War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Interview with Edward Palmer Thompson, 1987

Item Information

Title:
War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Interview with Edward Palmer Thompson, 1987
Description:
Edward Thompson was a prominent British writer, historian and later polemicist and socialist (formerly communist) activist, who became a major force in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). He begins the interview by recalling the origins of the European peace movement in 1979, which he joined because of his conception of the "rising profile of a militarist and security state ... dominated by the United States." He describes the operational dynamics of the movement, then discusses his own sense of the fallacy of deterrence, and the defense community's engagement in "an amazing exercise in self-mystification." A significant development for the peace movement, he recalls, was the rise of what he terms a new German peace generation in 1981. He goes on to discuss the complicated question of why the movement ultimately failed to prevent deployment of the Euromissiles. Among other explanations, he sees a clear domestic political motivation on the part of conservative Western governments in hosting the missiles, i.e. to defeat the peace movement and increase their own power at home. He believes the Soviets had the same idea with respect to expanding their dominance over Eastern Europe. The movement, he acknowledges, had factions in several countries that were "pro-Soviet" but Moscow's attempts to turn the rest of the movement into "auxiliaries ... failed utterly." Taking the long view, he asserts that while the battle may have been lost over the missiles themselves, the larger contest of the Cold War and the question of European sovereignty vis-a-vis the United States have gone in a very different directions. He presciently predicts a time when the East European states will demand more space and he hopes for a major pullout from Europe of both superpowers. As for Western Europe he believes that the movement has already helped bring about an end to the "Atlanticist consensus," and he reminds that the movement's larger purpose has been to address the "unnatural division of the world" into two rival politico-military blocs. He closes with brief takes on the British government's efforts to keep tabs on the movement and on the anxiety produced by the actual deployment of missiles in 1983, followed by the Soviet walk-out at Geneva, which seemed to symbolize a return to the dark days of Cold War confrontation.
Author:
Thompson, E. P. (Edward Palmer), 1924-1993
Date:
October 15, 1987
Format:
Film/Video
Location:
WGBH
Collection (local):
American Archive of Public Broadcasting Collection
Series:
WGBH > War and Peace in the Nuclear Age
Subjects:
Reagan, Ronald
Cruise missiles
Gorbachev, Mikhail
Chernenko, K. U. (Konstantin Ustinovich), 1911-1985
Perle, Richard Norman, 1941-
Boll, Heinrich, 1917-1985
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Summit meetings--Iceland--Reykjavik
Nuclear weapons
Nuclear Disarmament
Peace movements
Pershing (Missile)
Great Britain
Germany
United States
Soviet Union
Poland
SS-20 Missile
Dyson, Freeman J.
Andropov, Y. V. (Yuri Vladimirovich), 1914-1984
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (Organization)
Burt, Richard
Extent:
00:00:00
Link to Item:
https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-3x83j39471
Terms of Use:
Rights status not evaluated.
Contact host institution for more information.
Publisher:
WGBH Educational Foundation