Journal of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies – December 1985

In a letter published in the September edition of the RUSI Journal, Mgr Bruce Kent of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament denies that "any of the major Western peace organisations" believe – as Sir Geoffrey Howe had alleged – in the West "surrendering all its own nuclear weapons and trusting in the good intentions" of the Kremlin.

It is not as well known as it should be that the aim of the CND, according to its own Constitution, "is the unilateral abandonment by Britain of nuclear weapons, nuclear bases and nuclear alliances as a prerequisite for a British foreign policy which has the world-wide abolition of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons leading to general and complete disarmament as its prime objectives". (CND Constitution, Section A, Para. 1)

The three words I have italicised make it as clear as can be that, for the CND to accept Britain's remaining in NATO, it would have to become a "non-nuclear alliance". This would entail the abandonment of nuclear weapons by the West as a whole – which is precisely the situation described by Sir Geoffrey Howe and denied by Mgr Kent.

Dr JULIAN LEWIS
Director
Policy Research Associates