Pugwash History

2011-08-15T10:05:00.003+01:00

First Call for Papers: Workshop

Writing Pugwash Histories.
From Hiroshima and Nagasaki to Kabul and Gaza

Sponsored by: Institute for Contemporary History, University of Vienna, and Arbeitskreis Historische Friedensforschung (AKHF)
Conveners: Silke Fengler (University of Vienna), Alison Kraft (Egenis, University of Exeter), Holger Nehring (University of Sheffield, AKHF), and Carola Sachse (University of Vienna)
Keynote speaker: Matthew Evangelista (Cornell University)
In cooperation with: Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs (contact: Sandra Ionno Butcher), Vereinigung Deutscher Wissenschaftler (VDW, contact: Reiner Braun)

Dates: 10–12 May, 2012
Venue: University of Vienna
Conference language: English
Deadline for proposals (one page plus brief CV): 31 October, 2011

For nuclear physicists, chemists and technicians, the hundreds of thousands of civilian victims of the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki cast a painfully sharp light on the military and biopolitical consequences of their work during the Second World War. In the nuclear arms race between the Cold War superpowers, many nuclear scientists felt able, justified and indeed called upon to campaign against the continued development and deployment of nuclear weapons. Those scientists included some who had themselves helped to develop the atom bomb.

Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs

Among the various national and transnational groupings working against nuclear war, the Pugwash movement stands out. Even today, it evokes the July 1955 manifesto that was drafted by Bertrand Russell and co-signed by Albert Einstein just before his death. The movement took its name from the location of its first meeting, in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia in summer 1957. So far, 59 “Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs” and numerous workshops have been held in various regions of the world. From the beginning, the movement aimed to bring together eminent scientists, scholars, politicians, diplomats and government advisers across the hostile frontiers of the Cold War. The “Pugwashites” wanted to go beyond the exchange of diplomatic notes or military force, instead using the shared language of science to evaluate the risks of nuclear armament, develop solutions to regional conflicts and exert influence on national governments with the goal of promoting world peace.

The themes addressed by the Pugwash conferences have diversified to reflect the changing problems facing international politics – climate change; crises of energy, food and natural resources. Since the movement was founded its membership structure has also changed, as have the scientific disciplines and professions of its members, its objectives, methods and modes of cooperation, and its role within the debates of global politics.

Pugwash movement: History or histories

To date, the history of the Pugwash movement has been told largely through chronological accounts, memoirs and partial studies of national Pugwash groups. Writing a comprehensive history of the movement is perhaps not possible at the present time. On the one hand, the informal structure of the Pugwash movement means it is known only to a relatively small audience, and has attracted little attention from historians even since the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the movement and its secretary general, Joseph Rotblat, in 1995. On the other, although the Pugwash movement has an international presence, it is embedded in very different scientific, social and political configurations in different countries and regions. As a result, it seems neither possible nor desirable to write a single, unified narrative of the movement's peace-policy successes and global political significance.

Instead, what we need are multi-faceted histories written from a range of distinct national and regional perspectives. Only in this way will historians be able to fully understand the distinctive character of the Pugwash movement in the long term, its survival through time and across such profound political changes and its contributions to international dialogue. From its inception, Pugwash oscillated between an elitist claim to universal scientific expertise, links with transnational movements for peace and against nuclear weapons, and integration into the local political establishments. It therefore offers an outstanding opportunity to consider national and international connections between science and politics, which became increasingly complex during the second half of the twentieth century. Analysing these interrelations from a transnational perspective necessitates a large, cooperative network of historians, able to take a range of different thematic and regional approaches.

Objectives of the workshop

The wide and diverse literature on the Cold War by political historians, historians of science and historians of diplomacy has hitherto yielded only a small number of informative studies of the Pugwash movement (these include Evangelista 1999; Kubbig 2004; Butcher 2005; Braun 2007). The proposed workshop intends to form a springboard for a more broadly based engagement with the topic. Our objectives include:
- to exchange information regarding existing research and ongoing projects relating to the history of the Pugwash movement in various different countries,
- using completed, current and planned research projects as a point of entry, to discuss history of science and political history dimensions of the Pugwash movement,
- to examine methodological approaches, the state of documentation and questions around archival sources relevant to Pugwash.

Who is invited?

We invite proposals from scholars in the history of science, social and political history, and related disciplines. You should either have worked directly on the history of the Pugwash movement or addressed it in the course of other research. Proposals related to ongoing PhD or postdoctoral projects are particularly welcome.

Please submit a one-page proposal and brief CV in English to office_sachse.zeitgeschichte@univie.ac.at by 31 October, 2011. We will notify selected participants in November 2011. Papers of no more than 3,500 words must be submitted, in English, by 31 March, 2012.

Funding is still pending. We hope to be able to cover travel costs for up to ten participants (max. € 400 each).

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Carola Sachse
Institut für Zeitgeschichte
Universität Wien
Spitalgasse 2, Hof 1
A-1090 Vienna
carola.sachse@univie.ac.at

Dr. Silke Fengler
Institut für Zeitgeschichte
Universität Wien
Spitalgasse 2, Hof 1
A-1090 Vienna
silke.fengler@univie.ac.at

Dr. Alison Kraft
ESRC Centre for Genomics in Society (Egenis)
University of Exeter
Byrne House, St. Germans Road
Exeter
EX4 4PJ
alison.kraft@nottingham.ac.uk

Office:

Martina Schmied
Institut für Zeitgeschichte
Universität Wien
Spitalgasse 2, Hof 1
A-1090 Vienna
office_sachse.zeitgeschichte@univie.ac.at

Rotblat British Library Tapes Now Online

2011-05-29T09:38:00.002+01:00

The British Library has made available online nearly 20 hours of biographical interviews with Joseph Rotblat, taped in 1999. This is the closest Rotblat came to an autobiography and it is a fantastic resource for anyone interested in his life or the history of Pugwash.

There is a rough index of the interviews available here.

Nuclear Realities c. 1957

2011-02-22T14:50:00.003Z

The National Security Archive has just made available a video, "The Power of Decision," produced in 1956-57, which they say "may be the first (and perhaps the only) U.S. government film depicting the Cold War nightmare of a US-Soviet nuclear conflict."

This is the year that planning was underway for the first Pugwash Conference. I am posting this video since it gives a sense of the urgency of the times, and vividly demonstrates the nuclear dangers that were then foremost in the minds of many. (Many of these dangers still exist today, though that is a subject for another post...)

Here is a 4 minute clip from The National Security Archives You Tube Channel:

The full film is available on the National Security Archives website, here.

Rotblat as viewed by a grad student

2011-01-04T13:33:00.004Z

Maximilian Puelma Touzel, a graduate student at the Max Planck Institute, Göttingen, Germany, has published an article featuring impressions on watching Jo Rotblat's story in the Strangest Dream film by the Canadian National Film Board in the recent issue of Peace magazine. This issue of the magazine focuses on "Politics and the Nobel Peace Prize."

I am always pleased when a student becomes interested in the history of the nuclear age, and I particularly welcome the perspective Touzel takes in this piece(though I wish it had a different title). A very positive way to start the new year:

"Looking back at Rotblat’s life, how does one square the amazing anti-nuclear achievements of this single person with the apocalyptic potential of the science to which he dedicated himself? It comes down to responsibility. ... Rotblat has taught us that, if scientists desire peace, they must prepare for it."

Maximilian Puelma Touzel, "Joseph Rotblat is Dead: Who Will Save the World Now?", Peace Magazine, Jan-March 2011, p. 24.

Rotblat-a leader with a 'powerful vision'

2010-12-16T09:44:00.005Z

Pugwash founder and former President Joseph Rotblat is featured on the GiANT Impact website for global business leaders, as a leader who "finished strong" and who had a powerful vision to fulfill. So true. He worked tirelessly to the end of his days to try to create conditions for a world without nuclear weapons.

I found this site cheering on a day when the New York Times has run a story (available here) about the Obama Administration's revision to guidance on what people should do in the event of a nuclear explosion. Rotblat, when asked what one should do in the event of a nuclear explosion, famously said, "Run toward it."

Here is a photo of Prof at the 1999 Student Pugwash USA 20th anniversary international conference. In the later years of his life he prioritized speaking with student and young people.

Pugwashites Mentioned at DC Symposium on Science and Nuclear Disarmament

2010-11-10T09:46:00.002Z

I just came across this Physics Today blog post by Charles Day, in which he mentions that at a recent AAAS/Japan Society for the Promotion of Science meeting, discussion highlighted several Pugwashites (Rotblat, Konuma, Yukawa, Tomonaga, Perkovich) and the impact of scientists on nuclear disarmament. Interesting mention is made by Konuma that two early Japanese Pugwashites were among the first to say that possession of nuclear weapons by some states is intrinsically unstable and can lead to an arms race.

Russian Quest for Peace & Democracy

2010-10-16T12:06:00.004+01:00

Canadian Pugwashite Metta Spencer has published a new book, The Russian Quest for Peace, which is based on decades of research and interviews. Her website contains many photos and interview transcripts, including from Pugwashites. I will post more later when I have a chance to absorb some of this fantastic material.

Carl Djerassi describes his experiences at Pugwash Conferences

2010-09-14T17:16:00.006+01:00

I just came across an interesting video clip of chemist Carl Djerassi. It is one of 3 short videos in which he discusses his involvement in Pugwash. I like this clip in particular because it gives the flavor of participating in Pugwash Conferences. He shares his first-hand experience with dialogue across divides that is the cornerstone of Pugwash meetings.

He says he presented at the 1969 Pugwash Conference in Sochi what he considered to be one of his most important papers on birth control. Djerassi also reflects on getting tear gassed at a Pugwash meeting in Warsaw...

Click on this link here to go to the video clip.

Strangest Dream Nominated for Gemini Award

2010-09-07T17:15:00.010+01:00

UPDATE:
Pugwash congratulates Eric Bednarski and Barry Cowling,
who received the prestigious Gemini Award!! A news clip is available here.

The Strangest Dream, by the National Film Board of Canada, has been nominated for a Gemini Award, Canada's highest award for films, in the best writing for a documentary category. Congrats go to Eric Bednarski and Barry Cowling for this honor. We will keep our fingers crossed for the November decision. The Strangest Dream provides a thoughtful and creative introduction to Pugwash, and provides a wonderful overview of the life of Jo Rotblat.

The film is now available online in its entirety for for free.

You can watch it on your computer in full screen format if you click on the rectangle in the lower right for "toggle to full screen." Here are some images from the December 2008 European launch of the film at the BAFTA theatre in London. (Sandy Butcher and Director E. Bednarski; Producer Kent Martin, Pugwash President Jayantha Dhanapala, E. Bednarski, and British Pugwash Chair John Finney)

Women of the First Pugwash Conference

2010-08-06T20:15:00.004+01:00

The talk I gave at Thinkers' Lodge on the role of Ruth Adams and Anne Kinder Jones (later, Anne Eaton) at the first Pugwash Conference is now available here.

It was a real honor to highlight the contributions of these amazing women, and as always, it was a pleasure to spend time in Pugwash, with members of the Eaton family, the Pugwash Park Commission, the Pugwash Peace Exchange, and so many other wonderful people.

Asteroid Rotblat

2010-08-05T15:53:00.002+01:00

22645 Rotblat

Discovered 1998 July 26 by the Lowell Observatory Near Earth Object Search at the Anderson Mesa Station. ...

Athem Alsabti (Iraqi Pugwash) and Edward Bowell of Lowell Observatory worked together for this designation, which was granted in December 2009.

Bikini Atoll, nuclear tests site - UNESCO World Heritage Centre

2010-08-03T07:55:00.000+01:00

Bikini Atoll, nuclear tests site - UNESCO World Heritage Centre: "In the wake of World War II, in a move closely related to the beginnings of the Cold War, the United States of America decided to resume nuclear testing in the Pacific Ocean, on Bikini Atoll in the Marshall archipelago. After the displacement of the local inhabitants, 67 nuclear tests were carried out from 1946 to 1958, including the explosion of the first H-bomb (1952). Bikini Atoll has conserved direct tangible evidence that is highly significant in conveying the power of the nuclear tests, i.e. the sunken ships sent to the bottom of the lagoon by the tests in 1946 and the gigantic Bravo crater. Equivalent to 7,000 times the force of the Hiroshima bomb, the tests had major consequences on the geology and natural environment of Bikini Atoll and on the health of those who were exposed to radiation. Through its history, the atoll symbolises the dawn of the nuclear age, despite its paradoxical image of peace and of earthly paradise. This is the first site from the Marshall Islands to be inscribed on the World Heritage List."

Bikini Atoll Linked with Pugwash History

2010-08-03T07:36:00.004+01:00

On 31 July the Bikini Atoll was added to the World Heritage list. The atmospheric testing of hydrogen bombs here led to the first meeting of Bertrand Russell and Jo Rotblat at a BBC studio in April 1954. They were asked to explain the technical aspects and possible impact of the little understood technology following the 1 March Castle Bravo test, which went awry and doused a Japanese fishing vessel, the Lucky Dragon. Their meeting led directly to the Russell-Einstein manifesto of July 1955, and to the first Pugwash Conference in July 1957. Today the crater remains one of the world's symbols of the excesses of the Cold War and a reminder that there is still a long way to go to eradicate these powerful weapons

Pugwash History Featured on Blog

2010-07-26T10:25:00.002+01:00

Adele Wick has published a post about the first Pugwash Conference. Please see, "Peace and Pugwash: the 1957 Conference" by clicking here.

And stay tuned, I will soon provide a link to my recent talk on the "Women of the First Pugwash Conference" at Thinkers' Lodge.

Pugwash history to be explored at July Conference

2010-06-17T09:40:00.005+01:00

This exciting conference in Halifax Nova Scotia includes a day at the historic Thinkers' Lodge in Pugwash. It includes multiple sessions on the Pugwash history and nuclear weapons issues, in addition to other topics related to peace education and engaging young people. Director of the Pugwash History Project Sandra Ionno Butcher and several members of Canadian Pugwash are featured speakers. Pugwash history topics to be addressed include: the role of women at the first conference (featuring Ruth Adams and Anne Kinder Jones, later Anne Eaton); the imperative of dialogue in times of crisis; and insights into the bravery and perspectives of the participants at the first conference, as shared by Ru Ling Susie Chou, daughter of Chou Pei Yuan, and members of Cyrus Eaton's family. To register, go to the conference website.

Thinkers' Lodge Renovations

2010-04-21T17:20:00.004+01:00

Thinkers' Lodge, where the first Pugwash Conference took place due to the generosity of Cyrus Eaton, has been undergoing restoration.

A short story on this from CBC News is available here.

John Eaton tells me they are very pleased with the restoration so far....

The photo above is from July 2009, when the International Student/Young Pugwash board were the last group to stay at Thinkers' Lodge prior to the renovations (I was invited as a resource person). You can see the beginning hints of work on the chimneys.

Joseph Rotblat on Charlie Rose, 1996

2010-01-24T09:27:00.009Z

To see an interview with Joseph Rotblat on the Charlie Rose show in 1996, please click here.

"A discussion with Nobel Peace Prize-winning physicist Joseph Rotblat, the only scientist to leave the Manhattan Project before the A-bomb was tested. He talks about his signing of the historic Russell-Einstein Manifesto, which called for the end to all nuclear weapons and was the beginning of Rotblat's fifty year fight for total nuclear disarmament."

Russell at the 1962 Pugwash Conference - Video

2010-01-21T18:36:00.005Z

Just came across this wonderful short video from the London 1962 Pugwash Conference...

Here's what Russell said about this conference in his autobiography:

The Pugwash movement now seems to be firmly established and part of the respectable progress of scientific relations with international affairs. I myself have had little to do directly with its progress in the last years. My interest turned to new plans towards persuading peoples and Governments to banish war and in particular weapons of mass extermination, first of all nuclear weapons. In the course of these fresh endeavours, I felt that I had become rather disreputable in the eyes of the more conservative scientists. The Pugwash movement held a great meeting of scientists from all over the world in London in September 1962. I was to speak about the founding of the movement and I warned my friends that I might be hissed--as I was fully convinced that I should be. I was deeply touched by being given a standing ovation when I rose to speak which included, I was told, all the participants, all, that is, save Lord Hailsham. He was present in his capacity as the Queen's Minister of Science. He was personally, I think, friendly enough to me, but, weighed down by office, he sat tight. That was the last occasion on which I have taken public part in a Pugwash conference.(1)
(1) The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell. Vol III, 1944-1969, Simon, 1969, p. 111.

Hideki Yukawa

2009-09-03T11:33:00.002+01:00

Here is a concise and interesting bio of Prof. Hideki Yukawa, a signatory of the Russell-Einstein manifesto and a participant in subsequent Pugwash Conferences.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/hideki-yukawa-info.htm

McNamara and Pugwash--From PENNSYLVANIA to a NWFW

2009-07-08T21:40:00.008+01:00

McNamara at the 1990 Pugwash Conference, Egham, England

Robert McNamara, who died 6 July 2009 at the age of 93, will be remembered by the Pugwash movement for his efforts for peace and a nuclear weapons free world during the final decades of his life.

Pugwash: McNamara’s Last Effort for Peace in Vietnam?

His importance to the Pugwash movement began long before he himself was a “Pugwashite”. While he was still Secretary of Defense, McNamara was responsible for convincing President Johnson to allow him to take personal charge of a secret Pugwash back channel to Ho Chi Minh that sought to end the Vietnam War.

The background to this initiative (code named PENNSYLVANIA) began at a June 1967 Pugwash meeting in Paris, attended by three scientists from France, three from the US, two from the Soviet Union, and Joseph Rotblat as Secretary General, where a “formula to stop the escalation of the war” emerged. Henry Kissinger, one of the US participants, was also then a consultant to the US President. It was ultimately decided that two Frenchmen, Herbert Marcovich and Raymond Aubrac, a hero of the French Resistance, would take a message directly to Ho Chi Minh. This was possible because Ho Chi Minh was friends with Aubrac and godfather to Aubrac’s daughter. They spent four days in July in Hanoi and met with Ho Chi Minh and the Prime Minister Pham Van Dong and other officials. Upon their return, they were debriefed in Paris by Kissinger. McNamara then gave Kissinger the following instructions, which were approved by the President on 11 August 1967:

MEMORANDUM FOR DR KISSINGER

You may give your contacts the following message and ask that they deliver it to Pham Van Dong:
The United States is willing to stop the aerial and naval bombardment of North Vietnam if this will lead promptly to productive discussions between representatives of the U.S. and DRV [Democratic Republic of (North) Vietnam] looking toward a resolution of the issues between them. We would assume that, while discussions proceed either with public knowledge or secretly, the DRV would not take advantage of the bombing cessation or limitation. Any such move on their part would obviously be inconsistent with the movement toward resolution of the issues between the U.S.
and DRV which the negotiations are intended to achieve…
The U.S. is ready to have immediate private contact with the DRV to explore the above approach or any suggestions the DRV might wish to propose in the same direction. (1)

In a briefing in Paris with Chester Cooper and Henry Kissinger, the Frenchmen asked for a signal to be sent to the Vietnamese of the serious intent of the U.S. On 19 August the President agreed to suspend bombing within a 10-mile radius of Hanoi from 24 August to 4 September to ensure the safety of Aubrac and Marcovich when they were to go back to Hanoi and also to signal Kissinger’s validity as an intermediary.(2) However, something went wrong, and on 20 August there were 200 “weather backed up” sorties flown, “more than any previous day in the war” according to McNamara. He wrote, “Once again, we had failed miserably to coordinate our diplomatic and military actions.”(3) Their second visit was cancelled and while the channel stayed open through October, these negotiations in the latter half of 1967 failed. McNamara, however, credited them with laying the groundwork for the San Antonio accords, “the foundation for the start of the negotiations between North Vietnam and the U.S. in Paris.” (4)

This sentiment is backed up by Vietnamese sources in an interesting book called Argument Without End, in which senior Americans sat down with senior Vietnamese to sort through the various outstanding questions about the Vietnam tragedy. One participant, Nguyen Khac Huynh said, “PENNSYLVANIA did not fail. PENNSYLVANIA proved to us in the Foreign Ministry of the DRV—and to the leadership—that talks were about to begin. As such, it gave tremendous support and encouragement to those of us who were at that moment working on a negotiating strategy. We were very encouraged…. PENNSYLVANIA succeeded several months after it was initiated, because it provided the basis for beginning the Paris peace process. There is your answer. Our ears were not ‘deaf.’ We ‘heard’ you. And we gave you our answer after Tet.” (5)The Tet offensive planning started in March or April of 1967 (6) , and some Vietnamese believed that they would have a better negotiating position after Tet. (7)

Robert McNamara clearly had a personal stake in this initiative. One of the Frenchmen, Herbert Marcovich, wrote, “It was asserted afterwards that the dismissal of McNamara in the autumn of 1967 was linked to the failure of this enterprise…” (8)

McNamara and Pugwash Efforts for a Nuclear-Weapons-Free World

Between 1982 and 2004, McNamara participated in 24 Pugwash meetings, preferring the expert workshops compared to the larger annual international conferences. During this time, McNamara participated in Pugwash meetings in Beijing, New Delhi, Lahore, and Arzamus-16, locales which show his great interest in finding common ground on the central issues that challenge the nuclear disarmament regime. He took part in 15 of a special series of Geneva-based Pugwash workshops on nuclear forces, and two of the Pugwash workshops in the early 1990s on the “Desirability and Feasibility of a Nuclear Weapons-Free-World.” These workshops and the resulting publications were the inspiration for the Canberra Commission, of which he was a member along with then-Pugwash President Joseph Rotblat and current Pugwash President Jayantha Dhanapala. Indeed it is most likely not an exaggeration to say that much of the Pugwash work in which McNamara played a significant role laid the intellectual groundwork for today’s wider acceptance of the goal of a nuclear-weapons-free world.

McNamara was also involved with another initiative that was dear to Joseph Rotblat’s heart: the launching of the WMD Awareness Programme. McNamara came to the UK in May/June 2005 to give a lecture at the Hay Literary Festival, he was supposed to share the stage with Jo Rotblat, but Rotblat was too ill to travel. McNamara’s speech was, according to John Finney, Chair of the WMD Awareness Programme and a Pugwashite, “a stunning occasion” that “grabbed media attention for several days.” As a result of the success of this event, the annual Rotblat Lecture at Hay was instituted. McNamara also visited Jo during while in England, and the two men who had become friends saw each other for the final time.

In a book celebrating Joseph Rotblat’s 90th birthday, McNamara’s essay concluded with the following challenge to us all:

“[W]ith the end of the Cold War, if we act to establish a system of collective security, and if we take steps to return to a non-nuclear world, the twenty-first century, while certainly not a century of tranquility, need not witness the killing, by war, of another 160 (or even 300) million people. Surely that must be not only our hope, not only our dream, but our steadfast objective. I know that some—perhaps many—may consider such a statement so naïve, so simplistic, and so idealistic as to be quixotic. But as human beings, citizens with power to influence events around the world, can we be at peace with ourselves if we strive for less? I think not.” (9)

Notes
(1)Robert S. McNamara, In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam, New York: Times Books, 1995, p. 298.
(2)Ibid, p. 299.
(3)Ibid, p. 299.
(4)“A Life in Public Service: Conversation with Robert McNamara” Interview by Harry Kreisler, 16 April 1996. Available at http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/McNamara/mcnamara7.html
(5)Nguyen Khac Huynh, quoted in Robert S. McNamara et al., Argument Without End: In Search of Answers to the Vietnam Tragedy, New York: Public Affairs, 1999, pp 300-301.
(6)Luu Doan Huynh, in Argument Without End, p. 296.
(7)Nguyen Khac Huynh, “Our view was that, after Tet, the conditions [for negotiations] would be favorable.” Argument Without End, p. 300.
(8)H. Marcovich, “Pugwash and Vietnam—1967: A Memoir,” Pugwash Newsletter, April 1976, Vol. 13, No. 4 , p. 207.
(9) Robert McNamara, “Reflections on War in the Twenty-First Century,” in Maxwell Bruce and Tom Milne (eds), Ending War: The Force of Reason. London: Macmillan Press Ltd, 1999, p. 102.

Pugwash and Sadat's 1977 Visit to Israel

2009-06-14T08:14:00.006+01:00

In the same FT article mentioned in the prior post, the author writes:

"Feld also claims that President Anwar Sadat's historic journey to Jerusalem in 1977 was facilitated by earlier contacts and exchanges between Israeli and Egyptian Pugwash scientists." Elon Salmon, "Against the Bomb," Financial Times, 11/12 February 1989.
This also needs further study...
Click here for a link to the Sadat's speech in the Knesset on 20 November 1977.
Photo source: http://www.knesset.gov.il/description/images/sadat.jpg

Pugwash Role in Cuban Missile Crisis

2009-06-14T07:27:00.010+01:00

I just came across a quote from Bernie Feld, former Secretary General of Pugwash, who makes the most direct statement I have seen about Pugwash's role during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis:

"During the Cuba missile crisis in 1962, President Kennedy came under pressure to act militarily. But a group of American scientists urged negotiations. Through British colleagues in Pugwash, a message was conveyed to the Russians offering to withdraw American missiles near the Turkish-Soviet border if the Russians removed their missiles from Cuba. Nothing was said about this at the time. However, shortly after the Soviets pulled back from Cuba, the US removed its missiles from the sensitive spots in Turkey." (Elon Salmon, "Against the Bomb," Financial Times, 11/12 February 1989.)

Rotblat, who was Secretary General at the time of the Cuban missile crisis, did not make such direct claims. For example, in his 1972 history, Scientists in the Quest for Peace, he wrote:

[T]he Secretary-General called an emergency meeting of influential scientists from the United States and the Soviet Union to discuss means of solving the crisis. For several days he was in almost continuous telephone communication with Washington and Moscow. Such a meeting could obviously not be held without the approval of the highest authorities in the countries concerned, but this approval was very quickly obtained, and an agreement was reached to hold the meeting in London within a few days; however, the resolution of the crisis made the meeting unnecessary. While it is impossible to say how useful this meeting would have been if it had been held, the very fact that in a time of crisis it was possible to plan at very short notice, for a meeting of eminent scientists, with top level approval for it, shows the importance of the channel of communication provided by Pugwash."

These two versions are not necessarily incompatible and clearly need further study in the archives of the two countries.

Photo Source: United Nations http://www.un.org/UN50/Photos/un50-049.gif

Herb York (1921-2009): On Pugwash History and a NWFW

2009-05-21T10:18:00.014+01:00

Herb York has died. I would like to share some of his insights: about the imperative of a nuclear weapons free world, and about the Pugwash history.

While a great deal of appropriate attention has gone to the recent ‘revival’ of the notion of a nuclear weapons free world, it is important to note that people like Herb York and others in Pugwash have been out there for decades, paving the way for the many very senior and very important recent voices calling for an eventual end to these horrendous weapons. Here is a quote from York…(from 1971!):

“[O]ur final goal must remain the ideal of general and complete disarmament….Any reasonable extrapolation of history tells us that if we keep all those weapons around they will be used. While no one can say how to get from the present situation all the way to total nuclear disarmament, it is clear that throwing weapons away heads us in the right direction and building more weapons, be they MIRVs, ABMs, or SS-9s, heads us in the wrong direction. We have fussed too much and too long about fine structure. We must begin to focus on directions rather than details.” Herb York, “A Little Arms Control Can be a Dangerous Thing,” War/Peace Report, August/September 1971, pp. 3 - 7

_________________________

I had the chance to interact with Herb through Student Pugwash. I found him one of the most charming, friendly, and thought-provoking people I have met. My first encounter with him was at my first-ever (senior) Pugwash Conference, in Cambridge, Mass, in 1989, when as a student working on my master’s thesis, I was simply dumbfounded to be in a room with Herb and Dick Garwin talking about technical aspects of nuclear weapons as they related to arms control. I guess Jo Rotblat was there, but it was Herb who made the biggest impact on me: a former weapons lab director--a man with security clearances up the wazoo, who knew the science inside and out--was talking about disarmament! I was hooked…

Following are excerpts from an interview I conducted with Herb York, 28 April 1998.

About the impact of Pugwash:

“The important thing that Pugwash did is it enabled people to meet each other at a time when there were no other good places to do that, particularly East and West. So what matters about Pugwash is not whether they got a certain idea and it doesn’t matter whether or not this idea was adopted. But what matters is that, by example, the fact that Primakov was a member of the Pugwash group and while at Pugwash John Holdren, who is now a member of the White House science advisory committee and Catherine Kelleher, who has been a defense official, were all at the same meetings. That’s what Pugwash did. It got people like them together at a time when there was no other good way for people like them to get together. … And then with others who had other different kinds of connections, like the Kapitsa father and son. The Arbatov father and son. One of the most important of those combinations was Primakov with…Shalheveth Freier….For something like five or six years immediately after the Six-Day War, the primary contact between Moscow and Jerusalem or Tel Aviv was Primakov and Freier meeting either in Pugwash meetings or using that as an alibi for meeting. They were entirely secret, these meetings. They
were fully sanctioned…by both governments. They were the primary way of getting certain detailed messages back and forth.

So the number one thing that Pugwash did was provide a venue. Now the remarkable thing about that was that a lot of people might try to do that. And anybody can identify former officials and invite them to come, but the trick that Pugwash succeeded at was inviting future officials. That’s the trick. That’s the hard part. Primakov wasn’t ex-foreign minister, he became foreign minister.”

“[T]he concrete thing…where [Pugwash was] instrumental in moving immediately to policy was in connection to the ABM Treaty of SALT I. And there it was important. and there one of the important communication channels involved Ruina and Murray Gell-Mann on our side and Millionshchikov and Artsimovich … on their side. They seriously discussed questions of ABM.”

About the Pugwash/Rotblat Nobel Peace Prize:

“I thought it was reasonable [that Pugwash received the Nobel Peace Prize]. I thought that they were a likely candidate for some time….And no surprise that within Pugwash Rotblat got it. I mean, Rotblat does stand out….Without him, it probably would’ve collapsed. It’s just simply his determination that kept it going during some otherwise dry years. …Rotblat is very bossy and very opinionated and that’s what enabled him to keep Pugwash together. And it’s not just that he was like that when he was 90, he was like that when he was 70, 60. It’s not just the rigidity of old age. He’s a terribly rigid person, but he has this dedicated purpose to rid the world of nuclear weapons somehow or the nuclear threat. And it’s the kind of
thing that just seizes his whole life. He has dedicated himself to it and the result of that dedication is he kept Pugwash going. …Pugwash would’ve somehow fallen apart years ago or otherwise gotten off the track except for Rotblat’s determination.”
Advice to young people:
“It’s a question of odds and the biggest thing is opportunity. Opportunities do come along, the problem is to, when you see one, ditch everything else and take it if it’s a good one. …That often takes, especially if you’re young and have a family…that can be not only gutsy but can even be harmful...if you’ve got other responsibilities. But opportunity comes to everybody and what you have to do is be ready to seize it, no matter what else you’re doing. …give up everything else that’s career-related. That’s where the talent comes in. Opportunities are related to talent in the sense that you have come to somebody else’s attention because of some talent, even if it’s just for comity, some talent. But the real trick is to then recognize the opportunity and do something about it.”

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Please click here for the New York Times obituary (web version, 24 May 2009).
Please click here for the Physics Today obituary (21 May 2009).
Please click here for an obituary from the LA Times (21 May 2009).
Please click here for the obituary from the San Francisco Chronicle (22 May 2009).
Bruce Larkin's website contains (with Herb's permission) the full text of Race to Oblivion: A Participant's View of the Arms Race (1970). Click here for the link.
Here is "Reminiscences from a Career in Science, National Security, and the University: Conversation with Herb York," by Harry Kreisler, 6 February 1988. Click here for the link.

Toshiyuki Toyoda (1920 - 2009)

2009-05-17T11:14:00.011+01:00

by

Michiji Konuma (Pugwash Japan)

Toshiyuki Toyoda, a Japanese physicist and a Pugwashite, died on 15 May 2009 in Tokyo at the age of 89. He worked for Pugwash as a Council member from 1975 to 1987. He helped Hideki Yukawa and Sin-itiro Tomonaga organizing the 25th Pugwash Symposium "A New Design towards Complete Nuclear Disarmament" and organized the 56th Pugwash Symposium "Peace and Security in the Asia-Pacific Region". He attended 26 Pugwash meetings in total from the 7th Conference held at Stowe, USA in 1961 to the 45th Annual Conference held at Hiroshima, Japan in 1995.

For many years Toyoda was a member of the Board of Sponsors for Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. He worked on theoretical nuclear and elementary particle physics. He was Professor Emeritus of Nagoya University. He served as Director of the Peace Research Institute of Meiji Gakuin University, Tokyo.

Toyoda published many articles and books on physics and on issues concerning nuclear weapons including "Criticism on Nuclear Strategy". The funeral ceremony will be held in Tokyo on 21 May 2009.

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Picture is the cover of the book edited by William Epstein and Toyshiyuki Toyada following the 1975 Kyoto Pugwash Workshop, August 28 to September 1 1975. The symposium dealt with the subject ‘A New Design Towards Complete Nuclear Disarmament: The Social Function of Scientists and Engineers.’ Spokesman Books, 1977.

You can read an interesting article here by Prof. Toyoda, "Scientists Look at Peace and Security", Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Vol 40, No. 2, February 1984, pp 16 - 19. The article outlines the post War movement among scientists in Japan, and mentions the role of leading Japanese Pugwashites, such as Hideki Yukawa and Sin-itiro Tomonaga. Toyoda concludes the article by saying,

"The role of conscientious scientists in Japan is...becoming more important than ever."

Manifesto in Many Languages

2009-05-03T20:10:00.005+01:00

I just found this wonderful video of the Manifesto being read in many languages on YouTube. The link at the end is for a group that created a theatrical version of Faust (I think) based on Joseph Rotblat.

(The link to 'signing the manifesto' is a bit odd, and not a Pugwash-authorized activity...)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fQ17Mbbtk8

Obama Catches Up With Vision of Pugwash Founders?

2009-04-05T10:30:00.013+01:00

Today's rousing speech by President Obama in Prague would have struck a positive note with many of the founders of the Pugwash movement. A call to rid the world of nuclear weapons has been a steadfast part of the Pugwash message from the Russell-Einstein Manifesto and through all major statements.

Today Obama said,

"There are those who doubt whether true international cooperation is possible, given inevitable differences among nations. And there are those who hear talk of a world without nuclear weapons and doubt whether it's worth setting a goal that seems impossible to achieve. But make no mistake: We know where that road leads. When nations and peoples allow themselves to be defined by their differences, the gulf between them widens. When we fail to pursue peace, then it stays forever beyond our grasp. We know the path when we choose fear over hope. To denounce or shrug off a call for cooperation is an easy but also a cowardly thing to do. That's how wars begin. That's where human progress ends."

Here is an excerpt of the 1958 Vienna Declaration (which Rotblat called the "tenet" or "credo" of the Pugwash movement) that shows not just Pugwash optimism, but also Pugwash pragmatism about the road to disarmament:

"The armaments race is the result of distrust between states; it also contributes to this distrust. Any step that mitigates the arms race, and leads to even small reductions in armaments and armed forces, on an equitable basis and subject to necessary control, is therefore desirable. … We recognize that the accumulation of large stocks of nuclear weapons has made a completely reliable system of controls for far-reaching nuclear disarmament extremely difficult, perhaps impossible. For this disarmament to become possible, nations may have to depend, in addition to a practical degree of technical verification, on a combination of political agreements, of successful international security arrangements, and of experience of successful cooperation in various areas. Together, these can create the climate of mutual trust, which does not now exist, and an assurance that nations recognize the mutual political advantages of avoiding suspicion."

I'll return to the Vienna Declaration in other posts, as it many other important elements...
Did you know? At the end of the Third Pugwash Conference, a meeting with about 10,000 people took place in the Vienna City Hall Auditorium, the largest Pugwash conference attendance ever.
Check it out: I just discovered this Oregon State University Special Collections web site that shows Linus Pauling's suggested draft revisions for the Vienna Declaration. Rotblat in the short 1962 history* says this statement was first drafted by Eugene Rabinowitch, with comments from others prior to the meeting. Szilard, following a quirky tradition of his own, ultimately abstained from signing.

*J. Rotblat, Science and World Affairs: History of the Pugwash Conferences, London: Dawsons of Pall Mall, 1962.

McNamara on Pugwash Role in Vietnam

2009-04-05T08:26:00.007+01:00

In a little known initiative, Pugwash provided a back channel (code named PENNSYLVANIA) between two French men and Ho Chi Minh during the Vietnam War.

Here is what Robert McNamara said about this in a 1996 inte rv iew with Harry Kreisler:

"But what the public wasn't aware of, which I couldn't really describe or discuss when I left, was that we were engaged in very delicate negotiations. ... They had been triggered, oddly enough, by a visit that Henry Kissinger, who was then a professor at Harvard, had made to a Pugwash meeting in Paris. ... [T]hey were meeting in Paris in the summer of 1967. Kissinger was there, and he was approached by two Frenchmen, Herbert Marcovich and Raymond Aubrac*, whom I cite in the book, who said, "If the U.S. has a message to take to Ho Chi Minh, we'll deliver it." Now to illustrate the degree to which we didn't understand the situation in Vietnam at the time, today I believe that Ho Chi Minh was more of a nationalist, more of a Tito, than a servant or a follower of Khruschev. But at that time, we looked upon him as a vassal of the Soviets. He had lived in Paris during World War II, he had lived with this man Aubrac; he was the godfather of Aubrac's child. (By the way, Ho Chi Minh had been a pastry cook in the Savoy Hotel in London, and he lived in this country for a time.) There's a real possibility that if we had understood him better we could have avoided this war, or, after it started, we could have terminated it. It illustrates my point of how little we knew and understood the Vietnamese. But to come back to my point, I said to President Johnson "I know you think there's nothing in this, sir, but let me handle it. Something might come of it. I promise not to get us in trouble; let me handle it." So I engaged in a long series of exchanges with Kissinger with the full knowledge of the Secretary of State and the President over a period of months. "

"Our efforts failed, and I suggest why in the book: in part because we were clumsy and in part because maybe there was nothing in it, I don't know. But I know we were clumsy. In any event, our efforts failed, but they were still continuing when I left. After I left, the President, in March of 1968, made a speech in San Antonio in which he put forward publicly the elements of the proposal that we had put forward recretly through Kissinger to Ho Chi Minh, which became known as the San Antonio formula. That ultimately was the foundation for the start of the negotiations between North Vietnam and the U.S. in Paris. That was under way when I left; I couldn't talk publicly about it. As Secretary of Defense, when the United States was in the midst of a war with 500,000 American young people's lives at risk, in the
midst of a war in a foreign country, I couldn't speak candidly or freely without self-constraint." (emphasis added)
*Some archival research indicates that this question of who contacted whom is a bit more complicated than this, but I will save that for another post!!
Recommended reading: Robert McNamara, James Blight, Robert Brigham, Argument Without End, Public Affairs, 2000, pp. 292-301. Photo above from the Kreisler interview website.

Schaerf on Founding ISODARCO with Amaldi

2009-04-04T19:02:00.009+01:00

In the 1960s, Edoardo Amaldi and Carlo Schaerf founded the International School on Disarmament and Research on Conflicts (ISODARCO), a project of the Italian Pugwash Group. In a recent video taped interview conducted by Marco De Andreis for La fondazione Ugo La Malfa, Carlo discusses the history and future of ISODARCO (please click here for the You Tube link).

If you might be able to conduct interviews for the Pugwash History Project, please contact me. Equally, if you have insight into particular aspects of the history of Pugwash, please get in touch, and perhaps we can arrange for a Skype interview, or some other creative use of technology...

Click here for a playlist of the other interviews conducted at the 2009 ISODARCO course: F. Calogero, B. Gill, D. Holloway, V. Journe, J. Lewis, C. Kelleher, P. Sidhu.

ABM Treaty

2009-04-04T11:08:00.001+01:00

In most cases it is very difficult to pinpoint definitely the impact Pugwash has had. By design, the idea has always been to create space where influential people from diverse perspectives can gather. They would then, in their individual capacities, seek to influence policy in their home countries.

Metta Spencer highlights one instructive example regarding Pugwash and the ABM Treaty, in an excellent article called "Political Scientists":

"Millionshchikov ... noted that he had privately come around to the anti-ABM position in 1964 during a Pugwash meeting ... By the time of the Pugwash Conference in Sochi in October 1969 ... Millionshchikov definitely said he opposed ABM systems. ... A month after the Pugwash meeting in Sochi, the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks began in Helsinki. One outcome was the ABM Treaty of 1972..."

See Metta Spencer, "Political Scientists", Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, July/Aug 1995, Vol 51, No 4, p. 62.

Rotblat & Szilard, First Pugwash Conference, 1957

2009-04-04T09:34:00.001+01:00

Szilard played an important role in the First Pugwash Conference and the development of the Pugwash Movement.

Szilard’s biographer, William Lanouette, wrote that the Pugwash meeting was “the international forum that finally coupled Szilard’s eclectic brainstorming with his fervent desire to curb the U.S.-Soviet arms race”. Quoting Lanouette again, "…the Russians quickly warmed to Szilard’s candor and wit. ‘They really loved Leo,’ recalled Ruth Adams, an editor at the Bulletin who attended the First Pugwash Conference and many to follow. ‘He never tried to disguise anything, and they appreciated that.’"

William Lanouette with Bela Silard, Genius in the Shadows. 587 pages, Scribner's, New York, 1992, ISBN 0-684-19011-7. For a review, see: David Hafemeister, American Journal of Physics, Sept 1993 (reprinted Physics and Society Newsletter, Jan 1994.)

Rotblat: Leaving the Bomb Project (and not an absolute pacificist)

2009-04-04T09:05:00.002+01:00

Joseph Rotblat, the only project scientist to leave the Manhattan Project on moral grounds, tells his story in this classic 1985 article, "Leaving the Bomb Project," in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Leaving the Manhattan Project was a courageous step for Rotblat, and one with serious personal implications. He was accused of being a spy, his personal belongings mysteriously 'disappeared' on his train ride home, and he was not allowed to tell his fellow Project scientists why he was leaving.

"Chadwick ... was shown a thick dossier on me with highly incriminating evidence. It boiled down to my being a spy: I had arranged with a contact in Santa Fe to return to England, and then to be flown to and parachuted onto the part of Poland held by the Soviets, in order to give them the secrets of the atom bomb. ..."

People are often surprised to hear that Prof said he would not rule out working on a similar weapon again in the future. I suspect this was his scientific precision and exact language more than anything else:

"After 40 years one question keeps nagging me: have we learned enough not to repeat the mistakes we made then? I am not sure even about myself. Not being an absolute pacifist, I cannot guarantee that I would not behave in the same way, should a similar situation arise."

Frisbee Diplomacy

2009-04-04T08:18:00.001+01:00

This article, "Good Guys All", from Time Magazine, 1969, shows how the atmosphere at Pugwash Conferences helped people find their common humanity across political and geographic divides.

"In the patio behind the Orante Intourist Hotel at the Black Sea resort of Sochi, an American scholar and a leading Soviet physicist were skimming a Frisbee at each other. The Russian, Mikhail Dmitrievich Millionshchikov, had approached the game hesitantly, perhaps because the American. Columbia University's Marshall Shulman, a specialist in Russian affairs, had demonstrated such skill. But soon Millionshchikov was lunging enthusiastically after the elusive plastic saucer. ..."
Please post comments if you have perspectives on the Sochi meeting.