The Atomic Opposition 1
There are four possible stances on atomic weapons Warfighting: use em or lose em Nuclear deterrence: I won t use em unless you do first Arms control: Let s have fewer to use, if we have to use em Atomic disarmament: Let s not have any at all. 2
During the late 1940s and early 1950s, rising numbers and destructiveness of nuclear weapons generated extreme anxiety The public assumed they would be used 3
Handy instructions did not provide much in the way of reassurance 1950 U.S. Govt. manual on what to do in an atomic attack 4
As Paul Boyer points out, governments sought to put atomic fears to rest Clearly, such fears were bad for nat l morale Some were convinced that the Soviets were stirring up anxieties Too much public concern might lead to political pressures to change This could lead to an appearance of strategic weakness 5
Public opposition to national security policies and strategies was uncommon During World War II, pacifists and critics of the war were regarded as something close to treasonous As the Cold War developed, criticism of security policy was regarded as sympathy with Communism Revelations of atomic spies, and charges of traitors in government made people fearful & suspicious The FBI was active in collecting information on people suspected of being left activists and sympathizers 6
And, of course, there was Senator Joseph McCarthy 7
Why, then, was there an atomic opposition? Some had ethical and moral doubts about atomic weapons The possibility of atomic annihilation alarmed many The long-term health consequences of fallout & atomic energy were of concern Environmental damage was also of concern in later degades 8
By the mid-1950s, an antinuclear movement was beginning to form, in both the United States and Great Britain 9
For much of the 1950s and into the 1960s, nuclear disarmament was the activists goal to which governments paid lip service The US participated in disarmament conferences But the New Look was based on the threat of nuclear retaliation And proposals for test bans ran into opposition from both scientists & anti-communists Thus, nothing ever came of disarmament efforts 10
The Franck Report of 1945 was the first scientists expression of concern about how the A-bomb would be used 11
Eventually, Manhattan Project scientists established Federation of Atomic (later American) Scientists (FAS) to lobby for nuclear control and reduction 12
Advent of the H-bomb renewed debate, mostly among scientists, and generated some opposition 13
Nonetheless, movements emerged. There have been two primary but intersecting anti-atomic movements, and these have reappeared throughout the past 60 years The Scientists (experts) The Intellectuals (philosophers, logicians & teachers) 14
Scientists base arguments on physical and technical criteria: what could happen Intellectuals base arguments on morals & logic: what should happen 15
Members of the public have generally followed: anxious, concerned, uninformed and fretful 16
Russell-Einstein Manifesto, July 9, 1955 Here, then, is the problem which we present to you, stark and dreadful and inescapable: Shall we put an end to the human race; or shall mankind renounce war? 17
The manifesto led to the creation of the East-West Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs 18
In the UK, the philosophical strand led to the creation of the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, which still exists 19
The American movement was launched by Albert Schweitzer in 1957, as the U.S. Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy 20
Both movements were strongly opposed by governments, elites and other scientists, and frequently red-baited as Soviet fellow travelers 21
In the United States, much of the public s concern was motivated by fallout from atmospheric nuclear testing 22
The Limited Test Ban Treaty in 1963 defused these movements to some degree. They were also displaced by the movement against the Vietnam War 23
In the late 1960s, some scientists lobbied against ballistic missile defense and for environmental protection; the Union of Concerned Scientists emerged from MIT at this time 24
The ABM Treaty and the first SALT treaty during the 1970s took the wind out of the scientists weapons concerns for a time, and also lead to a decline in public concerns about nuclear war 25
Toward the end of the 1960s, the environmental movement emerged, and some groups began to mobilize against nuclear power 26
This gave rise to the anti-nuclear power movement: Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Environmental Defense Fund; Natural Resources Defense Council 27
A California referendum in 1976 banned new nuclear plants in the state until there exists a demonstrated technology for the permanent disposal of spent fuel. Germany and Sweden passed similar bans or limits. Some would like to eliminate the ban in California, and there has been talk of doing the same in Europe 28
The antinuclear power movement peaked around 1980, as new orders for nuclear plants ceased, and concern began to shift back toward nuclear weapons with the arrival of the Reagan administration 29
NATO s plan to deploy intermediate range nuclear ballistic and cruise missiles energized a new peace movement in Europe 30
The German Greens were established at this time 31
The Greenham Common camp was set up in 1981 32
Caspar Weinberger, Secretary of Defense T.K. Jones George Schultz, Secretary of State Colin Gray, academic & DOD staff Members of the Reagan Administration and others spoke rather loosely of nuclear warning shots and war-fighting did they really mean it? 33
A New England town meeting votes for the Freeze - 1982 In the U.S., the Nuclear Freeze Movement demanded a halt to growth in strategic arsenals and also may have motivated Reagan to offer the Strategic Defense Initiative in 1983 as a counter to public concerns 34
Scientists led by Carl Sagan weighed in with their theory of Nuclear winter; the media released TV shows and films; the Catholic Bishops condemned nuclear war 35
Leonid Brezhnev, 1964-1982 Yuri Andropov, 1982-84 Konstantin Chernenko, 1984-85 In the space of three years, from 1981-85, the USSR went through three General Secretaries 36
And then two things happened: Mikhail Gorbachev in 2005 and Chernobyl in 2006 37
In 1986, they met in Reykjavik and almost abolished nuclear weapons In 1985, Reagan and Gorbachev had their first meeting in Geneva In 1987, they signed the INF Treaty in Washington to eliminate the Euromissiles entirely 38
Several other treaties were signed, but the end of the Cold War largely stilled the atomic opposition throughout the 1990s 39
Did the atomic opposition have any effects on the nuclear arms race? Yes and no. 40
Perhaps in the world s nuclear-free zones 41
There has been something of a revival in response to the nuclear renaissance 42