• DOI:10.2307/2626691
• Corpus ID: 154271535

A Military Commander Surveys the Nuclear Arms Race

@article{Mountbatten1979AMC,
  title={A Military Commander Surveys the Nuclear Arms Race},
  author={Louis Mountbatten},
  journal={International Security},
  year={1979},
  volume={4},
  pages={3 - 5}
}

• Louis Mountbatten
• Published 24 January 1979
• Political Science
• International Security

I T h e r e is one question that I have kept in mind for many years. Have the frightening facts of the nuclear arms race, showing with appalling clarity that we are rushing headlong towards a precipice, been able to make any of those responsible for this disastrous course to pull themselves together and reach for the brakes? The answer has long been ”no,” and I only wish that now I could be the bearer of the glad tidings that there has been a change of attitude and we are beginning to see a steady rate of disarmament. Alas, that is not the case. I am deeply saddened when I reflect on how little has been achieved in spite of all the talk there has been particularly about nuclear disarmament. There have been numerous international conferences and negotiations on €he subject and we have all nursed dreams of a world at peace, but to no avail. Since the end of the second world war 30 years ago, we have had war after war. There is still armed conflict going on in several parts of the world. We live in an age of extreme peril because every war today carries the danger that it could spread and involve the superpowers. And here lies the greatest danger of all. A military confrontation between the superpowers could entail the horrifymg risk of nuclear warfare. The Western powers and the Soviet Union started by producing and stockpiling nuclear weapons as a deterrent to general war. The idea seemed simple enough. Because of the enormous amount of destruction that could be wreaked by a single nuclear explosion, the idea was that both sides in what we still see as an East-West conflict would be deterred from taking any aggressive action which might endanger the vital interests of the other. It was not long, however, before smaller nuclear weapons of various designs were produced and deployed for use in what was assumed to be a tactical or theatre war. The belief was that were hostilities ever to break out in Western Europe, such weapons could be used in field warfare without triggering an all-out nuclear exchange leading to the final holocaust. I find this idea more and more incredible. I cannot accept the reasons for the belief that any class of nuclear weapons can be categorized in terms of their tactical