The news that American tactical nuclear weapons will shortly be returning to the UK is depressing on one hand but reassuring on the other. The threat of nuclear attack has never, in my opinion, been higher than since near the end of the Second World War. For the length of the Cold War we had US tactical nuclear weapons in England and across many European countries. Who can forget, those of us over 50 at least, the protests at the RAF Greenham Common airbase where the nuclear cruise missiles were kept?
But for all the gnashing of teeth, they kept the peace and the Cold War petered out. But we are now in a probably more intense Cold War. And if we fail to protect this country from nuclear attack, everything else vexing us at the moment, like climate change and the cost of living crisis, will be simply irrelevant.
We are in this state almost solely because President Vladimir Putin is running a tyrannical regime in Russia and he illegally invaded a close ally to the West, Ukraine. As his ill-judged and poorly executed invasion faults, the nuclear rhetoric escalates.
The West – the UK and US especially – however is also very much responsible for this escalation by not sticking to the “red lines”. US President Barack Obama declared a “red line” on chemical weapons use in Syria in 2012 – any use would be met by military strikes by the US. We ignored this when Bashar al-Assad, Putin’s lapdog, killed 1,500 civilians in August 2013, which gave free rein to every dictator, despot and rogue state to do what they like without fear of sanction. And Putin fits all of these evil criteria.
Nuclear weapons kept the peace for near 70 years – “mutually assured destruction” (MAD) of the main nuclear powers have kept the red buttons masked. But evaporating red lines and the removal of US nuclear weapons in 2008 from the UK have meant the West has taken its collective feet off the deterrence – and Putin is now taking full advantage.
Almost since the beginning of Russia’s invasion into Ukraine, Putin and his gangster supporters have threatened nuclear attack to keep Nato at arm’s length and to a degree, this has worked. We have been ponderous in supplying the key weapons, tanks and F-16s which Ukraine needs to kick the Russians out.
Now the weapons are on their way to the UK. At last, Western politicians are beginning to understand the requirement that “red lines” need a bit of backbone to make them real, and strength of opposition is the only thing a bully like Putin understands.
Are we going to see demonstrations around RAF Lakenheath like we did around RAF Greenham Common by Stop the War and CND when they arrive? Probably. We all want a nuclear free world but those regularly calling for this – particularly on the far left – are appeasing Russian tyrants, rather than having them back in their nuclear box and kicked out of Ukraine.
The arrival of US tactical nuclear weapons on British soil is welcome as it should put paid to any thought in Putin’s mind that he can use a tactical nuclear weapon to save his Crimean debacle. But it is also a reflection that since the end of the Cold War we have taken our eye off the nuclear ball and Russia’s expansionist aims. Had Westminster not capitulated in punishing Assad for using chemical weapons in 2013, it is highly likely that we would not need US nuclear weapons back in Britain and also highly unlikely that Putin would have invaded Ukraine. Something for the new Defence Secretary to ponder – let’s hope he is up to it.
Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon OBE is a former commander of UK and NATO CBRN Forces