Interview with Solly Zuckerman, 1987
Item Information
- Title:
- Interview with Solly Zuckerman, 1987
- Description:
-
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.
- Interviewee:
- Zuckerman, Solly Zuckerman, Baron, 1904-1993
- Date:
-
February 11, 1987
- Format:
-
Film/Video
- Location:
- WGBH
- Collection (local):
-
WGBH Open Vault
- Series:
- War and Peace in the Nuclear Age
- Subjects:
-
Nagasaki-shi (Japan) History--Bombardment, 1945
Hiroshima-shi (Japan)--History--Bombardment, 1945
Groves, Leslie Richard
Intermediate-range ballistic missiles
Great Britain
World War II
Nuclear arms control
Reagan, Ronald
Nuclear energy
Nuclear nonproliferation
Nuclear weapons--Testing
Strategic Defense Initiative
United States. Atomic Energy Act of 1946
Soviet Union
Physicists
United Nations
Polaris (Missile)
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (1963)
Nuclear weapons
Edicia Sputnik
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Harriman, W. Averell (William Averell), 1891-1986
McMahon, Brien, 1903-1952
Churchill, Winston, 1874-1965
Bevin, Ernest, 1881-1951
Truman, Harry S., 1884-1972
Tizard, Henry Thomas, 1885-1959
Teller, Edward, 1908-2003
Macmillan, Harold, 1894-1986
Perrin, Michael, 1905-1988
Acheson, Dean, 1893-1971
Waverley, John Anderson, Viscount Westdean, 1883?-1958
Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeevich, 1894-1971
Gromyko, Andrei Andreevich, 1909-1989
Eisenhower, Dwight D. (Dwight David), 1890-1969
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963
Land, Edwin Herbert, 1909-1991
Attlee, C. R. (Clement Richard), 1883-1967
Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945
United States. Congress
- Places:
-
United Kingdom
Germany
United States
France
- Extent:
- 00:54:28:04
- Link to Item:
- http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_C0CA272932634AD795692F84FBE9C3A6
- Terms of Use:
-
Rights status not evaluated.
Contact host institution for more information.
- Publisher:
-
WGBH Educational Foundation
- Identifier:
-
V_C0CA272932634AD795692F84FBE9C3A6