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Confronting the Bomb: A Short History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement (Stanford Nuclear Age Series)

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Since 1983, I have read several thousand books on "the peace issue." I was also permitted to teach a seminar on "Law and World Peace." I have founded or co-founded several peace groups (Montana Lawyers for Peace; Jeannette Rankin Peace Center; and Global Constitution Forums). Wittner's new synopsis of his earlier 3-volume work is the BEST of the books I have read. You would not think that a mere "history," however good (and it is fabulous), could possibly convey so much substantive information re various doctrines and strategies, but it does. Most of all, what this book does is provide a "roadmap for social change," it gives both academics and activists and just ordinary citizens multiple clues as to "what to do." So, for those seeking this kind of strategic insight, this is the book.

In Confronting the Bomb, historian Lawrence S. Wittner provides an abridgement of his massive, award-winning Struggle against the Bomb: A History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement trilogy (1993-2003). Based on the records of disarmament organizations, previously secret government documents, interviews with antinuclear activists and government officials, peace movement periodicals, and memoirs, Struggle examines both top down government policies and bottom up citizen activism. It chronicles scores of antinuclear organizations and individuals over six decades of global antinuclear activism. This well-written, persuasively-argued book is a pleasure to read--and it will appeal to general readers and experts alike.

Wittner opens with a central question: "How should we account for the fact that, since 1945, the world had avoided nuclear war?" Furthermore, why have nuclear nations adopted nuclear arms control and disarmament measures? He rejects the conventional interpretation that holds that nuclear weapons have "deterred" nations from waging war. Instead, he argues that a mass nuclear disarmament movement has mobilized millions of people worldwide and has pressured governments to adopt nuclear disarmament agreements. In short, Wittner contends that the antinuclear movement--not "peace through strength"--has saved the world from nuclear Armageddon.

In addition, Wittner challenges U.S. Cold War "triumphalism"--the notion that American

political will and military might, in particular Reagan's enormous arms buildup and military spending, precipitated the Soviet collapse and enabled the United States to win the Cold War. Instead, he credits Gorbachev, along with the antinuclear movement that influenced him, for taking the steps that ended the Cold War. Moreover, he contends that Reagan's military buildup actually encouraged--not discouraged--Soviet militarism. That said, he also notes Reagan's contributions to the 1987 INF Treaty banning intermediate-range nuclear weapons.

Wittner argues that the nuclear disarmament movement--"the largest grassroots struggle in the modern world"--was divided into competing non-aligned and communist-led wings. Aligned with Soviet foreign policy, the communist-led wing, organized around the World Peace Council, had little credibility outside the communist bloc. Conversely, the nonaligned wing, which included pacifists, atomic scientists, world federalists, ordinary citizens, and local, national, and transnational organizations, had a greater impact.

According to Wittner, the movement followed recurring cycles of activism and retreat. When the nuclear menace has been most dangerous, the movement has grown into a more powerful force, curbing the nuclear arms race and deterring nuclear war. When the nuclear threat has subsided, the movement has declined and national security officials have renewed their nuclear plans. Most government officials, he contends, adopted nuclear arms control and disarmament reluctantly--and only in response to popular pressure and resistance. Thus, in Wittner's account, the global antinuclear movement has been the primary agent in nuclear disarmament.

Wittner explains the movement's various victories, from 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty (the world's first nuclear arms treaty) to the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (the last major nuclear arms treaty). By the mid-1990s, however, the movement confronted new challenges. George W. Bush abandoned nuclear restraints, Britain and France considered new nuclear weapons, India and Pakistan became nuclear powers, Iran and pre-2003 Iraq sought to develop nuclear weapons, and North Korea tested long-range ballistic missiles.

In a thoughtful conclusion, Wittner turns to the political implications of his scholarly work. Like many of the antinuclear activists that he has studied, he advocates nuclear abolition and the transformation of the international system. He attributes the continued existence of nuclear weapons to "the pathology of the nation-state system" that relies on the "national security" paradigm and seeks peace through military strength. This traditional approach, Wittner warns, will eventually lead to nuclear war and human destruction. To avoid nuclear Armageddon, Wittner calls for short term and long term goals. In the short term, we must pursue nuclear arms control and disarmament--and the abolition of nuclear weapons. In the long term, we must transform both the nation-state system and international security system by transferring some power from the national to the international level. These goals could be achieved, he asserts, through citizens' movements on the grassroots level and a strengthened United Nations on the global level.

Despite the book's optimistic tone, Wittner closes on an unsettling note. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has reset its doomsday clock at 5 minutes to midnight--2 minutes closer to humanity's catastrophic destruction than at the clock's inception in 1947. This ticking clock imbues Wittner's proscriptions with added urgency, instills the world nuclear disarmament movement with continued relevance, and makes this book essential reading.

In Confronting the Bomb: A Short History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement, Lawrence Wittner tells the captivating story of the transnational nuclear disarmament movement. An abbreviated version of his award winning trilogy, The Struggle Against the Bomb, this book is based on substantial research into previously top secret government documents, the files of disarmament and peace organizations, and many interviews with government officials and nuclear disarmament group leaders. Through the viewpoints of key international actors, Confronting the Bomb provides rare insights into the power of transnational movements to shift government policy, and the successes and failures of the international disarmament movement.

Wittner begins this historical journey with the creation and first use of nuclear technology as a weapon, thereby setting the stage to chronicle both government and public attitudes about the atomic bomb, and to demonstrate how the transnational disarmament movement developed as a direct response to those attitudes. From the bomb's inception, there was a burgeoning activist movement. In the first section, a vivid account details the early misgivings of the scientific community. Members of the Manhattan Project expressly warned the U.S. government of the dangers of nuclear technology and its use as a weapon. As the forefathers of the disarmament movement, nuclear scientists made early attempts to establish international controls on nuclear weapons and to prevent proliferation. Yet such cautions and attempts were strongly suppressed by government officials who only saw the power behind the bomb. One of the strengths of this book is that Wittner shows several sides of the story--the scientific community, the government, and the public--to provide an accurate account of what transpired, which precipitated the development of a strong activist movement.

From this starting point, Wittner extends his analysis of the development of citizen activism within the context of international sentiments following WWII. Rather than focus solely on the birth of the disarmament movement as an isolated event, Wittner demonstrates how the political attitudes and social movements of the time, including peace activists and supporters of world government, intertwined to take up the mantle of nuclear disarmament to create a transnational movement. A key point to take note of is how quickly the disarmament movement drew public support, especially considering early public support of nuclear weapons, particularly in the U.S. Implicit in this book is that part of the success of the disarmament movement in changing public policy is the ability to mobilize both quickly and to a large degree. Wittner observes that the true strength of the movement involved millions of people, but at times, it dwindled to only several thousand activists.

The remainder of the book chronicles the ebb and flow of the disarmament movement and the response of various governments, particularly in the U.S., Europe, and the Soviet Union. However, there are two points worth noting here. First, while discussing the disarmament movements that were popping up all over the world, Wittner also explores the disarmament movement within the Cold War context and illustrates how even peace movements were riddled with propaganda. Wittner does an excellent job of detailing how both the U.S. and Soviet Union utilized peace and disarmament movements as a tool to fight Communism and Western Imperialism, respectively. What is noteworthy about this aspect of the movement is how it affected both the movement itself and government policy. For the activists, such government manipulation may have actually given impetus to the movement. As noted by Wittner, every time a rally was shut down or activists were suppressed or deported, they became even more motivated. On the government policy side, while officially the nuclear posture became more entrenched, Wittner argues that the opposite was true; as the movement spread, governments were unable to use nuclear weapons because of the public outcry, so in essence, policy changed.

This point segues nicely to the second point, which is Wittner's account of the success of the disarmament movement and the true thesis of this book--how ordinary citizen activists were able to change the course of history. Throughout the historical timeline, Wittner makes a point of showcasing the divide between government and public opinion, but he argues that activism tempered government policy. Every positive step on the road to disarmament--the establishment of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) and other international controls, the fact that nuclear weapons have never been used since the first atomic bomb, and disarmament treaties between the U.S. and Soviet Union--can be attributed to the international criticism of nuclear weapons. Wittner provides strong evidence for his argument through interviews with government officials who admit that public sentiment has influenced government policy. For example, during President Reagan's tenure, the administration planned for a strong nuclear posture, but transnational movements became so strong and so publicized that many U.S. allies refused to have nuclear weapons in their states. Eventually the Reagan administration was forced to reverse its course.

Confronting the Bomb makes a strong case for citizen activism and provides robust evidence as to the power of transnational movements in establishing international norms. This book provides an excellent and detailed account of both the history of the bomb and its place in government policy, and the activist movements that may have prevented nuclear weapons from destroying the world.

Bruce A. Roth, Executive Director

Daisy Alliance

Author of "No Time To Kill"

When first eyeballing the cover of "Confronting the Bomb," emailed to me by Amazon.Com, it looked so much like the cover of one of my books, "Nuclear Insights: The Cold War Legacy," Volume 1: "Nuclear Weaponry (An Insider History)."

Then I saw that the author was professor Lawrence S. Wittner, who has closely chronicled the nuclear peace and disarmament movement, with which I was not only involved -- but also professionally engaged as a scientist.

In reading Wittner's new book, I see another parallel: He condensed three massive volumes into one; whereas I abridged two large volumes ("Nuclear Shadowboxing: Contemporary Threats from Cold War Weaponry") into a monograph of three volumes, each more manageable and readable.

There the similarities fade, as his is a professional historian/biographer's account of public and official reaction to the anti-nuclear-war movement -- not an analysis at the working/technical/participant level. He supplies biographies of notable figures and fascinating stories about individuals.

His book is not the place to look for an explanation of the underlying nuclear dynamics. Thus, "Confronting the Bomb" and "Nuclear Insights" complement each other, the first adding depth to the leaders and personalities, the latter adding essential first-hand understanding of the events and technologies.

As far as Wittner's book goes, "Confronting the Bomb" is invaluable for a consummate understanding of nuclear history. I came aboard the scientists' bandwagon as a latecomer, following what he calls the 1954-1958 peace-movement renaissance.

One analytical shortcoming of Wittner's treatment is that he overlooks a serious mistake made by the peace movement: It allowed itself to be drawn into a diversionary tactic of dissing peaceful nuclear power. As history has shown, civilian nuclear power did not beget weapons (just the opposite), and weapons materials can best be eliminated in nuclear-power plants (necessarily and sufficiently). The internal conflict of well-intentioned individuals in the anti-war movement did much to turn off competent support for nuclear-weapons reductions.

In any event, we now join together in expressing like-minded concerns about the "Bomb" and its persistent threat. Wittner's book is derived from an detailed analysis of the peace movement, while I devote space to specifying the technical and procedural means by which weapons-grade materials can actually be defused and converted into peaceful uses.