{"id":69393,"date":"2016-02-08T12:00:07","date_gmt":"2016-02-08T12:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=69393"},"modified":"2016-02-05T22:48:42","modified_gmt":"2016-02-05T22:48:42","slug":"february-this-month-in-nuclear-threat-history-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/02\/february-this-month-in-nuclear-threat-history-2\/","title":{"rendered":"February: This Month in Nuclear Threat History"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Copyright<\/a>

Copyright \u00a9 Shutterstock. All Rights Reserved<\/p><\/div>\n

February 1, 1958<\/strong> \u2013 As part of the U.S. strategy of massive (nuclear) retaliation, the United Kingdom agreed to station 60 nuclear-armed Thor intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) at four U.K. military bases.\u00a0 Royal Air Force (RAF) Bomber Command personnel staffed the bases, but all the nuclear weapons that were provided remained in full U.S. ownership, custody, and control.\u00a0 These same missiles were put on high-alert status during the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and were withdrawn shortly thereafter.\u00a0 However NATO and Russia have continued to deploy tactical nuclear weapons on European soil not only throughout the Cold War, but in the present day as well.\u00a0 This includes the tense period of the 2014-15 Crimea-Ukraine Crisis.\u00a0 (Source:\u00a0 Jack Mendelsohn and David Grahme, editors.\u00a0 \u201cArms Control Chronology.\u201d\u00a0 Washington, DC:\u00a0 Center for Defense Information, 2002, p. 45.)<\/p>\n

February 2, 1998<\/strong> \u2013 General George Lee Butler, a retired four-star U.S. Air Force general who was in charge of the Strategic Air Command (SAC)\/U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) from 1991-94, became the first commander of U.S. nuclear forces to ever call for their abolition in a speech titled, \u201cThe Risks of Deterrence:\u00a0 From Superpowers to Rogue Leaders,\u201d at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.\u00a0 \u201cMy purpose in entering the debate was to help legitimize (nuclear) abolition as an alternative worthy of serious and urgent consideration.\u00a0 My premise was that my unique experience in the nuclear weapons arena might help kindle antithesis for these horrific devices and the policies which continue to justify their retention by the nuclear weapon states\u2026it is distressingly evident that for many people, nuclear weapons retain an aura of utility, of primacy, and of legitimacy that justifies their existence well into the future\u2026(Nuclear weapons) corrode our sense of humanity, numb our capacity for moral outrage, and make thinkable, the unthinkable\u2026our present day policies and plans and postures governing nuclear weapons make us prisoners still to an age of intolerable danger.\u00a0 We cannot at once keep sacred the miracle of existence and hold sacrosanct the capacity to destroy it\u2026we cannot sit in silent acquiescence to the faded homilies of the nuclear priesthood.\u00a0 It is time to reassert the primacy of individual conscience, the voice of reason, and the rightful interests of humanity.\u201d\u00a0 (Source:\u00a0 General George Lee Butler.\u00a0 \u201cThe Risks of Deterrence:\u00a0 From Superpowers to Rogue Leaders.\u201d\u00a0 National Press Club, February 2, 1998.\u00a0 http:\/\/www.brookings.edu\/about\/projects\/archive\/nucweapons\/deter<\/a>\u00a0 accessed January 12, 2016.)<\/p>\n

February 5, 1958<\/strong> \u2013 A B-47 bomber jettisoned a 7,600 pound Mark-15 hydrogen bomb into a Savannah River swamp off Tybee Island, Georgia after colliding with an F-86 fighter jet.\u00a0 The weapon, which contained 400 pounds of conventional high explosives and highly enriched uranium, was never recovered despite an extensive two month-long search by U.S. Navy personnel.\u00a0 Comments:\u00a0 There have been hundreds, if not more, of Broken Arrow nuclear accidents involving all of the nuclear weapon states \u2013 many of which still remain partially or completely classified and hidden from public scrutiny.\u00a0 If global nuclear arsenals are not dramatically reduced and eliminated as soon as possible, an accident, unintended, or unauthorized (perhaps terrorist-caused) nuclear detonation will likely trigger a nuclear Armageddon.\u00a0 (Sources: \u201cBroken Arrows:\u00a0 Nuclear Weapons Accidents.\u201d\u00a0 http:\/\/www.atomicarchive.com\/Almanac\/Brokenarrows_static.shtml<\/a><\/p>\n

and National Public Radio.\u00a0 \u201cFor 50 Years, Nuclear Bomb Lost in Watery Grave.\u201d\u00a0 August 16, 2010.\u00a0 http:\/\/www.npr.org\/templates\/story\/story.php?storyId=18587608<\/a> both accessed January 12, 2016.)<\/p>\n

February 11, 1971<\/strong> \u2013 The Seabed Arms Control Treaty was opened for signature in Washington, London, and Moscow and on May 18, 1972, the U.S., U.K., and the Soviet Union deposited their instruments of ratification causing the treaty to be entered into force.\u00a0 Article I of the treaty prohibited, \u201cplacing any nuclear weapons or other types of weapons of mass destruction as well as structures, launching installations, or any other facilities specifically designed for storing, testing, or using such weapons on the seabed or on the ocean floor beyond a 12-mile coastal zone.\u201d\u00a0 Comments:\u00a0 While other treaties like the 1963 Limited Test Ban Treaty, 1967 Outer Space Treaty, nuclear-free-zone agreements, and other bilateral U.S.-Russian and multilateral accords have reigned in the nuclear threat, much more needs to be accomplished to reduce and eventually eliminate the frightening probability of a nuclear apocalypse.\u00a0 U.S. ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), an international fissile materials production prohibition, a U.S-Russian-Chinese or larger multilateral agreement to de-alert land- and sea-based nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles, and a Global Zero Treaty should be at the top of the agenda in the first term of the 45th<\/sup> president of the United States.\u00a0 (Source:\u00a0 Jack Mendelsohn and David Grahme, editors.\u00a0 \u201cArms Control Chronology.\u201d\u00a0 Washington, DC:\u00a0 Center for Defense Information, 2002, p. 63.)<\/p>\n

February 13, 1960<\/strong> \u2013 France exploded the first of 210 nuclear devices at a test site in the Sahara Desert in Algeria.\u00a0 The test, code-named Gerboise Bleue<\/em>, had a yield of 60-70 kilotons.\u00a0 The last nuclear test explosion by the French occurred on November 26, 1991.\u00a0 Thankfully, France signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) on September 24, 1996 and ratified the CTBT on April 6, 1998.\u00a0 Comments:\u00a0 More than 2,050 nuclear tests were conducted by the nine nuclear weapon states over the last 70 years causing increased cancer rates, groundwater and ocean contamination, and other detrimental health and environmental impacts that still plague global populations.\u00a0 (Source:\u00a0 Jack Mendelsohn and David Grahme, editors.\u00a0 \u201cArms Control Chronology.\u201d\u00a0 Washington, DC:\u00a0 Center for Defense Information, 2002, pp. 9, 24.)<\/p>\n

February 17, 1992<\/strong> \u2013 The U.S., Russia, and Germany agreed to establish an International Science and Technology Center (ISTC) in Moscow to aid Russia and the former Soviet bloc nuclear scientists and engineers providing them with \u201copportunities to redirect their talents to nonmilitary endeavors [and to] minimize any incentives to engage in activities that would result in the proliferation of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons and missile delivery systems.\u201d\u00a0 A similar center was set up a few years later in Kiev, Ukraine.\u00a0 However, in January 2015, as a result of tensions relating to the Crimea-Ukraine Crisis and a rejuvenated Cold War, Russian Federation representatives informed their U.S. counterparts that Russia would no longer accept U.S. assistance to continue funding the centers.\u00a0\u00a0 Comments:\u00a0 It is unfortunate that similar centers have not been established globally, especially in the U.S., China, and in the other nuclear weapons states.\u00a0 Such centers could redirect 90 percent of conventional and nuclear weaponry research and development into peaceful, civilian areas of investment such as medical cures for cancer, AIDs, and other diseases; improving nonlethal incapacitating weaponry for use by community police forces and military units; dismantling, remediating, and cleaning up civilian and military nuclear plants and storage sites worldwide; developing new economically viable, environmentally safe renewable energy technologies including improved wind, solar, geothermal, and other sources; providing clean water and improved agricultural yields to Third World populations; and resolving political crises and long-lived wars in conflict zones throughout the world including the Mideast, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. (Sources:\u00a0 Jack Mendelsohn and David Grahme, editors.\u00a0 \u201cArms Control Chronology.\u201d\u00a0 Washington, DC:\u00a0 Center for Defense Information, 2002, p. 3, 69 and Bryan Bender.\u00a0 \u201cRussia Ends U.S. Nuclear Security Alliance.\u201d\u00a0 The Boston Globe.\u00a0 <\/em>January 19, 2015.\u00a0 https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/new\/nation\/2015\/01\/19\/after-two-decades-russia-nuclear-security-cooperation-becomes-casualty-deteriorating-relations\/5nh8NbtjitUE8UqVWFlooL\/story.html<\/a>\u00a0 accessed January 12, 2016.)<\/p>\n

February 19, 2003<\/strong> \u2013 Long-time nuclear abolitionist and antiwar advocate retired Rear Admiral Eugene \u201cGene\u201d J. Carroll, Jr. passed away on this date at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.\u00a0 A naval aviator and veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars, who served in the U.S. Navy for 35 years before retiring in 1980, spent the rest of his career as a senior staffer, vice president, and director of the nonprofit, nonpartisan organization and independent monitor of the Pentagon \u2013 the Center for Defense Information in Washington, D.C.\u00a0 Admiral Carroll was one of 62 generals and admirals from 17 nations to sign a public statement calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons in 1996.\u00a0 The former Assistant Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Plans, Policies, and Operations, who earned a master\u2019s degree in international relations from George Washington University, was an excellent orator, published author of op-eds, letters-to-the-editor, and book chapters, and served as the host of CDI\u2019s award-winning \u201cAmerica\u2019s Defense Monitor\u201d PBS weekly documentary television series.\u00a0 In an article, \u201cNuclear Weapons and Deterrence\u201d in Gwyn Prins\u2019 (editor) \u201cThe Nuclear Crisis Reader\u201d (New York:\u00a0 Vintage Books, 1984), Admiral Carroll wrote, \u201cNuclear deterrence based upon the development of nuclear war-fighting forces is a failed doctrine.\u00a0 There is no safety, no survival, if both sides continue to build and deploy war-fighting forces designed to prevail in nuclear conflict.\u00a0 Safety lies ultimately in changing our way of thinking about the role of military power in the nuclear age.\u00a0 Armed with new insights, rather than new weapons, we then may be able to reduce or eliminate the basic causes of conflict in a vulnerable, interdependent world.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Three decades later in 2002, the Admiral\u2019s support for the global abolition of these doomsday weapons was as strong as ever, \u201cFar from being the benign artifacts of the Cold War, tens of thousands of thermonuclear weapons remain a clear and present danger to human survival.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the United States continues to invest billions of dollars each year to maintain and enhance the world\u2019s preeminent nuclear arsenal in the mistaken belief that it adds to our national security.\u201d\u00a0 (Sources:\u00a0 Douglas Martin.\u00a0 \u201cE.J. Carroll, 79, Antinuclear Admiral, Dies.\u201d\u00a0 New York Times<\/em>.\u00a0 March 3, 2003.\u00a0 http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2003\/03\/03\/us\/ej-carroll-79-antinuclear-admiral-dies-html<\/a> and Bruce G. Blair.\u00a0 \u201cNuclear Recollections.\u201d\u00a0 The Defense Monitor<\/em>.\u00a0 Vol. 32, No. 2, April\/May 2003.\u00a0 http:\/\/www.globalzero.org\/files\/bb_nuclear-recollections_may_2003.pdf<\/a>\u00a0 both accessed on January 12, 2016.)<\/p>\n

February 28, 2015<\/strong> \u2013 The Helen Caldicott Foundation for a Nuclear Free Future held a two-day symposium at the New York Academy of Medicine beginning on this date.\u00a0 The symposium addressed one of the most if not the most important issue facing the human species \u2013 \u201cThe Dynamics of Possible Nuclear Extinction.\u201d\u00a0 A distinguished panel of international experts in the fields of disarmament, political science, existential risk, artificial intelligence, anthropology, medicine, nuclear weapons, nuclear winter, and related subjects addressed a fascinating agenda that included: \u201cWhat are the human and technological factors that could precipitate nuclear war between Russia and the U.S., how many times have we come close to nuclear war and how long will our luck hold?\u201d\u00a0 Other seminal topics of the presentations were:\u00a0 \u201cWhat are the medical and environmental consequences of either a small or large scale nuclear war?\u201d and \u201cWhat is the pathology within the present political situation that could lead us to extinction and how can this nuclear pathology be cured?\u201d\u00a0 Comments:\u00a0 Several of the speakers mentioned the unbelievably difficult barriers that humanity faces in achieving a permanent global paradigm shift away from not only nuclear deterrence and sustained high levels of nuclear forces but also from the perceived and sustained need for continuing interstate wars, civil conflicts, or military actions against nonstate actors (Global War on Terrorism, etc).\u00a0 Entrenched interests in the military-industrial-Congressional-weapons laboratories complex are adamantly inflexible and not only unwilling to change but certain their worldview has \u201cwon the Cold War\u201d and \u201ckept America safe in the post-Cold War world and the foreseeable future\u201d and that any opposing views (nuclear abolition) are either hopelessly na\u00efve or worse, unpatriotic, overly idealistic, and completely antithetical to the future survival of our nation, our allies, and Western civilization.\u00a0 Therefore, it will take sustained, long-term committed political work at the grassroots level and in every other arena of human activity (in the fields of economics, philosophy, science, ethics, medicine, popular culture, art, and entertainment) to convince significant actors as well as the mass of humanity to make these seismic shifts before<\/em> the unthinkable happens \u2013 a nuclear omnicide.\u00a0 (Sources:\u00a0 Helen Caldicott Nuclear Symposium, Feb. 28-March 1, 2015. http:\/\/nuclearfreeplanet.org\/symposium-the-dynamics-of-possible-nuclear-extinction-l-february-28-march-1-2015-at-the-new-york-academy-of-medicine.html<\/a> and \u201cHelen Caldicott Symposium:\u00a0 Possible Nuclear Extinction.\u201d https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CVud0p4aGRo<\/a> both accessed January 12, 2016.)<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 wagingpeace.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

February 1, 1958 \u2013 As part of the U.S. strategy of massive (nuclear) retaliation, the UK agreed to station 60 nuclear-armed Thor intermediate-range ballistic missiles at four U.K. military bases. Royal Air Force personnel staffed the bases, but all the nuclear weapons that were provided remained in full U.S. ownership, custody, and control. These same missiles were put on high-alert status during the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[148],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69393\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}