Key Information
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- [1985]-1989 (Creation)
- [1979] (Creation)
- 1961-1968 (Creation)
- 1948 (Creation)
Level of description
Collection
Extent
19 boxes and 12 VHS (Vertical Helix Scan) videotapes (0.19 cubic metres)
Scope and content
The Nuclear Age archive consists of typescript transmission scripts, interview transcripts and videotapes concerning the development of nuclear technology and strategy from 1938 to 1989. It includes twelve typescript transmission scripts and VHS (Vertical Helix Scan) videotapes for episodes 1-12, Jan-Mar 1989, and 267 typescript transcripts of interviews with 195 individuals, prominent in the political, diplomatic, scientific and military aspects of the development and deployment of nuclear technology, from the USA, USSR, UK, Federal Republic of Germany, Israel, Japan, India, Pakistan and the People's Republic of China, 1938-1989, notably including Professor Georgiy Arkadevich Arbatov, Soviet Academy of Sciences, 1974-[1989]; Professor Hans Albrecht Bethe, Professor of Theoretical Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA, 1937-1975; Dr Norris Edwin Bradbury, Director, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, New Mexico, USA, 1945-1970; Dr Harold Brown, Director, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, University of California, Livermore, California, USA, 1960-1961; Zbigniew (Kasimierz) Brzezinski, US National Security Advisor, 1977-1981; James Earl 'Jimmy' Carter, US President, 1977-1981; Rt Hon Denis Winston Healey, Secretary of State for Defence, 1964-1970; Rt Hon Michael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Secretary of State for Defence, 1983-1986; Dr Henry (Alfred) Kissinger, US Secretary of State, 1973-1977; Andrei Afanasevich Kokoshin, First Deputy Minister of Defence, Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic (RSFSR), 1992-1997; Robert Strange McNamara, US Secretary of Defense, 1961-1968; Professor Philip Morrison, Physicist, Metallurgy Laboratory, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA, 1943-1944; Paul Henry Nitze, Head of the US INF (Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces) negotiations, 1981-1984; Rt Hon Sir John (William Frederic) Nott, Secretary of State for Defence, 1981-1983; Professor Sir Rudolf (Ernst) Peierls, Professor of Mathematics and Physics, University of Bern, Switzerland, 1937-1963; Professor Isidor Isaac Rabi, Professor of Physics, Columbia University, New York, USA, 1937-1967; Lt Gen Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli Prime Minister, 1974-1977; Professor Joseph Rotblat, Director of Research in Nuclear Physics, University of Liverpool, 1945-1949; (David) Dean Rusk, US Secretary of State, 1961-1969; James Rodney Schlesinger, US Secretary of Defense, 1973-1975; Helmut (Heinrich Waldemar) Schmidt, Chancellor, Federal Republic of Germany, 1974-1982; Professor Edward Teller, Director, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, University of California, USA, 1960-1975; Cyrus Roberts Vance, US Secretary of State, 1977-1980; Professor Evgeny Pavlovich Velikhov, Soviet Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy, 1961-1984, and Professor of Nuclear Physics, Moscow State University, 1973-1986; Caspar Willard Weinberger, US Secretary of Defense, 1981-1987; Professor Victor Frederick Weisskopf, Professor of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, 1946-1960; Professor Freiherr Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, Head of Department, Max Planck Institute for Physics, Göttingen, Federal Republic of Germany, 1946-1957; Rt Hon George Kenneth Hotson Younger, Secretary of State for Defence, 1986-1989; Solly Zuckerman, Baron Zuckerman of Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, Chief Science Adviser to the Secretary of State for Defence, 1960-1966, and Chief Science Adviser to HM Government, 1964-1971.
System of arrangement
The collection is arranged in sections as outlined above, with the interview transcripts arranged in alphabetical order by country of residence.
General Information
Name of creator
Biographical history
Repository
Custodial history
Presented to the Centre by Central Independent Television in four accessions, Apr 1989-Mar 1991.
Conditions governing access
Open, subject to signature of Reader's undertaking form, and appropriate provision of two forms of identification, to include one photographic ID.
Conditions governing reproduction
Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied from open material for research purposes only.
Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, via the Archives.
Language of material
- English
- French
- German
- Russian
Script of material
Language and script notes
Mostly English, but with some French, Russian and German.
Finding aids
This collection level description and detailed catalogue.
Existence and location of originals
Please note: We require 7 days notice to retrieve this collection as part, or all of it, is held off-campus. Read more ›
Existence and location of copies
See GBH Archives Open Vault: War and Peace in the Nuclear Age for online episodes and interview transcripts.
Note
The Nuclear Age series was broadcast in the USA with the title 'War and Peace in the Nuclear Age'.
WGBH became GBH in 2020.
Alternative identifier(s)
Subjects
- Arms control
- Arms race
- Collectivism
- Communism
- Defence
- Disarmament
- East West relations
- Glasnost
- Government
- Government policy
- Internal politics
- International relations
- International security
- Nuclear physics
- Peace
- Physics
- Political conflicts
- Political crises
- Political doctrines
- Political leadership
- Political science
- Politicians
- Politics
- State security
People and Organisations
- Arbatov, Georgiy Arkadevich, fl 1974-1889, Soviet Academy of Sciences (Subject)
- Bethe, Hans Albrecht, fl 1937-1975, Professor of Theoretical Physics, Cornell University (Subject)
- Bradbury, Norris Edwin, fl 1945-1970, Director, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (Subject)
- Brown, Harold, fl 1960-1961, Director, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Subject)
- Brzezinski, Zbigniew Kasimierz, b 1928, US public official (Subject)
- Carter, James Earl, b 1924, US President (Subject)
- Healey, Denis Winston, 1917-2015, Baron Healey of Riddlesden, politician (Subject)
- Heseltine, Michael Ray Dibdin, b 1933, Baron Heseltine, politician (Subject)
- Kissinger, Henry Alfred, b 1923, US Secretary of State (Subject)
- Kokoshin, Andrei Afanasevich, fl 1992-2004, First Deputy Minister of Defence, Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic (Subject)
- McNamara, Robert Strange, b 1916, US Secretary of Defense (Subject)
- Morrison, Philip, fl 1943-1944, physicist (Subject)
- Nitze, Paul Henry, b 1907, US defence official (Subject)
- Nott, Sir John William Frederick, b 1932, politician (Subject)
- Peierls, Rudolph Ernst, 1907-1995, physicist (Subject)
- Rabi, Isidor, 1898-1988, physicist (Subject)
- Rabin, Yitzhak, 1922-1995, Israeli statesman (Subject)
- Rotblat, Joseph, b 1908, physicist (Subject)
- Rusk, David Dean, 1909-1994, US Secretary of State (Subject)
- Schlesinger, James Rodney, b 1929, US Secretary of Defense (Subject)
- Schmidt, Helmut Heinrich Waldemar, b 1918, German statesman (Subject)
- Teller, Edward, 1908-2003, physicist (Subject)
- Vance, Cyrus Roberts, 1917-2002, US Secretary of State (Subject)
- Velikhov, Evgeny Pavlovich, fl 1961-1986, physicist (Subject)
- Weinberger, Caspar Willard, b 1917, US Secretary of Defense (Subject)
- Weisskopf, Victor Frederick, fl 1946-1960, physicist (Subject)
- Weizsäcker, Carl Friedrich von, b 1912, physicist (Subject)
- Younger, George Kenneth Hotson, 1931-2003, 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie, politician (Subject)
- Zuckerman, Solly, 1904-1993, Baron Zuckerman, scientist (Subject)
- Central Independent Television (Subject)
- WGBH Boston (Subject)
Genre access points
Rules and/or conventions used
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000.
Script(s)
Archivist's note
Sources: Who's Who, Who's Who in America, The International Who's Who, Who's Who in Russia since 1900 by Martin McCauley (Routledge, London, 1997), The Soviet Union: a biographical dictionary edited by Archie Brown (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1990). Compiled by Iain Mutch.