Nuclear weapons

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Nuclear weapons

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Nuclear weapons

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Nuclear weapons

9 Archival description results for Nuclear weapons

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US NUCLEAR HISTORY: nuclear arms and politics in the missile age, 1955-1968

  • MFF16
  • Collection
  • 1950-1985

The US Nuclear History: Nuclear Arms and Politics in the Missile Age, 1955-1968 microfilm collection presents an integrated record of US decision making relating to the development, production, and deployment of nuclear weapons, 1955-1968. Documents are generated from a number of sources including the US Department of State, US Department of Defense, US Air Force, US Joint Chiefs of Staff, US Strategic Air Command, the Executive Office of the President, US National Security Council, and Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. Material relating to early US policy planning and decisions on thermonuclear weapons includes relevance studies by the RAND Corporation, a US non-partisan government policy guidance institution, 1952; memoranda from the Office of the White House relating to nuclear weapons stockpiles and projections, 1959; and, memoranda from the US Department of State and the Atomic Energy Commission relating to underground and atmospheric nuclear testing, 1959-62. Papers relating to nuclear weapons development, acquisition and testing include memoranda from Gen Curtis E LeMay, Commander-in-Chief, US Strategic Air Command, relating to increased budgetary needs for the proposed nuclear build-up, Jan 1956; memorandum from Gen Andrew Jackson Goodpaster, Defense Liaison Officer and Staff Secretary to the President, relating to the concept of 'massive retaliation' in the event of a Soviet first-strike, May 1956; memorandum from the US Joint Chiefs of Staff relating to emergency war plans, nuclear strategy, and preventive war, Sep 1956; memorandum from the Gen Lyman L Lemnitzer, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff, relating to US doctrine on thermonuclear attack, Apr 1961; memorandum from the US Department of Defense to President John Fitzgerald Kennedy relating to scenarios for US and Soviet first-strikes, Oct 1961; memorandum from Secretary of Defense Robert Strange McNamara to the Office of the Secretary, US Army, relating to nuclear damage limitation and 'assured destruction'. Papers relating to nuclear strategy and planning include memoranda concerning the applicability of Soviet cities as targets of US nuclear attack; the US Strategic Air Command Basic War Plan, [Feb 1960]; papers relating to target co-ordination and planning for a functional Single Integrated Operational Plan (SIOP), 1960-1961; papers on 'war-gaming', net evaluation exercises of US capabilites in the event of a general nuclear war with the Soviet Union, including memoranda from Robert R Bowie, Director of US State Department Policy Planning Staff, concerning Soviet capabilities to inflict direct damage on the US, 1953-1967. Material relating to air, land and sea nuclear delivery systems, missile deployments, alert programs, and defence appropriations include memoranda from Goodpaster concerning Eisenhower's endorsement plans for missile program acceleration and for upgrading US Strategic Air Command capabilities, 1957; memoranda from the President's Science Advisory Committee relating to the construction of civil defence structures and missile deployments, 1958; report from the US Department of Defense, Weapons Systems Evaluation Group, reviewing US weapons systems and directly-related functions which constitute the strategic offensive posture of the US 1964-1967; press statements and memoranda from US Secretary of Defence McNamara relating to the doctine of 'assured destruction', defence appropriations, and weapons development, 1961-66; US National Security Briefings on strategic intelligence, Soviet capabilities for strategic attack, anti-missile and air defence, and economic trends, 1963. Papers relating to nuclear strategy, planning, weapons and delivery systems in the European theatre include reports regarding the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's strategy for nuclear war, 1954-1969; the deployment of Chrysler 'Jupiter' PGM-19 IRBMs in Western Europe; the establishment of the Douglas 'Thor' PGM-17 IRBM program in Great Britain, 1956-1963; the escalation of US-Soviet hostilies in Berlin, 1961; reports concerning British co-operation with with US Strategic Air Command; speech by US Secretary of State McNamara, in Athens, Greece, relating to US assurances to its European allies in the event of a general war, 1962. Papers relating to nuclear warning and defence include reports from the US Department of State concerning the immediate construction of a Distant Early Warning (DEW) system in Canada and Alaska, 1952-1953; reports from the President's Science Advisory Committee, including studies of civil defence measures in the event of a nuclear attack, 1957-1958; reports from the US Department of State regarding the construction of the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) in the United Kingdom, 1958; memoranda from the North American Aerospace Command (NORAD), relating to nuclear pre- emption and tactical warnings, 1958-1959; reports from the President's Science Advisory Committee's Anti-Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Panel, 1958-1959; papers from the President's Science Advisory Committee and the US Department of Defense relating to the construction and deployment of Bell Laboratory Nike-Zeus and Nike X Anti-Ballistic Missiles (ABMs) in the US, Canada, and Western Europe, 1959-1968.

US NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: minutes of meetings, first supplement

  • MF422-MF426; MF548-MF552; MF438-MF440
  • Collection
  • 1947-1956

Minutes of the Meetings of the National Security Council: First Supplement are microfilmed copies of minutes of meetings, official meeting files and supporting documentation, and detailed records relating to meeting of the National Security Council, 1947-1956. Document material relates to policies and procedures governing the National Security Council, 1947; initial directives to the Central Intelligence Agency, 1947; the US political position concerning Italy, Greece, China, and Palestine, 1947; US policy with respect to the Republic of Korea, 1948-53; conversations with the British in regard to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East, 1948; US position with respect to perceptions of Soviet-directed world communism, 1948-55; the dispatch of US B-29 bombers to Great Britain, 1948; US policy on atomic and nuclear warfare, 1948-55; possible Soviet interruptions to the Berlin air-lift, 1948; organisation under the Atlantic Pact and the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), 1949; the re- armament of the Federal Republic of West Germany, 1950; the position of the US with respect to Indochina, 1951-55; the death of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, President of the Soviet Council of Ministers and General Secretary, Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 1953; the Mutual Security Program, 1953; US objectives with respect to Indonesia, 1953; US objectives in the event of a general war with the Soviet bloc, 1954; overseas reaction to the Atomic Energy Commission, 1955; US policy towards the People's Republic of China, Formosa and the government of the Republic of China, 1955

US NATIONAL SECURITY AFFAIRS: MEMOS OF SPECIAL ASSISTANT MCGEORGE BUNDY, 1963-1966

  • MF384-MF387
  • Collection
  • 1985

Memos of the Special Assistant for National Security Affairs: McGeorge Bundy to President Johnson, 1963-1966 are microfilmed copies of declassified memoranda relating primarily to American foreign policy, 1963-1966. The papers include Bundy's comments on the Alliance for Progress; atomic energy; the Atlantic Nuclear Force; European security; relations with the People's Republic of China; foreign assistance; the Vietnam War; the International Monetary Fund; the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO); the Test Ban Treaty; and the United Nations. Reels include specific mention of the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 29 Nov 1963; meetings with former President Dwight David Eisenhower, 9 Dec 1963; visit by French President Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle; interview with First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, 5 Mar 1964; the French split with NATO; press attacks on Latin American policy, 25 Mar 1964; National Security Council meeting relating to Indochina, 15 May 1964, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reports relating to the Cuban assassination of alleged agents, 3 Jun 1964; the civil crisis in the Congo, 1964; meeting with John Kenneth Galbraith, Paul M Warburg Professor of Economics, Harvard University, 15 Jul 1964; reports from the US ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam, Maxwell Taylor, 1964; statement on the Gulf of Tonkin Decision, 15 Aug 1964; correspondence with Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie relating to economic aid to Congo, 20 Aug 1964; the escalation of the Gulf of Tonkin 'incident', 18 Sep-6 Oct 1964; United Kingdom Arms Purchase Program, 26 Oct 1964; correspondence with British Prime Minister Rt Hon (James) Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx; meeting with UN Secretary General U Thant concerning North Vietnamese aggression at the Gulf of Tonkin, 5 Aug 1964; meetings with CIA Director John McCone, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, and Secretary of State Dean Rusk; the revolt in the Dominican Republic, 1965; the Warren Commission Report, 7 Jul 1965; and the Kashmir Crisis, 1965

US JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF OFFICIAL PAPERS, 1946-1953

  • MF1-MF70
  • Collection
  • 1945-1954

Records of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, part 2: 1946-53 is a themed microfilm collection containing copies of official documents of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), 1946-1953. Documents include meeting minutes and memoranda and reports relating to strategic issues; Europe and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO); the Far East; the Middle East; the Soviet Union; and the United States. Meeting minutes include those of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1948-1954, and its committees, the US Joint Logistics Committee, 1946-1947; the US Joint Logistics Plans Committee, 1946-1947; the US Joint Staff Planners, 1946-1947; and the US Joint Strategic Plans Committee, 1947-1953. Documents relating to strategic issues include Joint Chiefs of Staff meeting memoranda and official reports concerning the effect of the atomic bomb on warfare and military organisation; scientific representation from British Admiralty and Air Ministry at the atomic bomb trials, 1945; projected Soviet atomic capabilities; armed forces participation in proof-testing operations for atomic weapons; the control and direction of strategic atomic operations; requirements for the stockpile of atomic weapons in North America and Western Europe; atomic requirements from NATO member states; US psychological and unconventional warfare; US industrial mobilisation planning; US Joint Chiefs of Staff plans for global demarcation into areas of strategic control; and post-war US military requirements, 1945-1954. Documents relating to Europe and NATO include Joint Chiefs of Staff meeting minutes concerning the political stability of post-war Austria, Hungary, Finland, the Balkans, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Iceland, Italy, the Trieste Free Territory, and Spain; the establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty; NATO command arrangements; the state of the armed forces in European NATO member states; the defensive capabilities of Western Europe; the establishment of Supreme Headquarters, Allied Powers in Europe (SHAPE); and the establishment and function of the Supreme Allied Commander, Europe (SACEUR). Documents relating to the Far East include meeting minutes and memoranda concerning the demilitarisation of China, 1945; reform of the Japanese government, 1945; British and Canadian requests for information on the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1945-1948; US military assistance to the Netherlands Indies Forces, Netherland East Indies, 1946; US military assistance to the Philippines; US policy in reference to the adoption of the Japanese Constitution, 3 Nov 1946; the post-war disposition of combatant vessels of the Imperial Japanese Navy; the implications of possible Chinese Communist attack on foreign colonies in South China, 1949; the defence of Formosa, 1949-1953; the withdrawal of US occupation forces from Japan; the planning and conduct of the Korean War, 1950-1953; talks with French and British military representatives regarding the defence of Indochina, 1950; possible US military involvement in Indochina, 1950-1953; the Treaty of Peace with Japan, Aug 1951; US military assistance to Japan, 1951-1954. Documents relating to the Middle East include US Joint Chiefs of Staff reports on political and military relations with Iran, Palestine and Israel, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, 1946-1954. Documents relating to the Soviet Union include US Joint Chiefs of Staff political estimates of Soviet policy; intelligence estimates assuming war developed between the Soviet Union and the Non-Soviet Powers, 1946-1953; Soviet objectives in relation to the strength of its armed forces; Soviet capabilities in the Far East, Central and South America, and the Middle East; estimates of the scale and nature of Soviet attacks on the United Kingdom and Western Europe; plans for military aid to US allies and NATO member states. Documents relating to the United States include US Joint Chiefs of Staff memoranda and reports concerning the strategic defence of US territory; US programmes for national security; and civil defence capabilities, 1946-1953.

STONE, Brig John Southam Wycherley (1895-1983)

  • STONE
  • Collection
  • 1939-1983

Copies of papers relating to Stone's career, 1939-1982, including typescript account entitled 'Duck shooting in the upper Jordan valley, 1938-1939', a shoot organised by Maj Gen Bernard Law Montgomery, General Officer Commanding 8 Div, northern Palestine, 1939; typescript extracts from letters by Stone to his wife whilst serving in Palestine, 1938, and extracts from letters to his wife whilst serving as Chief Engineer, Berlin, Germany, 1945-1946; letter from Lt Col Desmond Harrison, Royal Engineers, dated 26 Jun 1940, relating to the campaign in France and the evacuation of the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) from Dunkirk, 26 May-Jun 1940; typescript 'Chief Engineer's diary', 16 Apr 1942-5 Nov 1945, with an account by an unknown English woman who spent the war in Germany, entitled 'Notes on Berlin in April 1945'; typescript account by Stone of the Normandy invasion and advance of 2 Army to the Netherlands, Jul-Oct 1944; typescript extracts from letters by Stone to his wife, Greece, Feb-Oct 1946, and letters from Mount Zion College, Jerusalem, Palestine, Jul 1946; typescript autobiography, 1895-1950; typescript notes on Atomic Research Centre, Aldermaston, Berkshire, 1950-1958; printed booklet in French and English entitled Keep in mind. La Batisse aux Anglais (1977) by Philippe Bauduin, with related correspondence, 1976; typescript draft obituary, 1983.

Stone, John Southam Wycherley, 1895-1983, Brigadier

MENAUL, AVM Stewart William Blacker (1915-1987)

  • MENAUL
  • Collection
  • 1950-1987

Papers collected or created by Menaul, 1950-1986, principally comprising journal articles, press cuttings, US and UK government and defence industry press releases and public relations pamphlets relating to nuclear weapons, 1962-1985, including the politics and doctrine of nuclear strategy and deterrence, Cruise, Pershing and Polaris missiles, and the research and development of nuclear delivery systems; to arms control, 1973-1985, including the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaties (SALT) 1 and 2; to ballistic missile defence, 1974-1986, including anti-satellite weapons and the High Frontier and High Frontier Europe organisations; to US, Soviet and European space programmes, 1976-1986; to land, sea and air weapons systems and warfare, 1973-1984; to defence budgets and arms procurement, the international arms industry, global strategy, collective security and NATO strategy, 1967-1986; to military technology, 1967-1986, including the comparative capabilities of Western and Soviet technology, chemical and biological warfare, electronic warfare, and the military uses of lasers and radar; to the study and history of warfare, 1970-1984, including the principles and morality of warfare and the history of the RAF; to national and international defence issues, multilateral agreements and military actions, 1969-1986; manuscript, proof, reviews and correspondence relating to Countdown: Britain's strategic nuclear forces (Hale, London, 1980), [1976-1981]; unpublished manuscripts by Menaul, 1969, [1972], [1978-1979], 1987; audiocassette recordings of radio interviews with Menaul, 1979-[1983]; copies of journals to which Menaul contributed, 1969-1985; papers relating to or generated by organisations and companies of which Menaul was a member or with which he was associated, 1966-1985, including Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies (formerly Royal United Service Institution), Centre for Policy Studies, Stanford Research Institute and Hughes Aircraft Company; correspondence and published papers relating to conferences on foreign policy and defence issues, 1970-1986; personal and business correspondence, 1956-1987, notably with Gen Sir Walter Walker, 1968-1987, Foreign Affairs Research Institute, 1976-1984, and Aims for Freedom and Enterprise, 1976-1986; personal papers, 1950-1959, 1971, 1973, [1978-1987], including newspaper cuttings relating to Menaul's RAF career, 1950-1959, notably his command of the British Atomic Trials Task Forces, Monte Bello and Maralinga, Australia, 1955-1956.

Menaul, Stewart William Blacker, 1915-1987, Air Vice Marshal

CHICHESTER, Cdr Michael Guy, RN (1917-2012)

  • CHICHESTER
  • Collection
  • 1960-1992

Publications, mostly official, relating to UK defence policy, notably, defence expenditure, and equipment procurement, 1960-1990, including ninety-seven editions of House of Commons Official Report. Parliamentary debates (Hansard) (HMSO, London, 1964-1990) and thirteen editions of House of Lords Official Report. Parliamentary debates (Hansard) (HMSO, London, 1975-1990); fifty, mainly UK and USA official printed reports, 1960-1989, including Navy estimates, 1960-1963, Statement on the Defence Estimates (HMSO, London, 1966-1973, 1975-1981, 1988-1989); reports from the House of Commons Defence Committee, 1981-1989; reports relating to specific issues, notably strategic nuclear deterrence, 1973-1982, and the Falklands conflict, 1982-1987. Newspaper cuttings, 1968-1992, mostly relating to Malta, 1968-1972; Soviet seapower in the Mediterranean, 1969-1972; International naval affairs, 1970-1971; South Africa, 1970-1971; the Iran-Iraq War, 1980-1988; the Falklands conflict, 1982; US intervention in Grenada, 1983; Soviet defence policy, 1984-1988; NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation), 1984-1990; UK, US and European defence policy, 1984-1992; the US bombing raid on Libya, 1986; the Gulf War, 1991.

Chichester, Michael Guy, 1917-2012, RN Commander

BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY DOCUMENTS, 1945-1950

  • MFF13-MFF14
  • Collection
  • 1945-1946

Documents on British Policy Overseas, Series 1, Volume 4, and, Series 2 Volume 2, are microfilmed copies of documents relating to British foreign policy, 1945-1950. Part of a larger collection encompassing British foreign policy, 1945-1955, the microfiche in this collection relate specifically to Anglo-American relations, Dec 1945- Jun 1950. This collection is in two sections. The first includes documents relating to the establishment of an Anglo- American Cold War strategy; the exchange of atomic information and technology between the US and Britain; the use of British mainland and colonial bases by US armed forces; and the allocation of American funds to Britain as part of the European Recovery Program. The second section relates specifically to Anglo-American strategic and defence conferences which took place in London, Jan-Jun 1950. Documents concern the exchange of nuclear technology between the two powers; British and American political and military support to nations wishing to prevent communist insurrection; US involvement in the Middle East; the security of British and American sectors in the Federal Republic of Germany; British and American relations with Western European nations; and the strengthening of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

ARAB-ISRAELI WAR, 1973 - AN EGYPTIAN ACCOUNT, and other documents

  • MISC18
  • Collection
  • 1957-1983

Various texts including printed report of a Royal United Services Institute seminar on defence and the mass media given by AVM Stewart William Blacker Menaul, 13 Oct 1970; official Egyptian publication, 6 October: An Arab War of Liberation (Al Muttahida Arab Co, Cairo, 1973), relating to the Arab-Israeli War, 6 Oct-22 Oct 1973; Nuclear Vulnerability Handbook by Ian Bellany (University of Lancaster, Centre for the Study of Arms Control and International Security, 1981)