Why had the British nuclear deterrent been controversial? Flashcards
What have been the arguments in favour?
Contributes to the defence of western Europe
Maintains Britain’s ‘great’ power status
First thought that the US would be unwilling to defend Europe and needed a weapon to deter the USSR
What have been the arguments against?
Irrelevant when measured against American and Russian arsenals
Costs reduce investment in other areas and conventional forms of defence
Deterrent has been reliant on America since 1962
What happened in 1962?
Macmillan persuaded Kennedy to supply Britain with Polaris missiles to carry British warheads
What happened during the late 1950s and 1960s?
Pressure grew for nuclear weapons to be abandoned to make the world safer
What happened in 1958?
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament was founded and began a series of annual protest marches from the nuke plant in Berkshire to Trafalgar Square
What did the supporters of the deterrent maintain but what became clear by the 1960s?
That Britain needed to be strong to prevent Soviet aggression
Britain needed US missiles to deliver its bomb
What happened in 1963 and 1968?
Britain joined the USSR and the US in banning nuclear testing in space, underwater, and in the atmosphere
Britain signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty by which signatories agreed not to share nuclear tech with other nations
What happened during the 1960s?
The continued build up of nuclear-armed missles by both the USA and the USSR rendered the British deterrent increasingly insignificant
What did Britain play little part in?
The two superpowers negotiating the two Strategic Arms Limitations Treaties (SALT) in 1972 and 1979
What did the USSR do in the mid-1970s?
Began deploying SS-20 intermediate range missiles capable of hitting targets anywhere in Europe
What happened in response and what did the decision do?
NATO powers agreed to deploy US intermediate range missiles
Increased the likelihood of Europe becoming a nuclear battleground
What happened in 1981?
A group of women set up a protest camp at the RAF and USAF base at Greenham Common
What was Thatcher’s position?
Didn’t sympathise with the Greenham Common protest
She believed that the abolition of nukes would leave Europe exposed to the conventional forces of the USSR
What was she alarmed by and what did she tell him in 1984?
Reagan’s willingness in his discussions with Gorbachev to embrace the ‘zero option’
Nuclear weapons have ‘given us forty years of unprecedented peace in Europe’
What happened after the fall of the USSR?
The US and Russia signed agreements to significantly reduce their arsenals (e.g. Lisbon Protocol)
