Hemlock #48 Peace in Iran: Jack Kennedy from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists talks Strait of Hormuz, Petroyuan, Albert Camus, Strategic Bombing, French and Israeli Nuke Programs, Kissinger

Nuclear Risk Editorial Fellow Jack Kennedy https://jackkennedy.ie/about/ comes back for the second time to talk Strait of Hormuz, Israel's nuclear option, NATO proliferation risks, Nixon, Kissinger, and Vietnam. "Belt of radioactive cobalt" mentioned. By the way, ships are already paying in Yuan to access the Strait, and the IRGC has confirmed control of a working route through the Strait - if you pay in Chinese money...

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Follow Will on Substack - by the way, if you haven't rated the show on Spotify or Apple, please do so. The algo is suppressing my ratings to some degree. The Patreon version of this show has better music.

Sources Mentioned:

• Iran’s Parliament working on bill to impose fees on ships in Strait of Hormuz (March 26 2026, AP)

• Interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski (Carter Admin, Operation Cyclone) admits to using Mujahedeen fighters to create quagmire for Soviets - Jan 1998

• Poland seeks as much autonomy as possible in terms of nuclear arms, Tusk says (Reuters, March 3 2026)

• Not One Inch - M. E. Sarotte

• Governing From the Skies by Thomas Hippler

• The Samson Option by Seymour Hersh

• WAS IT OBLITERATION? The US attack on Iran may not have wiped out its nuclear ambitions but it did set them back years by Seymour Hersh

• Camus editorial after Hiroshima (Aug 8th 1945)

• In The Loop (2009 British Diplomatic Comedy)

• The Thick of It (Also British Political Comedy)

• Inside the Kremlin's Cold War by Zubok and Pleshakov

• 1890 treatise Alfred Thayer Mahan The Influence of Sea Power on History

Music and Image Credits:

• Didn't Know What I Was In For by Better Oblivion Community Center

• Curb Your Enthusiasm Song Cover (YouTube)

• Cover Image: by Domiri Ganji (permission requested)

General

• Operation Unthinkable (Churchill)

• Arkangel Intervention / North Russia intervention

• Human Remains in Space over Navajo Objections

• The Algiers Putsch 1961

• Operation Vulture (US Nuclear Negotiation with France over Dien Bien Phu, 1954, Dulles and Radford)

• 1979 Vela Incident