megaton design known as RE.179 based on the W49 warhead used in American ICBMs was developed for Skybolt.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: At the same time, work was in progress on a Red Beard replacement for use with the RAF's BAC TSR-2 and the Royal Navy's Blackburn Buccaneer. Ultimately, a warhead was produced in two variants: the high-yield () WE.177B and the low-yield () WE.177A as a Red Beard replacement, and for use in depth charges and anti-submarine missiles. WE.177 was later adapted for use with Polaris, and would become the longest-serving British nuclear weapon.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: The deployment of ships carrying nuclear weapons caused complications during the Falklands War, and in the aftermath of that war it was decided to stockpile them ashore in peacetime. When the US withdrew its theatre nuclear weapons from Europe, the British government followed suit. The nuclear depth bombs were withdrawn from service in 1992, followed by the WE.177 free-fall bombs on 31 March 1998, and all were dismantled by the end of August.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), Aldermaston, formerly the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment (AWRE), is situated on a site near Reading in Berkshire. It was built on the site of the former RAF Aldermaston, which was converted to nuclear weapons research, design and development establishment, and opened on 1 April 1950. In 1954, the AWRE took control of the nearby ROF Burghfield, where warheads were assembled, and the test ranges at Foulness and Orford Ness. Components for nuclear weapons were also produced at the former ROF Cardiff site.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: The Atomic Weapons Research Establishment became part of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority on 1 January 1955. The last trials at Orford Ness were conducted on 9 June 1971, and the site was closed on 1 October 1971.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: Cardiff closed in 1997, and Foulness by the end of that year. In 1989, the government announced its intention to find a private company to run AWE, with the government retaining ownership of the site and control of AWE though a golden share arrangement. In 1993, the contract was awarded to a consortium of Hunting Engineering, Brown and Root and AEA Technology. In 1999, the contract was transferred to a consortium of BNFL, Lockheed Martin and Serco. In 2008, the British government sold the BNFL share to Jacobs Engineering Group.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: The Kennedy administration cancelled Skybolt in December 1962 because the United States Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, determined that other delivery systems were progressing better than expected, and a further expensive system was surplus to US requirements. In London, over one hundred Conservative members of Parliament, nearly one third of the parliamentary party, signed a motion urging Macmillan to ensure that Britain remained an independent nuclear power.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: Macmillan met with President John F. Kennedy and brokered the Nassau Agreement. Macmillan rejected offers of other systems, and insisted that the UK needed to purchase Polaris submarine-launched ballistic missiles. These represented more advanced technology than Skybolt, and the US was not inclined to provide them except as part of a Multilateral Force within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In the end, Kennedy did not wish to see Macmillan's government collapse, which would imperil Britain's entry into the European Economic Community (EEC), so a face-saving compromise was reached: the US agreed to provide the UK with Polaris missiles, which would be assigned to NATO, and could be used independently only when "supreme national interests" intervened.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: The Polaris Sales Agreement was signed on 6 April 1963. The UK retained its deterrent force, although its control passed from the RAF to the Royal Navy. The Polaris missiles were equipped with British warheads. A base was developed for the Polaris submarines at Faslane on the Firth of Clyde, not far from the US Navy's base at Holy Loch. It was served by a weapons store at nearby Coulport. The first of four Polaris submarines, was launched in September 1966, and commenced its first deterrent patrol in June 1968. The annual running costs of the Polaris boats came to around two per cent of the defence budget, and they came to be seen as a credible deterrent that enhanced Britain's international status. British politicians did not like to talk about "dependence" on the United States, preferring to describe the Special Relationship as one of "interdependence".


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: Polaris had not been designed to penetrate anti-ballistic missile (ABM) defences, but the Royal Navy had to ensure that its small Polaris force operating alone, and often with only one submarine on patrol, could penetrate the ABM screen around Moscow. The Wilson government publicly ruled out the purchase of Poseidon missiles in June 1967, and without such a commitment, the Americans were unwilling to share information about warhead vulnerability. The result was Chevaline, an Improved Front End (IFE) that replaced one of the three warheads with multiple decoys and other defensive countermeasures, in what was known as a Penetration Aid Carrier (PAC). It was the most technically complex defence project ever undertaken in the United Kingdom. Chevaline's existence, along with its formerly secret codename, was revealed by the Secretary of State for Defence, Francis Pym, during a debate in the House of Commons on 24 January 1980. By this time the project had gone on for a decade. The final cost reached £1,025 million.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: In 1982, the Thatcher government announced its decision to purchase 65 American Trident II D-5 missiles. These operated as part of a shared pool of weapons based at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in the United States. The US would maintain and support the missiles, while the UK would manufacture its own submarines and warheads. The warheads and missiles would be mated in the UK. Four s were designed and built. Trident missiles had multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle (MIRV) capability, which was needed to overcome the Soviet ABM defences.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: Each submarine could carry up to 16 missiles, each of which can each carry up to 8 warheads. However, when the decision to purchase Trident II was announced, it was stressed that British Trident boats would carry no more than 128 warheads—the same number as Polaris. In November 1993, the Secretary of State for Defence, Malcolm Rifkind, announced that each boat would deploy no more than 96 warheads. In 2010, this was reduced to a maximum of 40 warheads, split between eight missiles. The missiles have a range of .


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: The first Trident boat, , collected a full load of 16 missiles in 1994, but the second, drew only 12 in 1995, and the third, , 14 in 1997, leaving the remaining missile tubes empty. Although the UK designed, manufactured and owns the warheads, there is evidence that the warhead design is similar to, or even based on, the US W76 warhead fitted in some US Navy Trident missiles, with design data being supplied by the United States through the MDA.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: Since 1969, the United Kingdom has always had at least one ballistic-missile submarine on patrol, giving it a nuclear deterrent that is, what the Defence Council described in 1980 as, "effectively invulnerable to pre-emptive attack". In the Strategic Defence Review published in July 1998, the government stated that once the "Vanguard" submarines became fully operational (the fourth and final one, , entered service on 27 November 1999), it would "maintain a stockpile of fewer than 200 operationally available warheads". , the UK had a stockpile of 215 warheads, of which 120 were operational. The 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review reduced the number of warheads and missiles for the ballistic missile submarine on patrol to 40 and 8 respectively.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: Nuclear warheads from the Trident missiles are transported by road convoy several times a year from Coulport to Burghfield for refurbishment. Between 2000 and 2016, there were 180 accidents involving the vehicles, ranging from minor traffic accidents to a sudden total loss of power in one of the 44-tonne lorries that halted a convoy and caused a double lane closure and a tailback on the M6 motorway. The accidents have been more frequent in recent years.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: The Trident system cost £12.6 billion to build (at 1996 prices) and £280m a year to maintain. Options for replacing Trident ranged from £5 billion for the missiles alone to £20 to £30 billion for missiles, submarines and research facilities. At a minimum, for the system to continue after around 2020, the missiles would need to be replaced. By 2016, the price of replacement of submarine had risen to £31 billion and it was estimated by Ministry of Defence that the cost of Trident replacement programme for 30 years would be £167 billion.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: With the tactical nuclear weapons having been withdrawn from service, Trident was the UK's only remaining nuclear weapons system. By this time, possession of nuclear weapons had become an important part of Britain's national identity. Not renewing Trident meant that Britain would become a non-nuclear power and strike at Britain's status as a great power. A decision on the renewal of Trident was made on 4 December 2006. Prime Minister Tony Blair told MPs it would be "unwise and dangerous" for the UK to give up its nuclear weapons. He outlined plans to spend up to £20bn on a new generation of ballistic missile submarines. The new boats would continue to carry the Trident II D-5 missiles, but submarine numbers might be cut from four to three, and the number of nuclear warheads would reduced by 20% to 160. He said although the Cold War had ended, the UK needed nuclear weapons, as no-one could be sure another nuclear threat would not emerge in the future.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: The 2010 coalition government agreed "that the renewal of Trident should be scrutinised to ensure value for money. Liberal Democrats will continue to make the case for alternatives." Research and development work continued, but the final decision to proceed with building a replacement was scheduled for 2016, after the next election. There was already some urgency to move ahead because some experts predicted it could take 17 years to develop the replacement for the "Vanguard"-class submarines. The vote in the House of Commons on whether to replace the existing four "Vanguard"-class submarines was held on 18 July 2016. The Trident renewal programme motion passed with a significant majority with 472 MPs voting in favour and 117 against. The Leader of the Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn, and 47 other Labour MPs had voted against it; 41 did not vote but 140 Labour votes were cast in favour of the motion. The Successor class was officially named the on 21 October 2016. The four new "Dreadnought" submarines were expected to come into operation in the early 2030s, with the programme lasting until at least the 2060s.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: The government released a written statement on 25 February 2020, outlining that the UK nuclear warheads will be replaced and will match the US Trident II SLBM and related systems. The commander of the US Strategic Command, Admiral Charles A. Richard, told a US Senate hearing that the UK was already working to replace its warheads. The new UK warhead was planned to fit inside the future US Mk7 aeroshell that would house the future US W93 warhead. It would be the first UK-designed warhead in thirty years, since the Holbrook, an Anglicised version of the US W76. However, the US Congress was reluctant to authorise the US$32 million in funding for the first phase of design of the new aeroshell. Meanwhile, construction of the £634 million Pegasus enriched uranium facility was suspended in 2018, the £1,806 million Mensa warhead assembly facility was still under construction, and the proposed Hydrus facility for hydrodynamic weapons testing was cancelled in favour of using the French Teutates-Epur facility in Valduc.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: The UK's first nuclear test, Operation Hurricane, was in the Montebello Islands of Western Australia. It was followed by the first nuclear tests on the Australian mainland, which were conducted at Emu Field in the Great Victoria Desert in South Australia as part of Operation Totem on 14 and 26 October 1953. Two further tests were held on the Montebello Islands as part of Operation Mosaic on 6 May and 19 June 1956. In the 1980s there emerged a claim that the second Mosaic test was of a significantly higher explosive yield than suggested by available figures— as compared to the official figure of —but this claim does not stand up to scrutiny.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: The British government formally requested a permanent test facility on 30 October 1953. Due to concerns about nuclear fallout from the previous tests at Emu Field and the site's inadequate infrastructure and water supply, the recently surveyed site at Maralinga in South Australia was selected for this purpose. The new site was announced in May 1955. It was developed as a joint, co-funded facility between the British and Australian governments. Seven British nuclear tests at Maralinga were conducted between 27 September 1956 and 9 October 1957.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: In addition to the major tests involving explosions, many subcritical minor trials were also carried out between June 1955 and April 1963. While the major tests had been carried out with some publicity, the minor tests were carried out in absolute secrecy. The "Kitten" tests tested bomb components, while "Tims" and "Rats" were early subcritical hydronuclear tests. The "Vixen" tests involved safety testing of nuclear weapons—assuring that the core would not accidentally undergo criticality in the event of a fire or crash. These minor tests left a legacy of radioactive contamination at Maralinga.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: The Australian government prohibited hydrogen bomb tests in Australia, so Britain had to look for another test site for its hydrogen bombs. The first British hydrogen bombs were tested during Operation Grapple at Malden Island and Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean. Nine tests were conducted there in 1957, 1958 and 1959, ultimately demonstrating that the UK had developed expertise in thermonuclear weapons.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: Beginning in December 1962, the UK conducted 24 tests at the Nevada Test Site in the United States. The final test was the Julin Bristol shot which took place on 26 November 1991. British nuclear testing was abruptly halted by President George H. W. Bush in October 1992. Because Britain did not test as often as the United States for financial and political reasons, and did not have the Americans' state-of-the-art computer facilities, British weapons design depended more on theoretical understanding, with potential for both greater advances and greater risks between tests.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: The United Kingdom, along with the United States and the Soviet Union, signed the Partial Test Ban Treaty, which restricted it to underground nuclear tests by outlawing testing in the atmosphere, underwater, or in outer space, on 5 August 1963. The UK signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, ending all nuclear testing, on 24 September 1996, and ratified it on 6 April 1998, having passed the necessary legislation on 18 March 1998 as the Nuclear Explosions (Prohibition and Inspections) Act 1998. Subcritical nuclear tests continued to occur, most notably the Etna test in February 2002, and the Krakatau test in February 2006.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: Altogether forty-five nuclear tests were carried out by the United Kingdom between 3 October 1952 to 26 November 1991 at the Montebello Islands, Emu Field and Maralinga in Australia, on Christmas and Malden Islands in Kiribati, and at the Nevada Test Site in the United States. The 45 tests included 21 tests carried out in the atmosphere.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: Britain was extremely vulnerable to nuclear weapons. The 1955 Strath Committee grimly estimated that an attack on the UK with just ten 10-megaton weapons would kill 12 million people and seriously injure another 4 million even before the country was blanketed with radioactive fallout.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: The UK has relied on the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) and, in later years, Defense Support Program (DSP) satellites for warning of a nuclear attack. Both of these systems are owned and controlled by the United States, although the UK has joint control over UK-based systems. One of the four component radars for the BMEWS is based at RAF Fylingdales in North Yorkshire.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: In 2003, the UK government stated that it would consent to a request from the US to upgrade the radar at Fylingdales for use in the US National Missile Defense system, but missile defence was not a significant political issue within the UK. The ballistic missile threat was perceived to be less severe, and consequently less of a priority, than other threats to its security. Fylingdales was enhanced to an Upgraded Early Warning Radar (UEWR) in 2008, and became part of the United States national missile defense system in 2011.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: During the Cold War, a significant effort by government and academia was made to assess the effects of a nuclear attack on the UK. There were four major exercises:


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: Successive governments developed civil defence programmes aimed to prepare civilian and local government infrastructure for a nuclear strike on the UK. A series of seven Civil Defence Bulletin films were produced in 1964, and in the 1980s the most famous such programme was probably the series of booklets and public information films entitled "Protect and Survive". The booklet contained information on building a nuclear refuge within a so-called "fall-out room" at home, sanitation, limiting fire hazards, and descriptions of the audio signals for attack warning, fall-out warning and all clear. It was anticipated that families might need to stay in their fall-out room for up to 14 days after an attack almost without leaving it at all. The government also prepared a recorded announcement which was to have been broadcast by the BBC if a nuclear attack ever did occur. Sirens left over from the London Blitz during World War II were also to be used to warn the public. The system was mostly dismantled in 1992.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: The anti-nuclear movement in the United Kingdom consists of groups who oppose nuclear technologies such as nuclear power and nuclear weapons. Many different groups and individuals have been involved in anti-nuclear demonstrations and protests over the years. One of the most prominent anti-nuclear groups in the UK is the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). This national movement was founded in the late 1950s, initially in opposition to nuclear testing. It reached its peak around 1960, by which time it had evolved into a broader movement calling for Britain to unilaterally give up nuclear weapons, withdraw from NATO, and end the basing of US bombers armed with nuclear weapons in the UK.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: The end of atmospheric nuclear testing, internal squabbles, and activists focusing their energies on other causes led to a rapid decline, but it revived in the early 1980s in the wake of the Thatcher government's December 1979 decision to deploy US GLCMs in the UK, and the announcement of its decision to purchase Trident in July 1980. Membership leapt from 3,000 in 1980 to 50,000 a year later, and rallies for unilateral nuclear disarmament in London in October 1981 and June 1982 attracted 250,000 marchers, the largest ever mass demonstrations in the UK up to that time.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: There was little dissent in the House of Commons from the government's nuclear weapons policy; it had almost bipartisan support until 1960, with only the Liberals temporarily dissenting in 1958. Despite opposition from its left wing the Labour party supported British nuclear weapons but opposed tests, and Labour Opposition Leader Hugh Gaitskell and shadow foreign secretary Aneurin Bevan agreed with Sandys on the importance of reducing dependence on the American deterrent. Bevan told his colleagues that their demand for unilateral nuclear disarmament would send a future Labour government "naked into the conference chamber" during international negotiations.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: From 1955 the government chose to emphasise the nuclear deterrent and de-emphasise conventional forces. In 1962, it stated that the forthcoming Chinese nuclear weapon was a reason for having more than one Western nuclear nation. When France developed its own nuclear weapons, British politicians contended that Europe required an independent deterrent other than that of France. The "Manchester Guardian" and other newspapers critical of the Conservative government supported the British deterrent, although it criticised the government for relying on bombers rather than missiles to deliver nuclear weapons. "The Economist", the "New Statesman", and many left-wing newspapers supported the reliance on nuclear deterrence and nuclear weapons, but in their view considered that of the United States would suffice, and that of the costs of the "nuclear umbrella" was best left to be borne by the United States alone.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: Gaitskell's Labour party ceased supporting an independent deterrent in 1960 via its new "Policy for Peace", after the cancellation of Blue Streak made nuclear independence less likely. Labour also adopted a resolution favouring unilateral disarmament. Although Gaitskell opposed the resolution and it was reversed in 1961 in favour of continuing support of a general Western nuclear deterrent, the party's opposition to a British deterrent remained and became more prominent. This became a campaign issue during the 1964 general election. Alec Douglas-Home's incumbent Conservatives stated that the British independent deterrent was necessary for independence from the Americans and maintaining British world influence, and that it was "working for peace" in such cases as the passage of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Led by Gaitskell's successor Harold Wilson, Labour emphasized domestic economic issues and decried the "Tory Nuclear Pretense" as neither independent nor a deterrent. The populace's greater interest in domestic over foreign policy likely contributed more to Labour's victory.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: The 1982 Labour Party Conference adopted a platform calling for the removal of the GLCMs, the scrapping of Polaris and the cancellation of Trident. This was reaffirmed by the 1986 conference. While the party was given little chance of winning the 1983 election in the aftermath of the Falklands War, polls had shown Labour ahead of the Conservatives in 1986 and 1987. In the wake of Labour's unsuccessful performance in the 1987 election, the Labour Party leader, Neil Kinnock, despite his own unilateralist convictions, moved to drop the party's disarmament policy, which he saw as a contributing factor in its defeat. The party formally voted to do so in October 1989.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: Faslane Peace Camp is permanently sited near Faslane naval base, and has been occupied continuously, albeit in different locations, since 12 June 1982. In 2005, there were many protests about the government's proposal to replace the ageing Trident. The largest protest had 100,000 participants and, according to polls, 59 per cent of the public opposed the replacement. In 2006, a year-long protest at Faslane aimed to blockade the base every day for a year. Over a thousand people were arrested. Pro-independence Scottish political parties—the Scottish National Party (SNP), Scottish Green Party, Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) and Solidarity—opposed the basing of the Trident system in Scotland, and supported nuclear disarmament. The Radical Independence Campaign political organisation also opposes nuclear weapons and the Trident nuclear weapons programme. Some members and ex-members of the aforementioned political parties, such as Tommy Sheridan and Lloyd Quinan, have taken part in blockades of the Faslane base. In the House of Commons vote in 2007, the majority of Scottish members of parliament voted against upgrading the system, while a substantial majority of English, Welsh and Northern Irish MPs voted in favour.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: The vote on whether to order the Successor class was held on 18 July 2016 in the House of Commons; the motion passed with a significant majority, extending the programme's life until at least the 2060s. Although 48 Labour MPs voted against it, 41 did not vote, and 140 Labour votes were cast in favour of the motion.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: The UK relaxed its nuclear posture after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Labour government's 1998 Strategic Defence Review made reductions from the plans announced by the previous Conservative government:


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: In April 2017 Defence Secretary Michael Fallon confirmed that the UK would use nuclear weapons in a pre-emptive nuclear strike under "the most extreme circumstances".


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: Until 1998 the aircraft-delivered, free-fall WE.177 bombs provided a sub-strategic option in addition to their designed function as tactical battlefield weapons. With the retirement of WE.177, a sub-strategic warhead is used with some (but not all) deployed Trident missiles. The 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review further pledged to reduce its requirement for operationally available warheads from fewer than 160 to no more than 120. In a January 2015 written statement, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon reported that "all Vanguard Class SSBNs on continuous at-sea deterrent patrol now carry 40 nuclear warheads and no more than eight operational missiles". However, on 17 March 2021, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that the number of nuclear warheads in the UK stockpile would be increased to 260. This reversed the long-term trend of steadily reducing the stockpile.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: The Prime Minister authorises the use of nuclear weapons. All former prime ministers have supported an "independent nuclear deterrent", including David Cameron. Only one, James Callaghan, has given any insight on his orders; Callaghan stated that, although in a situation where nuclear weapon use was required – and thus the whole purpose and value of the weapon as a deterrent had failed – he would have ordered use of nuclear weapons, if needed: "if we had got to that point, where it was, I felt it was necessary to do it, then I would have done it (used the weapon) ... but if I had lived after pressing that button, I could have never forgiven myself." Denis Healey, the Secretary of State for Defence and "alternate decision-taker" under Harold Wilson, said that in the event of Soviet nuclear weapons attacking the United Kingdom and the Prime Minister had been killed or incapacitated, he would not have ordered a retaliation.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: The precise details of how a British Prime Minister would authorise a nuclear strike remain secret, although the principles of the Trident missile control system are believed to be based on the plan set up for Polaris in 1968, which has now been declassified. A closed-circuit television system was set up between 10 Downing Street and the SSBN Control Officer at the Northwood Headquarters of the Royal Navy. Both the Prime Minister and the SSBN Control Officer would be able to see each other on their monitors when the command was given. If the link failed – for instance during a nuclear attack or when the Prime Minister was away from Downing Street – the Prime Minister would send an authentication code which could be verified at Northwood. The Prime Minister would then broadcast a firing order to the SSBN submarines via the Very Low Frequency radio station at Rugby. The UK has not deployed control equipment requiring codes to be sent before weapons can be used, such as the US Permissive Action Link, which if installed would preclude the possibility that military officers could launch British nuclear weapons without authorisation.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: Until 1998, when it was withdrawn from service, the WE.177 bomb was armed with a standard tubular pin tumbler lock (as used on bicycle locks) and a standard allen key was used to set yield and burst height. Currently, British Trident missile commanders are able to launch their missiles without authorisation, whereas their American counterparts cannot. At the end of the Cold War the US Fail Safe Commission recommended installing devices to prevent rogue commanders persuading their crews to launch unauthorised nuclear attacks. This was endorsed by the Nuclear Posture Review and Trident missile Coded Control Devices were fitted to all US SSBNs by 1997. These devices were designed to prevent an attack until a launch code had been sent by the Joint Chiefs of Staff on behalf of the President. The UK took a decision not to install Trident CCDs or their equivalent on the grounds that an aggressor might be able to wipe out the British chain of command before a launch order had been sent.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: There appears to be a debate over whether concurrence of the Chief of the Defence Staff is also required to launch a nuclear attack. In December 2008, BBC Radio 4 made a programme titled "The Human Button", providing new information on the manner in which the United Kingdom could launch its nuclear weapons, particularly relating to safeguards against a rogue launch. The former Chief of the Defence Staff and Chief of the General Staff, General Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank, explained that the highest level of safeguard was against a prime minister ordering a launch without due cause. The constitutional structure of the United Kingdom provided some protection against such an occurrence, as while the Prime Minister is the chief executive and so practically commands the armed services, the formal commander-in-chief is the monarch, to whom the chief of the defence staff could appeal: "the chief of the defence staff, if he really did think the prime minister had gone mad, would make quite sure that that order was not obeyed ... You have to remember that actually prime ministers give direction, they tell the chief of the defence staff what they want, but it's not prime ministers who actually tell a sailor to press a button in the middle of the Atlantic. The armed forces are loyal, and we live in a democracy, but actually their ultimate authority is the Queen."


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: The same interview pointed out that while the Prime Minister would have the constitutional authority to fire the Chief of the Defence Staff, he could not appoint a replacement as the position is appointed by the monarch. The programme also addressed the workings of the system; detailing that two persons are required to authenticate each stage of the process before launching, with the submarine captain only able to access the firing trigger after two safes have been opened with keys held by the ship's executive and weapons engineering officers. Another (albeit partly challenged) explanation is that while the Prime Minister can give an authorisation, only commissioned officers of the armed forces (like the Chief of the Defence Staff) can give an order.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: The Prime Minister appoints nuclear deputies in case they are out of reach or indisposed during an emergency. Such appointments are made on a personal basis rather than according to the ministerial ranking. In 1961, the Prime Minister was advised for the first time to appoint a first deputy and second deputy to authorise nuclear retaliation if they were not immediately available.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: In 1961, Harold Macmillan chose Rab Butler and Selwyn Lloyd (in that order), replacing Lloyd with Alec Douglas-Home in 1962. In 1964, Douglas-Home finally got around to appointing Butler and Lloyd (though Peter Thorneycroft instead of Lloyd was considered before this) as his first and second nuclear deputies, respectively. In 1965, Wilson chose Bert Bowden as his first deputy and Healey as his second deputy. Michael Stewart took over from Bowden as first deputy in 1966. Edward Heath chose Reginald Maudling, Douglas-Home and Lord Carrington as his nuclear deputies in 1970. In 1974, Wilson made Callaghan first deputy and Healey second deputy. When Callaghan became Prime Minister in 1976, he made Healey first deputy and Roy Mason second deputy. It does not seem that the files on who Margaret Thatcher (and subsequent premiers) appointed to the role have been released yet. The practice of appointing nuclear deputies apparently fell out of practice between the end of the Cold War and 2001 when, following the September 11 attacks, Blair revived the practice, but Rifkind has revealed that he was nominated by John Major in 1995 as one of the two nuclear deputies "to act on his behalf in the event of either his death or incapacity at a time of grave crisis for this country."


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: During the Cold War, if a nuclear attack had taken place and the Prime Minister and their deputies could not be obtained, then Royal Air Force Strike Command had standing delegated authority to retaliate.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: Since 1972, the Prime Minister has also written four letters of last resort, one for each SSBN commander. The Prime Minister writes these letters when they take office and they set out what the commander should do in the event of a nuclear attack that kills the Prime Minister and their nuclear deputy/ies. Past options proposed to the Prime Minister have included commit the forces, do not commit the forces, make the most reasonable choice or place yourself under Allied command. This system of issuing notes containing orders in the event of the head of government's death is said to be unique to the United Kingdom (although the concept of written last orders, particularly of a ship's captain, is a naval tradition), with other nuclear powers using different procedures. The letters are destroyed unopened whenever a Prime Minister leaves office.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: The United Kingdom is one of the five nuclear-weapon states legally recognised as such under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). , nine countries have nuclear weapons. After the UK government announced its plans to refurbish its Trident missiles and build new submarines to carry them, it published a white paper on "The Future of the United Kingdom's Nuclear Deterrent", in which it stated that the renewal is fully compatible with the United Kingdom's treaty commitments and international law. At the start of the House of Commons debate to authorise the replacement of Trident, Margaret Beckett, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, stated:


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: The subsequent vote was won overwhelmingly, including unanimous support from the opposition Conservative Party. The Government's position remained that it was abiding by the NPT in renewing Trident, and Britain has the right to possess nuclear weapons, a position reiterated by Tony Blair on 21 February 2007. Only the United Kingdom has expressed its opposition to the establishment of a new legally binding treaty to prevent the threat or use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states, through its vote in the United Nations General Assembly in 1998.


title: Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

text: The United Kingdom decided not to sign the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, a binding agreement for negotiations for the total elimination of nuclear weapons, supported by more than 120 nations. None of the nine countries known or believed at the time to possess nuclear weapons supported the treaty, nor did any of the 30 countries of the NATO alliance.


title: Baykar Bayraktar Akıncı

text: Bayraktar Akıncı (, Raider lit. "Akinji") is a high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) being manufactured by the Turkish defence company Baykar. The first three units entered service with the Turkish Armed Forces on 29 August 2021.


title: Baykar Bayraktar Akıncı

text: The aircraft has a 5.5+ tons of maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) of which 1350+ kg is composed of payload. Akıncı is equipped with two turboprop engines which has two different types of thrust capabilities as 450 or 750 hp. Akinci is equipped with electronic support and countermeasure systems, dual satellite communication systems, air-to-air radar, collision avoidance radar and national advanced synthetic aperture radar.


title: Baykar Bayraktar Akıncı

text: With the preliminary design phase completed in June 2019, Akıncı started engine ground run in August 2019 with a Ukrainian turboprop engine Ivchenko-Progress AI-450C. First engine test was accomplished on September 1, 2019. Following the completion of other technical tests, the aircraft was moved to the Turkish Army's Çorlu Airfield Command. The UCAV made its maiden flight with automatic taxiing, take-off, 16-minute flight and successful landing on December 6, 2019.


title: Baykar Bayraktar Akıncı

text: Akıncı has internal and external payload capacity, combining the overall combat load to max. . Powered by two or turboprop engines, large wingspan ensures 5.5 tons of maximum takeoff weight. Akıncı will be the first UAV capable of launching an air launched cruise missile.


title: Baykar Bayraktar Akıncı

text: First pictures of the UAV hit media reports in June 2018 and it was unveiled to the public during the Teknofest Aviation, Space and Technology Festival in September 2019.


title: Baykar Bayraktar Akıncı

text: On 22 April 2021, Bayraktar Akıncı UCAV has successfully conducted its first firing tests. During the test Akıncı was equipped with three different variants of the indigenously developed smart ammunitions, MAM-L, MAM-C and MAM-T. The test has also been the first public appearance of the Roketsan's newest smart ammunition MAM-T. From July 6 to 7, the aircraft completed a test flight of 25 hours and 45 minutes, flying 7507 km and reaching an altitude of 38,039 feet or 11,594 meters. On August 29, 2021, Akinci was added to the inventory of Turkish armed forces.


title: Baykar Bayraktar Akıncı

text: Akıncı has been used first in Pençe-Kilit Operations which held by Turkish military to dissolve PKK positions such as shelters and caves in Northern Iraq.


title: Baykar Bayraktar Akıncı

text: The Akinci drone is equipped with an indigenously manufactured active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, a SAR/GMTI radar, a surveillance system, electronic warfare, and signal intelligence suite (SIGINT), and SATCOM allowing Akinci to become an UCAV as well as ISTAR+C3 asset for Turkish military.


title: Bleeding

text: Bleeding, hemorrhage, haemorrhage or blood loss, is blood escaping from the circulatory system from damaged blood vessels. Bleeding can occur internally, or externally either through a natural opening such as the mouth, nose, ear, urethra, vagina or anus, or through a puncture in the skin.


title: Bleeding

text: Hypovolemia is a massive decrease in blood volume, and death by excessive loss of blood is referred to as exsanguination. Typically, a healthy person can endure a loss of 10–15% of the total blood volume without serious medical difficulties (by comparison, blood donation typically takes 8–10% of the donor's blood volume). The stopping or controlling of bleeding is called hemostasis and is an important part of both first aid and surgery.


title: Bleeding

text: Traumatic bleeding is caused by some type of injury. There are different types of wounds which may cause traumatic bleeding. These include:


title: Bleeding

text: The pattern of injury, evaluation and treatment will vary with the mechanism of the injury. Blunt trauma causes injury via a shock effect; delivering energy over an area. Wounds are often not straight and unbroken skin may hide significant injury. Penetrating trauma follows the course of the injurious device. As the energy is applied in a more focused fashion, it requires less energy to cause significant injury. Any body organ, including bone and brain, can be injured and bleed. Bleeding may not be readily apparent; internal organs such as the liver, kidney and spleen may bleed into the abdominal cavity. The only apparent signs may come with blood loss. Bleeding from a bodily orifice, such as the rectum, nose, or ears may signal internal bleeding, but cannot be relied upon. Bleeding from a medical procedure also falls into this category.


title: Bleeding

text: "Medical bleeding" denotes hemorrhage as a result of an underlying medical condition (i.e. causes of bleeding that are not directly due to trauma). Blood can escape from blood vessels as a result of 3 basic patterns of injury:


title: Bleeding

text: The underlying scientific basis for blood clotting and hemostasis is discussed in detail in the articles, coagulation, hemostasis and related articles. The discussion here is limited to the common practical aspects of blood clot formation which manifest as bleeding.


title: Bleeding

text: Some medical conditions can also make patients susceptible to bleeding. These are conditions that affect the normal hemostatic (bleeding-control) functions of the body. Such conditions either are, or cause, bleeding diatheses. Hemostasis involves several components. The main components of the hemostatic system include platelets and the coagulation system.


title: Bleeding

text: Platelets are small blood components that form a plug in the blood vessel wall that stops bleeding. Platelets also produce a variety of substances that stimulate the production of a blood clot. One of the most common causes of increased bleeding risk is exposure to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). The prototype for these drugs is aspirin, which inhibits the production of thromboxane. NSAIDs inhibit the activation of platelets, and thereby increase the risk of bleeding. The effect of aspirin is irreversible; therefore, the inhibitory effect of aspirin is present until the platelets have been replaced (about ten days). Other NSAIDs, such as "ibuprofen" (Motrin) and related drugs, are reversible and therefore, the effect on platelets is not as long-lived.


title: Bleeding

text: There are several named coagulation factors that interact in a complex way to form blood clots, as discussed in the article on coagulation. Deficiencies of coagulation factors are associated with clinical bleeding. For instance, deficiency of Factor VIII causes classic hemophilia A while deficiencies of Factor IX cause "Christmas disease"(hemophilia B). Antibodies to Factor VIII can also inactivate the Factor VII and precipitate bleeding that is very difficult to control. This is a rare condition that is most likely to occur in older patients and in those with autoimmune diseases. Another common bleeding disorder is Von Willebrand disease. It is caused by a deficiency or abnormal function of the "Von Willebrand" factor, which is involved in platelet activation. Deficiencies in other factors, such as factor XIII or factor VII are occasionally seen, but may not be associated with severe bleeding and are not as commonly diagnosed.


title: Bleeding

text: In addition to NSAID-related bleeding, another common cause of bleeding is that related to the medication, warfarin ("Coumadin" and others). This medication needs to be closely monitored as the bleeding risk can be markedly increased by interactions with other medications. Warfarin acts by inhibiting the production of Vitamin K in the gut. Vitamin K is required for the production of the clotting factors, II, VII, IX, and X in the liver. One of the most common causes of warfarin-related bleeding is taking antibiotics. The gut bacteria make vitamin K and are killed by antibiotics. This decreases vitamin K levels and therefore the production of these clotting factors.


title: Bleeding

text: Deficiencies of platelet function may require platelet transfusion while deficiencies of clotting factors may require transfusion of either fresh frozen plasma or specific clotting factors, such as Factor VIII for patients with hemophilia.


title: Bleeding

text: Dioxaborolane chemistry enables radioactive fluoride (F) labeling of red blood cells, which allows for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of intracerebral hemorrhages.


title: Bleeding

text: Hemorrhaging is broken down into four classes by the American College of Surgeons' advanced trauma life support (ATLS).


title: Bleeding

text: Individuals in excellent physical and cardiovascular shape may have more effective compensatory mechanisms before experiencing cardiovascular collapse. These patients may look deceptively stable, with minimal derangements in vital signs, while having poor peripheral perfusion. Elderly patients or those with chronic medical conditions may have less tolerance to blood loss, less ability to compensate, and may take medications such as betablockers that can potentially blunt the cardiovascular response. Care must be taken in the assessment.


title: Bleeding

text: Although there is no universally accepted definition of massive hemorrhage, the following can be used to identify the condition: "(i) blood loss exceeding circulating blood volume within a 24-hour period, (ii) blood loss of 50% of circulating blood volume within a 3-hour period, (iii) blood loss exceeding 150 ml/min, or (iv) blood loss that necessitates plasma and platelet transfusion."


title: Bleeding

text: Acute bleeding from an injury to the skin is often treated by the application of direct pressure. For severely injured patients, tourniquets are helpful in preventing complications of shock. Anticoagulant medications may need to be discontinued and possibly reversed in patients with clinically significant bleeding. Patients that have lost excessive amounts of blood may require a blood transfusion.


title: Bleeding

text: The use of cyanoacrylate glue to prevent bleeding and seal battle wounds was designed and first used in the Vietnam War. Skin glue, a medical version of "super glue", is sometimes used instead of using traditional stitches used for small wounds that need to be closed at the skin level.


title: Bleeding

text: The word "Haemorrhage" (or "hæmorrhage"; using the æ ligature) comes from Latin haemorrhagia, from Ancient Greek αἱμορραγία ("haimorrhagía", "a violent bleeding"), from αἱμορραγής ("haimorrhagḗs", "bleeding violently"), from αἷμα ("haîma", "blood") + -ραγία ("-ragía"), from ῥηγνύναι ("rhēgnúnai", "to break, burst").


title: Gary Johnson

text: Gary Earl Johnson (born January 1, 1953) is an American businessman, author, and politician. He served as the 29th governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003 as a member of the Republican Party. He was the Libertarian Party nominee for President of the United States in the 2012 and 2016 elections. He was also the Libertarian nominee in the 2018 U.S. Senate election in New Mexico.


title: Gary Johnson

text: Johnson entered politics for the first time by running for governor of New Mexico in 1994 on a low-tax, anti-crime platform, promising a "common-sense business approach". He defeated incumbent Democratic governor Bruce King, 50% to 40%. He cut the 10% annual growth in the budget, in part by using the gubernatorial veto 200 times during his first six months. He was unable to convince the state senate to pass any of his motions.


title: Gary Johnson

text: Johnson sought reelection in 1998, winning by 55% to 45%. In his second term, he concentrated on the issue of school voucher reforms as well as campaigning for cannabis decriminalization. During his tenure as governor, Johnson adhered to an anti-tax policy, setting state and national records for the number of times he used his veto power: more than the other 49 contemporary governors put together. Term-limited, Johnson retired from front-line politics in 2003.


title: Gary Johnson

text: Johnson ran for president in 2012, initially as a Republican on a libertarian platform emphasizing the United States public debt and a balanced budget, protection of civil liberties, military non-interventionism, replacement of income tax with the FairTax, and opposition to the War on drugs. In December 2011, he withdrew his candidacy for the Republican nomination and stood for the Libertarian nomination instead, winning the nomination in May 2012. Johnson received 1.3 million votes (1%), more than all other minor candidates combined.


title: Gary Johnson

text: Johnson ran again for President in 2016, once again winning the Libertarian nomination and naming former Republican governor of Massachusetts Bill Weld as his running mate. Johnson received nearly 4.5 million votes (3.3% of the total vote), which is the most for a third-party presidential candidate since 1996 and the highest national vote share for a Libertarian candidate in history. After the 2016 presidential election, Johnson said he would not run for president again. He ran for the U.S. Senate as a Libertarian in the 2018 New Mexico senate race against incumbent Democratic senator Martin Heinrich, coming third with 15.4% of the statewide vote (107,201 votes).


title: Gary Johnson

text: Johnson was born on January 1, 1953, in Minot, North Dakota, the son of Lorraine B. (née Bostow), who worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Earl W. Johnson, a public school teacher. In 1971, Johnson graduated from Sandia High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he was on the school track team. He attended the University of New Mexico from 1971 to 1975 and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in political science. While at UNM, he joined the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. It was there that he met his future wife, Denise "Dee" Simms.


title: Gary Johnson

text: While in college, Johnson earned money as a door-to-door handyman. His success in that industry encouraged him to start his own business, Big J Enterprises, in 1976. When he started the business, which focused on mechanical contracting, Johnson was its only employee. His firm's major break came when he received a large contract from Intel's expansion in Rio Rancho, which increased Big J's revenue to $38 million.


title: Gary Johnson

text: To cope with the growth of the company, Johnson enrolled in a time management course at night school, which he credits with making him heavily goal driven. He eventually grew Big J into a multimillion-dollar corporation with over 1,000 employees. By the time he sold the company in 1999, it was one of New Mexico's leading construction companies.


title: Gary Johnson

text: Johnson entered politics in 1994 with the intention of running for governor and was advised by "Republican Elders" to run for the State Legislature instead. Despite their advice, Johnson spent $500,000 of his own money and entered the race with the intent of bringing a "common sense business approach" to the office. Johnson's campaign slogan was "People before Politics". His platform emphasized tax cuts, job creation, state government spending growth restraint, and law and order. He won the Republican nomination, defeating state legislator Richard P. Cheney by 34% to 33%, with John Dendahl and former governor David F. Cargo in third and fourth. Johnson subsequently won a plurality in the three-way general election, defeating the incumbent Governor Bruce King (a relatively conservative Democrat) and the former Lieutenant Governor Roberto Mondragón (who ran as a Green) with just under 50% of the vote. Johnson was elected in a nationally Republican year, although party registration in the state of New Mexico at the time was 2-to-1 Democratic.


title: Gary Johnson

text: As governor, Johnson followed a strict small-government approach. According to former New Mexico Republican National Committee member Mickey D. Barnett, "Any time someone approached him about legislation for some purpose, his first response always was to ask if government should be involved in that to begin with." He vetoed 200 of 424 bills passed in his first six months in officea national record of 47% of all legislationand used the line-item veto on most remaining bills. In office, Johnson fulfilled his campaign promise to reduce the 10% annual growth of the state budget. In his first budget, Johnson proposed a wide range of tax cuts, including a repeal of the prescription drug tax, a $47 million income tax cut, and a 6-cents-per-gallon gasoline tax cut. However, of these, only the gasoline tax cut was passed. During the November 1995 federal government shutdown, he joined 20 other Republican governors who called on the Republican leadership in Congress to stand firm against the Clinton administration in budget negotiations; in the article reporting on the letter and concomitant news conference he was quoted as calling for eliminating the budget deficit through proportional cuts across the budget. Although Johnson worked to reduce overall state spending, in his first term he raised education spending by nearly a third. When drop-out rates and test scores showed little improvement, Johnson changed his tactics and began advocating school vouchersa key issue in budget battles of his second term as governor.


title: Gary Johnson

text: In 1998, Johnson ran for reelection as governor against Democratic Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez. In his campaign, Johnson promised to continue the policies of his first term: improving schools; cutting state spending, taxes, and bureaucracy; and frequent use of his veto and line-item veto power. Fielding a strong Hispanic candidate in a 40% Hispanic state, the Democrats were expected to oust Johnson, but Johnson won by a margin of 55% to 45%. This made him the first governor of New Mexico to serve two successive four-year terms after term limits were expanded to two terms in 1991. Johnson made the promotion of a school voucher system a "hallmark issue" of his second term. In 1999, he proposed the first statewide voucher system in America, which would have enrolled 100,000 students in its first year.


title: Gary Johnson

text: That year, he vetoed two budgets that failed to include a voucher program and a government shutdown was threatened, but ultimately yielded to Democratic majorities in both houses of the New Mexico Legislature, who opposed the plan. Johnson signed the budget, but line-item vetoed a further $21 million, or 1%, from the legislative plan. In 1999, Johnson became one of the highest-ranking elected officials in the US to advocate the legalization of marijuana. Saying the War on Drugs was "an expensive bust", he advocated the decriminalization of marijuana use and concentration on harm-reduction measures for all other illegal drugs. He compared attempts to enforce the nation's drug laws with the failed attempt at alcohol prohibition. In remarks in 2011, he noted: "Half of what government spends on police, courts and prisons is to deal with drug offenders." He suggested that drug abuse be treated as a health issue, not as a criminal issue. His approach to the issue garnered supportive notice from conservative icon William F. Buckley, as well as the Cato Institute and "Rolling Stone".


title: Gary Johnson

text: In 2000, Johnson proposed a more ambitious voucher program than he had proposed the year before, under which each parent would receive $3,500 per child for education at any private or parochial school. The Democrats sought $90m extra school funding without school vouchers, and questioned Johnson's request for more funding for state-run prisons, having opposed his opening of two private prisons. Negotiations between the governor and the legislature were contentious, again nearly leading to a government shutdown. In 2000, New Mexico was devastated by the Cerro Grande Fire. Johnson's handling of the disaster earned him accolades from "The Denver Post", which observed that:


title: Gary Johnson

text: According to anonymous sources, Governor Johnson was known for a lack of interest in policy details and those who worked with Johnson at the time "recall a chief executive who would speed through meetings and often preferred to discuss his fitness routine than focus on the minutiae of policymaking." In his first term, he frequently clashed with the legislature, but in the second term, he "became more comfortable with the limits of his executive power" and took a more conciliatory approach.


title: Gary Johnson

text: Commentator Andrew Sullivan quoted a claim that Johnson "is highly regarded in the state for his outstanding leadership during two terms as governor. He slashed the size of state government during his term and left the state with a large budget surplus." In an interview in "Reason" in January 2001, Johnson's accomplishments in office were described as follows: "no tax increases in six years, a major road building program, shifting Medicaid to managed care, constructing two new private prisons, canning 1,200 state employees, and vetoing a record number of bills." According to one New Mexico paper, "Johnson left the state fiscally solid" and was "arguably the most popular governor of the decade... leaving the state with a $1 billion budget surplus." "The Washington Times" reported that when Johnson left office, "the size of state government had been substantially reduced and New Mexico was enjoying a large budget surplus." In a 2016 "National Review" article, Johnson was criticized for claiming to have balanced New Mexico's budget every year. The Constitution of New Mexico requires that the state budget be balanced, with its debt in a separate "capital outlay" budget. The article stated that under Johnson New Mexico's debt increased from $1.8 billion to $4.6 billion and its budget increased from $4.397 billion to $7.721 billion.


title: Gary Johnson

text: According to a 2011 profile of Johnson in the "National Review", "During his tenure, he vetoed more bills than the other 49 governors combined750 in total, one third of which had been introduced by Republican legislators. Johnson also used his line-item-veto power thousands of times. He credits his heavy veto pen for eliminating New Mexico's budget deficit and cutting the growth rate of New Mexico's government in half." According to the "Myrtle Beach Sun News", Johnson "said his numerous vetoes, only two of which were overridden, stemmed from his philosophy of looking at all things for their cost–benefit ratio and his axe fell on Republicans as well as Democrats."


title: Gary Johnson

text: While in office, Johnson was criticized for opposing funding for an independent study of private prisons after a series of riots and killings at the facilities. Martin Chavez, his opponent in the 1998 New Mexico gubernatorial race, criticized Johnson for his frequent vetoing of programs, suggesting that it resulted in New Mexico's low economic and social standing nationally. Journalist Mark Ames described Johnson as "a hard-core conservative" who "ruled the state like a right-wing authoritarian" and only embraced marijuana legalization in his second term for populist gain. This was mainly in reference to a commercial from Johnson's reelection campaign featuring Johnson saying that a felon in New Mexico would serve "every lousy second" of their prison sentence. Johnson insisted, however, that the commercial was directed at "the guy who's got his gun out" rather than nonviolent drug offenders.


title: Gary Johnson

text: Johnson was term limited and could not run for a third consecutive term as governor in 2002. In the 2008 presidential election campaign, Johnson endorsed Ron Paul for the Republican nomination, "because of his commitment to less government, greater liberty, and lasting prosperity for America." Johnson spoke at Paul's "Rally for the Republic" on September 2, 2008.


title: Gary Johnson

text: Johnson serves on the Advisory Council of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, a student nonprofit organization which advocates for drug policy reform.


title: Gary Johnson

text: , he serves on the board of directors of Students For Liberty, a nonprofit libertarian organization. His first book, "Seven Principles of Good Government", was published on August 1, 2012.


title: Gary Johnson

text: In 2009, Johnson began indicating interest in running for president in the 2012 election. In the April 20, 2009, edition of "The American Conservative" magazine, Bill Kauffman told readers to "keep an eye out" for a Johnson presidential campaign in 2012, reporting that Johnson had told him that "he was keeping his options open for 2012" and that "he may take a shot at the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 as an antiwar, anti-Fed, pro-personal liberties, slash-government-spending candidatein other words, a Ron Paul libertarian". During a June 24, 2009, appearance on Fox News's "Freedom Watch", host Judge Andrew Napolitano asked Johnson if he would run for president in 2012, to which Johnson responded that he thought it would be inappropriate to openly express his desires before President Obama is given the opportunity to prove himself, but he followed up that statement by saying "it appears personal freedoms are being shoveled out the window more and more."


title: Gary Johnson

text: In an October 26, 2009, interview with the "Santa Fe New Mexican's" Steve Terrell, Johnson announced his decision to form an advocacy committee called the Our America Initiative to help him raise funds and promote small government ideas. In December 2009, Johnson asked strategist Ron Nielson of NSON Opinion Strategy, who has worked with Johnson since 1993 when he ran his successful gubernatorial campaign, to organize the Our American Initiative as a 501(c)(4) committee. Nielson serves as a senior advisor to Our America Initiative. The stated focus of the organization is to "speak out on issues regarding topics such as government efficiency, lowering taxes, ending the war on drugs, protecting civil liberties, revitalizing the economy and promoting entrepreneurship and privatization". The move prompted speculation among media pundits and Johnson's supporters that he might be laying the groundwork for a 2012 presidential run. Throughout 2010, Johnson repeatedly deflected questions about a 2012 presidential bid by saying his 501(c)(4) status prevented him from expressing a desire to run for federal office on politics.


title: Gary Johnson

text: In February 2010, Johnson was a featured speaker at both the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and the Republican Liberty Caucus. At CPAC, "the crowd liked himeven as he pushed some of his more controversial points." Johnson tied with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie for third in the CPAC Straw Poll, trailing only Ron Paul and Mitt Romney (and ahead of such notables as former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels and former Alaska Governor and 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin). David Weigel of "Slate" called Johnson the second-biggest winner of the conference, writing that his "third-place showing in the straw poll gave Johnson his first real media hook ... He met tons of reporters, commanded a small scrum after the vote, and is a slightly lighter shade of dark horse now."


title: Gary Johnson

text: On April 21, 2011, Johnson announced via Twitter, "I am running for president." He followed this announcement with a speech at the New Hampshire State House in Concord, New Hampshire. He was the first of an eventually large field to announce his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination. Johnson again chose Ron Nielson of NSON Opinion Strategy, a director for both of his New Mexico gubernatorial campaigns, as his presidential campaign manager and senior advisor. The campaign was headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, where Nielson's offices are located. Johnson's economics advisor was Harvard economics professor Jeffrey Miron. Initially, Johnson hoped Ron Paul would not run for president so that Johnson could galvanize Paul's network of libertarian-minded voters, and he even traveled to Houston to tell Paul of his decision to run in person, but Paul announced his candidacy on May 13, 2011.


title: Gary Johnson

text: Johnson participated in the first of the Republican presidential debates, hosted by Fox News in South Carolina on May 5, 2011, appearing on stage with Herman Cain, Ron Paul, Tim Pawlenty, and Rick Santorum. Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann both declined to debate. Johnson was excluded from the next three debates on June 13 (hosted by CNN in New Hampshire), August 11 (hosted by Fox News in Iowa), and September 7 (hosted by CNN in California). After the first exclusion, Johnson made a 43-minute video responding to each of the debate questions, which he posted on YouTube. The first exclusion, which was widely publicized, gave Johnson "a little bump" in name recognition and produced "a small uptick" in donations. But "the long term consequences were dismal." For the financial quarter ending June 30, Johnson raised a mere $180,000. Fox News decided that because Johnson polled at least 2% in five recent polls, he could participate in a September 22 debate in Florida, which it co-hosted with the Florida Republican Party (the party objected to Johnson's inclusion). Johnson participated, appearing on stage with Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, and Rick Santorum. During the debate, Johnson delivered what many media outlets, including the "Los Angeles Times", and "Time", called the best line of the night: "My next-door neighbor's two dogs have created more shovel ready jobs than this administration." "Entertainment Weekly" opined that Johnson had won the debate.


title: Gary Johnson

text: Although Johnson had focused the majority of his campaign activities on the New Hampshire primary, he announced on November 29, 2011, that he would no longer campaign there due to his inability to gain traction with less than a month until the primary. There was speculation in the media that he might run as a Libertarian Party candidate instead. Johnson acknowledged that he was considering such a move. In December, "Politico" reported that Johnson would quit the Republican primaries and announce his intention to seek the Libertarian Party nomination at a December 28 press conference. He also encouraged his supporters to vote for Ron Paul in 2012 Republican presidential primaries.


title: Gary Johnson

text: On December 28, 2011, Johnson formally withdrew his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination, and declared his candidacy for the 2012 presidential nomination of the Libertarian Party in Santa Fe, New Mexico. On May 5, 2012, at the 2012 Libertarian National Convention, Johnson received the Libertarian Party's official nomination for president in the 2012 election, by a vote of 419 votes to 152 votes for second-place candidate R. Lee Wrights. In his acceptance speech, Johnson asked the convention's delegates to nominate as his running mate Judge Jim Gray of California. Gray subsequently received the party's vice-presidential nomination on the first ballot.


title: Gary Johnson

text: Johnson spent the early months of his campaign making media appearances on television programs such as "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "Red Eye w/Greg Gutfeld". Starting in September 2012, Johnson embarked on a three-week tour of college campuses throughout the US. On October 23, 2012, Gary Johnson participated in a third-party debate that was aired on C-SPAN, RT America, and Al Jazeera English. A post-debate online election allowed people to choose two candidates from the debate they thought had won to face each other head-to-head in a run-off debate. Gary Johnson and Jill Stein won the poll.


title: Gary Johnson

text: Johnson stated that his goal was to win at least 5 percent of the vote, as winning 5 percent would allow Libertarian Party candidates equal ballot access and federal funding during the next election cycle. In a national Gallup poll of likely registered voters conducted June 7 through June 10, 2012, Johnson took 3% of the vote, while a Gallup poll conducted September 6 through September 9, 2012, showed Johnson taking 1% of likely voters.


title: Gary Johnson

text: The final results showed Johnson received 1% of the popular vote, a total of 1,275,971 votes. This was the best result in the Libertarian Party's history by raw vote number, though under the 1.1 percentage of the vote won by Ed Clark in 1980. Despite falling short of his stated goal of 5%, Johnson stated, "Ours is a mission accomplished." In regards to a future presidential bid, he said "it is too soon to be talking about 2016".


title: Gary Johnson

text: After the 2012 elections, Johnson continued to criticize the Obama administration on various issues. In an article for "The Guardian", Johnson called on United States Attorney General Eric Holder to let individual states legalize marijuana. In a Google Hangout hosted by Johnson in June 2013, he criticized the US government's lack of transparency and due process in regards to the NSA's domestic surveillance programs. He also said that he would not rule out running as a Republican again in the future.


title: Gary Johnson

text: In December 2013, Johnson announced the founding of his own Super PAC, Our America Initiative PAC. The Super PAC is intended to support libertarian-minded causes. "From the realities of government-run healthcare setting in to the continuing disclosures of the breadth of NSA's domestic spying, more Americans than ever are ready to take a serious look at candidates who offer real alternatives to business-as-usual," the release announcing the PAC said.


title: Gary Johnson

text: In July 2014, Johnson was named president and CEO of Cannabis Sativa Inc., a Nevada-based company that aims primarily to sell medical cannabis products in states where medicinal and/or recreational cannabis is legal.


title: Gary Johnson

text: In an April 2014 "Ask Me Anything" session on Reddit, Johnson stated that he hoped to run for president again in 2016. On whether he would run as a Libertarian or a Republican, he stated: "I would love running as a Libertarian because I would have the least amount of explaining to do."


title: Gary Johnson

text: In November 2014, Johnson affirmed his intention to run for the 2016 Libertarian nomination. In July 2015, Johnson reiterated his intentions for a presidential campaign but stated he was not announcing anything imminently: "I just think there are more downsides than upsides to announcing at this point, and, look, I don't have any delusions about the process. In retrospect, 90 percent of the time I spent [trying to become president] ended up to be wasted time."


title: Gary Johnson

text: In January 2016, Johnson resigned from his post as CEO of Cannabis Sativa, Inc., to pursue political opportunities, hinting to a 2016 presidential run.


title: Gary Johnson

text: On January 6, 2016, Johnson declared that he would seek the Libertarian nomination for the presidency. On May 18, Johnson named former Massachusetts Governor William Weld as his running mate. On May 29, 2016, Johnson received the Libertarian nomination on the second ballot. Johnson was on the ballot in all 50 states.


title: Gary Johnson

text: On September 8, Johnson drew widespread negative attention when he appeared on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" and was asked by panelist Mike Barnicle, "As president, what would you do about Aleppo?" Johnson responded, "And what is Aleppo?". After a clarification from Barnicle, Johnson answered by saying that "the only way that we deal with Syria is to join hands with Russia to diplomatically bring that at an end." Johnson criticized U.S. support for the Free Syrian Army and Kurdish forces and stated that the "mess" in Syria was "the result of regime change that we end up supporting. And, inevitably, these regime changes have led to a less-safe world." Johnson's "what is Aleppo?" question drew widespread attention, much of it negative. In response to charges that he was uninformed, Johnson said that he had "blanked," that he did "understand the dynamics of the Syrian conflict," and that he had thought that Barnicle's reference to "Aleppo" was in relation to "an acronym, not the Syrian conflict."


title: Gary Johnson

text: On September 23, in an MSNBC interview with Kasie Hunt, Gary Johnson noted the benefits of being invited to the 2016 Presidential Debates. While discussing this topic, Johnson stuck out his tongue through his teeth at the reporter while explaining that he could win a three-way debate, and ultimately the Presidency, versus Clinton and Trump while speaking in that manner. Johnson's spokesperson, John LaBeaume, later stated, "He was just having fun" and that it was "lighthearted".


title: Gary Johnson

text: On September 28, in a MSNBC Town Hall, Johnson was asked by Chris Matthews to name a world leader he respected, he tried to name Vicente Fox, a former President of Mexico, but could not remember his name. The following day, he tweeted, "It's been almost 24 hours...and I still can't come up with a foreign leader I look up to." Later in a CNN interview, he expanded upon his reluctance to endorse political leaders, "I held a lot of people in this country on pedestals and then I get to meet them up front and personal and I find out that they're all about getting reelected, that they're not about issues, a lot of empty suits that I held up on pedestals."


title: Gary Johnson

text: When asked on October 5 by "The New York Times" if he knew the name of the leader of North Korea, Johnson said "yes," but declined to give the name despite being pressed.


title: Gary Johnson

text: Johnson was not invited to participate in the presidential debates because he did not meet the criterion of 15% support in five polls set by the Commission on Presidential Debates. In 2015, Johnson and Green Party nominee Jill Stein filed a lawsuit against the commission, arguing that the commission and its rules violated antitrust law and the First Amendment. In August 2016, the lawsuit was dismissed. Johnson's poll numbers had been averaging between 7 and 9 percent. Johnson's campaign manager Ron Nielson argued for Johnson's inclusion, citing Ross Perot's admission to the debates in the 1992 debates, when Perot was polling at 8 percent.


title: Gary Johnson

text: A "Washington Post"-SurveyMonkey 50-state poll, conducted online between August 9 and September 1 found Gary Johnson polling at 10% or higher in 42 states, and at 15% or higher in 15 states (Johnson received 25% in his home state of New Mexico and 23% in Utah). Another poll conducted in mid-August by the Pew Research Center found Johnson supported by about 10% of registered voters. Of Johnson supporters, more than 60% identified as independent and more than 70% were younger than fifty years old. Johnson's supporters were evenly divided between men and women.


title: Gary Johnson

text: After the election, Johnson stated in an interview with the "Albuquerque Journal" that he does not intend to run for public office again, saying, "Maybe I stay politically active, but not as a candidate. I will leave that to others." He subsequently confirmed that he would not seek the Libertarian Party's nomination in 2020.


title: Gary Johnson

text: Johnson was speculated to run in the 2018 U.S. Senate race in New Mexico after Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn Jr., then the Libertarian nominee, dropped out of the race. In August 2018, Johnson formally accepted the Libertarian Party of New Mexico's nomination. Republican U.S. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky crossed party lines to endorse Johnson's bid; Johnson was also endorsed by the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in Maine, Eric Brakey.


title: Gary Johnson

text: In the November 2018 election, Democratic incumbent Martin Heinrich was reelected with 376,998 votes (54%); Republican nominee Mick Rich received 212,813 votes (31); and Johnson received 107,201 votes (15%).


title: Gary Johnson

text: Johnson's views have been described as fiscally conservative and socially liberal with a philosophy of limited government and military non-interventionism. Johnson spoke at the 2016 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), a forum for conservative politicians. He has identified as a classical liberal. He would repeal Obamacare. Johnson has said he favors simplifying and reducing taxes. During his governorship, Johnson cut taxes fourteen times and never increased them. Due to his stance on taxes, political pundit David Weigel described him as "the original Tea Party candidate." Johnson has advocated the FairTax as a template for tax reform. This proposal would abolish all federal income, corporate and capital gains taxes, and replace them with a 23% tax on consumption of all non-essential goods, while providing a regressive rebate to households according to household size, regardless of income level. He has argued that this would ensure transparency in the tax system and incentivize the private sector to create "tens of millions of jobs." In June 2016, Johnson said that he supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership, stating that he previously was skeptical "because these trade agreements are just laden with crony capitalism," but is now informed it, in fact, fosters free trade.


title: Gary Johnson

text: In 1994, Johnson ran for governor of New Mexico, campaigning as a strong proponent of the death penalty, but over time, he changed his opinion. He now supports abolishing capital punishment and replacing it with life sentences.


title: Gary Johnson

text: Johnson's 2016 campaign website acknowledged that the climate is "probably" changing and that humans are "probably" contributing to this change. Johnson has argued that climate change will not matter in the "long-term" and rejects government action to control or limit – including cap and trade – as ineffective: "When you look at the amount of money we are looking to spend on global warming in the trillions and look at the result, I just argue that the result is completely inconsequential to the money we would end up spending," he said. "We can direct those moneys to other ways that would be much more beneficial to mankind." Johnson has signed the Western Governors' Association resolution, which aims at "collaborative, incentive driven, locally-based solutions," and has advocated for free market solutions to environmental problems. He has stated that he will not "compromise when it comes to clean air, clean land, or clean water." Johnson supports nuclear energy and fossil fuels, but has stated that the government has a role to protect Americans against businesses that would harm human health or property, including environmental harm.


title: Gary Johnson

text: Johnson opposed the U.S. Supreme Court decision in "Citizens United v. FEC", allowing unlimited corporate independent expenditures on political campaigns, while also encouraging full disclosure of such expenditures.


title: Gary Johnson

text: Johnson has said that he would immediately balance the federal budget, and would demand a balanced budget amendment, but maintained a state deficit.


title: Gary Johnson

text: He has stated he supports "slashing government spending", including Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, which would involve cutting Medicare and Medicaid by 43 percent and turning them into block grant programs, with control of spending in the hands of the states to create, in his words, "fifty laboratories of innovation." He has referred to Social Security as a pyramid scheme. He has advocated passing a law allowing for state bankruptcy and expressly ruling out a federal bailout of any states.


title: Gary Johnson

text: Johnson has expressed opposition to the Federal Reserve System, which he has cited as massively devaluing the strength of the U.S. dollar, and would not veto legislation to eliminate it – although he has stated that no such bill is likely to come out of Congress during his administration. He has also supported an audit of the central bank, and urged Members of Congress in July 2012 to vote in favor of Ron Paul's Federal Reserve Transparency Act.


title: Gary Johnson

text: In his campaign for the Libertarian Party nomination, he stated he opposed foreign wars and pledged to cut the military budget by 43 percent in his first term as president. He would cut the military's overseas bases, uniformed and civilian personnel, research and development, intelligence, and nuclear weapons programs, while maintaining an "invincible defense." Johnson opposes U.S. involvement in the War in Afghanistan and opposed the U.S. involvement in the Libyan Civil War. He has stated that he does not believe Iran is a military threat, would use his presidential power to prevent Israel from attacking Iran, and would not follow Israel, or any other ally, into a war that it had initiated. While Johnson views the Islamic threat to the US as overrated, he has been openly advocating for greater diplomacy with China regarding North Korea, which, in his view, "is the biggest threat in the world today," stating "...one of these days, one of their ICBMs is going to work." However, he does support waging war for humanitarian reasons.


title: Gary Johnson

text: Johnson has been a strong supporter of civil liberties and has received the highest score of any candidate from the American Civil Liberties Union for supporting drug decriminalization while opposing censorship and regulation of the Internet, the Patriot Act, enhanced airport screenings, and the indefinite detention of prisoners. He has spoken in favor of the separation of church and state, and has said that he does not "seek the counsel of God" when determining his political agenda. Johnson endorsed same-sex marriage in 2011; he has since called for a constitutional amendment protecting equal marriage rights, and criticized Obama's position on the issue as having "thrown this question back to the states." Johnson supports the enforcement of Protected Classes that was established by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and believes that providers should be prohibited from discriminating between customers based on demographics, such as race or sexuality. This differentiated him from his Libertarian Party opponents in the party primary, especially Austin Petersen. He has been a longtime advocate of legalizing marijuana and has said that if he were president, he would remove it from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act as well as issue an executive order pardoning nonviolent marijuana offenders. Johnson has stated that he would pardon NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. He believes that decriminalizing sex work should be left up to the states, but has said that prostitutes are more "at risk" in an illegal environment.


title: Gary Johnson

text: Johnson supports abortion access. He has stated he believes that "it's the woman's choice." His 2016 position page on abortion states the "woman must be allowed to make decisions about her own health" and "government should not be in the business of second guessing".


title: Gary Johnson

text: Johnson supports comprehensive immigration reform and has criticized the immigration stances of Obama, Trump and Hillary Clinton. In his 2012 campaign, he summed up his proposals as simplifying legal immigration while tackling illegal immigration. Johnson proposes "eliminating categories and quotas" and offering illegal immigrants without criminal records in the U.S. a path to legal status. In 2012, he called walls ineffective in stopping illegal immigrants and argued that the U.S. should instead work on tackling Mexican drug cartels by decriminalizing marijuana and giving cartels "diminished incentives to violate U.S. law." Johnson believes the root of illegal immigration is what he calls America's complicated immigration policies and has said the U.S. should "recognize the real problem – a flawed system – and fix it". "Even for those from the right countries or with the right skills, our bureaucracy makes it ridiculously slow and cumbersome to come here legally", he has said. Johnson advocates simplifying restrictions on temporary work visas, granting illegal immigrants who obey the law a two-year grace period to obtain work visas and streamlining the immigration process. He has also said, "a work visa should include a background check and a Social Security card so that taxes get paid" and supports a "one strike, you're out" deportation rule for immigrants who try to circumnavigate or cheat a simplified immigration process.


title: Gary Johnson

text: Johnson opposes federal and state gun control legislation, saying: "I'm a firm believer in the Second Amendment and so I would not have signed legislation banning assault weapons or automatic weapons." Johnson says that the Second Amendment "was designed to protect us against a government that could be very intrusive. And in this country, we have a growing police state – if people can own assault rifles or automatic rifles, I think leads to a more civil government." Johnson would, however, limit weapons such as rocket launchers. Johnson believes that allowing concealed carrying of guns reduces crime and gun violence. He opposes barring gun sales to individuals on the no-fly list, because he claims that such lists have a high error rate. Johnson has called for a "thousand-person taskforce" or "hot line" to prevent terrorists from obtaining guns, and has questioned why the perpetrator of the Orlando nightclub shooting was not "deprived of his guns" after being interviewed three times.


title: Gary Johnson

text: Johnson was married to his college girlfriend, Dee Johnson (née Simms; 1952–2006) from 1977 to 2005. As First Lady of New Mexico, she engaged in campaigns against smoking and for breast cancer awareness and oversaw the expansion of the Governor's Mansion. He initiated a separation in May 2005, and four months later announced that they would divorce. At the age of 54, Dee Johnson died unexpectedly on December 22, 2006, her cause of death later attributed to hypertensive heart disease. The couple had two children, now adults. He also has a granddaughter, Cora, through his son Erik.


title: Gary Johnson

text: Johnson was an avid triathlete who biked extensively. During his term in office, he competed in several triathlons, marathons and bike races. He competed three times (1993, 1997, 1999) as a celebrity invitee at the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii, registering his best time for the swim, bike ride, and marathon run in 1999 with 10 hours, 39 minutes, and 16 seconds. He once ran in 30 consecutive hours in the Rocky Mountains. On May 30, 2003, he reached the summit of Mount Everest "despite toes blackened with frostbite." He has climbed all of the Seven Summits: Mount Everest, Mount Elbrus, Denali, Mount Kilimanjaro, Aconcagua, Mount Vinson, and Carstensz Pyramidthe tallest peaks in Asia, Europe, North America, Africa, South America, Antarctica, and Australia respectively. He completed the Bataan Memorial Death March at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, in which participants traverse a course through the desert, many of them in combat boots and wearing packs.


title: Gary Johnson

text: On October 12, 2005, Johnson was involved in a near-fatal paragliding accident when his wing caught in a tree and he fell approximately to the ground. He suffered multiple bone fractures, including a burst fracture to his twelfth thoracic vertebra, a broken rib, and a broken knee; the accident left him shorter. He used medicinal marijuana for pain control from 2005 to 2008.


title: Gary Johnson

text: Johnson is a Lutheran and has said that his belief in God has given him "a very fundamental belief that we should do unto others as we would have others do unto us."


title: My Strange Hero

text: My Strange Hero () is a South Korean television series starring Yoo Seung-ho, Jo Bo-ah, and Kwak Dong-yeon. It aired on SBS's Mondays and Tuesdays at 22:00 (KST) from December 10, 2018 to February 4, 2019.


title: My Strange Hero

text: In 2009, Kang Bok-soo is enrolled as a junior at Seolsong High, a prestigious private high school known for its discriminatory practice of segregating students based on their grades and social status. Bok-soo is a routine troublemaker who scores poorly in tests, but he is also popular for being a bully hunter. He dates the school's smartest student, Son Soo-jung, and is also best friends with Oh Se-ho, the awkward son of the school's abusive board chairwoman, Lim Se-gyeong. Soo-jung has long been hiding the fact that she is poor, but her background is suddenly outed to the school a day after she discloses it to Bok-soo, causing her to believe that he cares for her out of simple pity. When she heads to the roof to mourn, she hears Bok-soo and Se-ho having an argument, ending with the latter falling. Se-ho survives the incident and testifies that Bok-soo pushed him. Soo-jung, still heartbroken by Bok-soo's apparent betrayal, testifies against him as well, leading to his expulsion from Seolsong.


title: My Strange Hero

text: Nine years later, Bok-soo is working at Your Request, a general service company. Soo-jung is struggling to receive a promotion as permanent teacher at Seolsong and unwittingly scammed to pay a hefty sum of money to become one. She is currently counseling Oh Young-min, a troubled student of Ivy, the school's highest-ranked class. She talks down Young-min when he attempts to commit suicide by jumping into the Han River, only to end up falling down with him. Bok-soo, who happens to be standing nearby, saves her. His heroic action forces Se-ho, recently promoted to become Seolsong's board chairman, to readmit Bok-soo into the school and appease public opinion. Bok-soo enters Wildflower, the school's lowest-ranked class. Se-ho pulls some strings to promote Soo-jung as permanent teacher and gives her the job to mentor Wildflower.


title: My Strange Hero

text: Bok-soo devises a plan to take revenge against Seolsong, and Se-ho in particular, for the lies that caused his expulsion. Though initially chilly, Bok-soo rekindles his relationship with Soo-jung when they learn that their grudge was driven by a series of misunderstandings: Se-ho was the one who gossiped Soo-jung's background and framed Bok-soo into playing the part of his rooftop fall, which was actually a suicide attempt. Se-ho has long been in love with Soo-jung and framed Bok-soo precisely so they would split. When Soo-jung confronts him about this, he openly admits his actions and warns her that, for rejecting him, he would make her and Bok-soo's lives miserable. Aided by his friends, Bok-soo slowly dismantles the corrupt atmosphere of Seolsong. In the process, they have to face the school's entire upper management, all of whom want to preserve the status quo. Upon collecting enough evidences, Bok-soo uploads a YouTube video containing documents that implicate Seolsong's corruption.


title: My Strange Hero

text: The ensuing scrutiny convinces Se-gyeong to depose her son and engineer a scapegoat so the school's reputation could be protected. Se-ho, having had a change of heart and sick of being mistreated by his mother, forms an alliance with Bok-soo to further scrutinize Seolsong and bring them to court. Bok-soo publicizes Se-gyeong's plan to turn Seolsong into a corporation, and Soo-jung further testifies against her at the cost of her job. Se-ho, meanwhile, admits the truth about his suicide attempt. Not willing to surrender, Se-gyeong blackmails Se-ho into becoming a scapegoat and plans to close Seolsong. Bok-soo, Soo-jung, their friends, and the teachers band together to prevent her from entering the school long enough until the police arrive to arrest her, having been tipped by Se-ho regarding his mother's crimes.


title: My Strange Hero

text: In the aftermath of Se-gyeong's arrest, Seolsong becomes a public school. Se-ho moves to the United States to recover, while Bok-soo receives his high school diploma a year later. Four years later, Bok-soo is teaching at Seolsong, while Soo-jung finally becomes a teacher through legitimate means.


title: My Strange Hero

text: The first script reading took place on October 8, 2018 at SBS Ilsan Production Studios in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. The drama serves as a reunion project for Jo Bo-ah and Joel Roberts who both starred in the 2018 drama "Goodbye to Goodbye".