Annex I The United Kingdom Nuclear Deterrent l. During the Second World War the British, American and Canadian Gove-rnments collaborated closely in the develop­ ment of the atom bomb. This collaboration was terminated in 1946. The decision to manufacture a British atom bomb was taken by the Labour Government of Prime Minister Clement Attlee in] anuary 1947. By the time the first British nuclear test took place in October 1952, Winston Churchill was again Prime Minister of a Conservative Government. The first British thermonuclear (hydrogen bomb) test took place in 1957. 2. The order to produce the first V-Bombers, the first British aircraft specifically designed to carry nuclear weapons, was placed by the Labour Government early in 1951. Delivery of the full complement of V-bombers to operational units was completed by 1960. In December 1962 at Nassau, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan obtained from President Ken­ nedy an undertaking to supply Polaris missiles, which would be armed with British-made warheads and deployed in British-made submarines. The Polaris construction pro­ gramme was carried out under the Labour Government of Prime Minister Harold Wilson (1964-70); the fourth and last Polaris submarine became operational in 1970. 3. The Chevaline project for improving the ability of the Polaris missile to penetrate Soviet defences was initiated by the Conservative Government in 1973. The decision to go ahead with development of Chevaline was taken by the Labour Government in 1974. Chevaline became operational in 1980, under the Conservative Government. 4. After prolonged studies the decision to replace the Polaris in the 1990s by the Trident (C4), to be purchased from the United States and fitted in the British-made submarines, was announced by the Conservative Government in] uly 1980. In 243 244 Annex I March 1982 it was announced that the longer-range Trident II (DS) missile was to be substituted for the C4, primarily because the C4 would have been replaced by the DS in the United States shortly after the first British Trident submarine entered into service. The warheads will be British made. S. Since 1947, the British nuclear weapons programme, from which evolved the British nuclear deterrent, has been main­ tained by successive British Governments, under six Conser­ vative and four Labour Prime Ministers. The Labour Party in opposition has announ(ed that, in office, it would cancel the Trident programme and phase out the British deterrent. 6. The Government has explained the rationale for the British deterrent (in Defence Open Government Document 80/23) as follows: The Government has great confidence in the depth of resolve underlying the United States commitment (to the defence of Europe). But deterrence is a matter of perception, and perception by a potential adversary. The central consideration is what that adversary may believe, not what we or our Allies believe; our deterrence has to influence possible calculations made by leaders whose attitudes and values may differ sharply from those of the West. The decision to use United States nuclear weapons in defence of Europe, with all the risk to the United States homeland this would entail, would be enorm­ ously grave. A Soviet leadership ... might believe that it could impose its will on Europe by military force without becoming involved in strategic nuclear war with the United States. Modernised US nuclear forces in Europe help guard against any such misconception; but an independent capability fully under European control provides a key element of insurance . .. The nuclear strength of Britain or France may seem modest by comparison with the superpower armouries, but the damage they would inflict is in absolute terms immense .... An adversary assessing the consequences of possible aggres­ sion in Europe would have to regard a Western defence containing these powerful independent elements as a harder one to predict, and a more dangerous one to assail, than one in which nuclear retaliatory power rested in United States hands alone. Annex I 245 7. The British Polaris force is a strategic nuclear deterrent with a purpose comparable to that of the US strategic nuclear deterrent, although it is only about 2.3% of the size of the Soviet strategic forces, whether measured by launchers or by warheads. The Polaris submarines are in the same category of weapon system as the US and Soviet strategic ballistic missile submarines included in the SALT and START. This was explicitly recognised by the Russians during the negotiation of the SALT I agreement in 1972. The British Polaris submarines are, by Soviet definition, as well as by NATO's, excluded from the INF talks. The Soviet purpose in seeking to include them in the INF eq uation is to secure the elimination of existing and planned American INF missiles, thus converting Soviet cur­ rent superiority at this level of forces into a monopoly legitimised by formal agreement. Annex I I Profiles of the Principal International Front Organisations World Peace Council Afro-Asian Peoples Solidarity Organisation Christian Peace Conference International Association of Democratic Lawyers International Federation of Resistance Fighters International Organisation ofJournalists International Institute for Peace International Radio and Television Organisation International Union of Students Women's International Democratic Federation World Federation of Democratic Youth World Federation of Scientific Workers World Federation of Trade Unions WORLD PEACE COUNCIL (WPC) (HQ: Lonnrotinkatu 25A, Helsinki 18, Finland) Membership Affiliates in over 142 countries; total membership, organised on a national basis, never published. Organisation Council: c. 1600 members, includes representatives of inter­ national organisations, national peace committees; provision for honorary members and observers (individuals) and associate members (organisations). 246 Annex II 247 Presidential Committee Elected by Council, runs organisation between Council sessions, meets annually and in emergencies. Presidents of Honour can take part in all WPC meetings (currently: Hortensia Allende (Chile), Gusta Fucikova (Czechoslovakia), Hans Blumenfeld (Canada), Dolores Ibarruri (Spain), Pastor Martin Niemol­ ler (FGR - died March 1984) and Yannis Ritsos (Greece). 39 Vice-Presidents, and over 186 members including one observer. Elects Bureau of the Presidential Committee, which meets three or four times yearly, made up of President, Vice-Presidents and national peace movements' representatives. Secretariat, executive body of Presidential Committee and appointed by it, carries out decisions of Council, Presidential Committee and Bureau. Leading Secretariat Officials Secretaries: Paivi Aarolainen (Finland); Daniel Cirera (France); Nathaniel Hill Arboleda (Panama); Kosta Ivanov (Bulgaria); Karoly Lauko (Hungary); Karel Lukas (Czechoslovakia); Rolf Liitzkendorf; Max Moabi (ANC-South Africa); Bahig Nassar (Egypt); Kvetoslav Ondracek (Czechoslovakia); Arsenio Rodriguez; Carl Rosschou (Denmark); Mamadou Sako (Mali); Sana Abu Shakra (USSR); Philip Spillman (Switzerland); Karen Talbot (USA); Ryszard Tyrluk (Poland). The WPC has representatives at the UN (New York and Geneva) and UNESCO (Paris). Presidential Committee Members President: Romesh Chandra (India, appointed 1977, having been Secretary-General since 1966; member of Indian CP Central Committee). Vice-Presidents: Olga Aviles Lopez (Nicaragua); Richard Andriamanjato (Malagasy); Phan Anh (Vietnam); Eduardo Arevalo Burgos (Colombia); Ali Badeeb (Yemen); Mohammad Jaber Bajbouj (Syria); Vital Balla (Congo); Freda Brown (WIDF); Martha Buschmann (FRG);JosefCyrankiewicz (Poland); Camara Damantang (Guinea); Jacques Denis (France); Giinter Drefahl (GDR); Luis Echeverria (Mexico); Orlando Fundola Lopez (Cuba); George Georges (Australia); Dawit Wolde Giorgis (Ethiopia); Francisco da Costa Gomes 248 Annex II (Portugal); Rubens Iscaro (Argentina); Matti Kekkonen (Finland); James Lamond (UK); Pascal Luvualu (Angola); Khaled Mohei EI-Din (Egypt); Rudolfo Mecchini (Italy); John Hanley Morgan (Canada); Gus Eugene Newport (USA); Alfred Nzo (ANC-South Africa); Camilo O. Perez (Panama); E. M. Primakov (USSR); Nadim Abdul Samad (Lebanon); Ilona Sebestyen (Hungary); Blagovest Sendov (Bulgaria); Aziz Sherif (Iraq); Filifing Sissoko (Mali); T. B. Subasinghe (Sri Lanka); Mikis Theodorakis (Greece); Emma Torres (Bolivia); Tomas Travnicek (Czechoslovakia); Ibrahim Zakaria (WFTU). Members include Zhukov and Shaposhnikov (USSR). lriformation Centres In Helsinki, Havana, Addis Ababa, and New York (for Puerto Ricans). Subsidiaries Subsidiary bodies include: International Campaign Committee foraJust Peace in the Middle East, International Commission of Enquiry into Israeli Treatment of Arab People in Occupied Territories, International Commission of Enquiry into the Crimes of the ChileanJ unta, International Committee of Soli dar­ ity with Cyprus and International Commission of Enquiry into Israeli Crimes against the Lebanese and Palestinian Peoples. Commissions: Culture, Development, Disarmament, Educa­ tion and Science, Human Rights, Imperialist Policy of Des tabil­ isation, International Solidarity, Mass Media and Information, Non-Alignment, Parliamentarians, Racism, Religious Peace Forces, Scientific Research for Peace, Trade Unions, Transna­ tional Corporations, Women and Youth. Funding Contributions from national peace committees, special collec­ tions and World Peace Fund, but in practice 'has received large-scale financial support from government sources,