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War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Education of Robert McNamara, The; Interview with Solly Zuckerman, 1987

Part of War and Peace in the Nuclear Age.

02/11/1987

Lord Solly Zuckerman served as Chief Scientific Adviser to the British Ministry of Defence from 1960-1966 and as Chief Scientific Adviser to the British Government from 1964-1971. In the interview he discusses the developing British nuclear program and strategy. He describes the beginnings of that program during and just after World War II, specifically the political players in charge of deciding how to proceed. The program was so secret that even Deputy Prime Minister Clement Attlee did not learn about it until the Potsdam Conference. He describes the McMahon Act and it's effect on British-American collaboration. He also discusses the war games he undertook to conceptualize the consequences of tactical nuclear battles in Europe, which would have led to "chaos of a fantastic kind" and rampant escalation. He argues that it is the scientists behind the weapons technology who drive the arms race, because without their work the military and political leaders would have no basis to move forward. One example of this phenomenon offered is the work at Lawrence Livermore Laboratories on nuclear-powered lasers, which he understands is what prompted Edward Teller to approach President Reagan, which in turn led to the idea of SDI. He also describes Harold MacMillan's support of a comprehensive test ban treaty, and his disappointment in the American system, powered substantially by military and related scientific circles, each with their own powerful constituencies in Congress, that would only allow a limited test ban.

Series

War and Peace in the Nuclear Age

Program

Education of Robert McNamara, The

Program Number

106

Title

Interview with Solly Zuckerman, 1987

Series Description

The first atomic explosion in the New Mexico desert on July 16, 1945, changed the world forever. This series chronicles these changes and the history of a new era. It traces the development of nuclear weapons, the evolution of nuclear strategy, and the politics of a world with the power to destroy itself.

In thirteen one-hour programs that combine historic footage and recent interviews with key American, Soviet, and European participants, the nuclear age unfolds: the origin and evolution of nuclear weapons; the people of the past who have shaped the events of the present; the ideas and issues that political leaders, scientists, and the public at large must confront, and the prospects for the future. Nuclear Age highlights the profound changes in contemporary thinking imposed by the advent of nuclear weapons. Series release date: 1/1989

Program Description

In the 1960’s Secretary of Defense Robert Mcnamara confronts the possibility of nuclear war and changes his views on questions of strategy and survival.

McNamara was Secretary of Defense for Presidents Kennedy and Johnson from 1961 to 1968. By the 1960’s the Soviets’ increased nuclear capabilities raised disturbing questions. What would the United States do if attacked? American strategy had been “massive retaliation.” But, as McNamara explains, it became increasingly apparent to the Soviets that the US was unlikely to respond. If the United States did launch a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union, the remaining Soviet forces would destroy the US. McNamara’s Defense Department developed a new strategy. “Flexible response” was based on a “ladder of escalation” from conventional to nuclear options. But by 1967, McNamara, who tried to create rules for limited nuclear war, concluded, “The blunt fact is that neither... can attack the other without being destroyed in retaliation. And it is precisely this ... that provides us both with the strongest possible motives to avoid a nuclear war.”

Duration

00:54:28

Asset Type

Raw video

Media Type

Video

Subjects

Nagasaki-shi (Japan) – History -- Bombardment, 1945

Hiroshima-shi (Japan) -- History -- Bombardment, 1945

Groves, Leslie Richard

Harriman, W. Averell (William Averell), 1891-1986

Intermediate-range ballistic missiles

Great Britain

World War II

McMahon, Brien, 1903-1952

Churchill, Winston, 1874-1965

Bevin, Ernest, 1881-1951

Truman, Harry S., 1884-1972

Tizard, Henry Thomas, 1885-1959

Nuclear arms control

Reagan, Ronald

Nuclear energy

Nuclear nonproliferation

Teller, Edward, 1908-2003

Macmillan, Harold, 1894-1986

Perrin, Michael, 1905-1988

Acheson, Dean, 1893-1971

Germany

United States. Congress

Waverley, John Anderson, Viscount Westdean, 1883?-1958

Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeevich, 1894-1971

Nuclear weapons -- Testing

Strategic Defense Initiative

United States. Atomic Energy Act of 1946

Gromyko, Andrei Andreevich, 1909-1989

Eisenhower, Dwight D. (Dwight David), 1890-1969

Soviet Union

Physicists

United Nations

Polaris (Missile)

United States

Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963

Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (1963)

Nuclear weapons

Land, Edwin Herbert, 1909-1991

Edicia Sputnik

Attlee, C. R. (Clement Richard), 1883-1967

North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945

France

Locations

United Kingdom

Genres

Documentary

Topics

Science

Global Affairs

War and Conflict

History

Contributors

Zuckerman, Solly Zuckerman, Baron, 1904-1993 (Interviewee)

Publication Information

WGBH Educational Foundation

Citation

Chicago: “War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Education of Robert McNamara, The; Interview with Solly Zuckerman, 1987,” 02/11/1987, GBH Archives, accessed April 19, 2024, http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_C0CA272932634AD795692F84FBE9C3A6.

MLA: “War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Education of Robert McNamara, The; Interview with Solly Zuckerman, 1987.” 02/11/1987. GBH Archives. Web. April 19, 2024. <http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_C0CA272932634AD795692F84FBE9C3A6>.

APA: War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Education of Robert McNamara, The; Interview with Solly Zuckerman, 1987. Boston, MA: GBH Archives. Retrieved from http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_C0CA272932634AD795692F84FBE9C3A6