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Top officials stress country's nuclear strength
Even as President Obama met Sunday with a succession of global leaders to discuss better control of nuclear materials, his administration highlighted a seemingly dissimilar message: The U.S. nuclear arsenal remains as strong as ever.
While Obama entertained foreign leaders at Blair House -- shaking hands, bowing politely and posing for pictures -- Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton gave interviews meant to reassert the nation's military strength. They indicated that the United States would spend $5 billion this year to modernize its existing nuclear weapons, which they said could be used if the country's security is in danger or in response to the threat of a biological attack.
"We'll be, you know, stronger than anybody in the world, as we always have been, with more nuclear weapons than are needed many times over," Clinton said on ABC's "This Week."
It was a somewhat surprising launch into the historic two-day nuclear summit, which will begin in Washington on Monday. Forty-six world leaders or their representatives are to meet to discuss the threat posed by the world's unsecured stocks of nuclear materials.