Interview with Richard Powell, 1986

Item Information

Title:
Interview with Richard Powell, 1986
Description:
Sir Richard Powell was permanent secretary at the British Ministry of Defense from 1956 to 1959. In the interview he conducted for War and Peace in the Nuclear Age: “The Education of Robert McNamara,” Powell recalls British officials’ shock that, although their scientists had originated work on the atom bomb, the McMahon Act of 1946 barred British access to U.S. nuclear information. He asserts that Britain’s own bomb project flowed easily from its self-image as a world power and from its fear that the United States might again become isolationist. Only after the 1948 Berlin blockade, Powell explains, did European defense become a more prominent national issue. Subsequently, Britain’s chiefs of staff produced a paper on global strategy, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) formed, and a protracted debate took place over the rearmament of Germany and whether a European mutual-defense community could be established under supernational command. As Powell recalls, relatively little concern was paid to the massive deployment of tactical nuclear weapons on German soil. Powell describes the background and contents of and the reaction to the landmark 1957 white paper “Defense: Outline of Future Policy,” which he helped write. The white paper represented a culmination of trends already prevalent in British defense policy. Not only did it place more emphasis on nuclear forces, but it also ended conscription, reduced conventional-force capability, and called for the reduction of many overseas garrisons. The former defense secretary also chronicles Britain’s efforts through the 1950s to restore its “special relationship” with the United States, which nearly collapsed after the 1956 Suez crisis. He discusses the high-level talks that helped repair that alliance and explains why nuclear cooperation reopened in 1958. Powell assesses the upsurge of protest that followed the detonation of Britain’s first hydrogen bomb and the country’s agreement to host U.S. Thor missiles at the end of the decade. Finally, Powell reflects on Britain’s independent deterrent and how it fits under the larger U.S. nuclear umbrella, and he shares his views regarding deterrence and morality.
Interviewee:
Powell, Richard 1909-2006
Date:
October 27, 1986
Format:
Film/Video
Location:
WGBH
Collection (local):
WGBH Open Vault
Series:
War and Peace in the Nuclear Age
Subjects:
International relations
German rearmament
Korean War, 1950-1953
Hydrogen bomb
Tactical nuclear weapons
Deterrence (Strategy)
Nuclear arms control
Berlin (Germany)--History--Blockade, 1948-1949
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Great Britain
Nuclear weapons
Sandys, Duncan, 1908-1987
Gaulle, Charles de, 1890-1970
Lodge, Henry Cabot, 1902-1985
Adenauer, Konrad, 1876-1967
Dulles, John Foster, 1888-1959
Fuchs, Klaus Emil Julius, 1911-1988
Attlee, C. R. (Clement Richard), 1883-1967
Strauss, Franz Josef, 1915-1988
Lloyd, Selwyn, 1904-1978
Churchill, Winston, 1874-1965
Macmillan, Harold, 1894-1986
Places:
England > London
United States
France
Germany
Extent:
01:04:52:06
Link to Item:
http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_631C15A3FA3340CF8F63F52D5D512899
Terms of Use:
Rights status not evaluated.
Contact host institution for more information.
Publisher:
WGBH Educational Foundation
Identifier:
V_631C15A3FA3340CF8F63F52D5D512899