Webinar - From World War II to the Cuban Missile Crisis

From World War II to the Cuban Missile Crisis: Brute Force & Coercion in Air-Atomic Strategy

In 1965, to say that nuclear weapons could be used to win a war seemed mad, but to say they could not be in 1945 would have seemed equally so. Dr. Kaplan, drawing from his award-winning book To Kill Nations, will speak on how strategic airpower integrated the new technology of the atomic bomb in the aftermath of the Second World War. Nuclear weapons promised to both make airpower campaigns more successful, but pushed meaningful victory away. The eventual replacement of victory with Mutually Assured Destruction and war termination, executed by civilian national leaders, transformed both nuclear and airpower strategy.

Dr. Edward A. Kaplan is a Professor of National Security Studies in the Department of National Security and Strategy at the U.S. Army War College. In this role, he is responsible for facilitating the education of senior officers in the Army, other services, partner nations, and senior civilians. 

Dr. Kaplan is a 1994 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of Calgary. During twenty-six years in the U.S. Air Force, Dr. Kaplan served as an intelligence officer and an educator. His assignments ranged from operational aircrew support to duty on the Joint Staff in the Pentagon and deployments in Iraq and Bosnia. Before joining the faculty of the U.S. Army War College, Dr. Kaplan was the chair of the history department at the Air Force Academy. He retired from active duty in April 2020 at the rank of Colonel.

6:00pm EST webinar, gratis. Advance registration required. Registrants will receive the link to join the webinar in a confirmation email.