The strategic air command had an airborne command post called the looking glass aloft 24 hours a day ready in case the president ordered our strategic forces to move towards their targets and release their nuclear ordinance. The Soviet Union had almost one and half million troops deep in the heart of Europe - in Poland and Czechoslovakia, Hungary and East Germany. We used out nuclear weapons, not just to prevent the Soviet Union from using their nuclear weapons, but also to contain their conventional military forces to prevent them from extending the Iron Curtain into parts of Europe and Asia that were still free. In that world, few other nations had nuclear weapons and most of those who did were responsible allies such as Britain and France. The world today is still dangerous, Bush said, a less certain, less predictable one.
More nations have nuclear weapons and still more have nuclear aspirations.
Many have chemical and biological weapons. They seek weapons of mass destruction to intimidate their neighbors and to keep the United States and other nations from helping allies and friends in strategic parts of the world. When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, the world joined forces to turn him back. Many care little for the lives of their own people. In such a world, Cold War deterrence is no longer enough.