Terp, Holger: Danish Peace History - Det danske Fredsakademi

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
From the end of World War two the main
focus of nuclear weapons had been on
power and deterrence. Back in 1944 the
Danish nuclear scientist Niels Bohr (1885-
1962) recommended to the UK Prime
Minister Winston Churchill the
establishment of international control over
the use of nuclear weapons.
Shortly before the beginning of the Korean
War July ninth, 1950 Bohr wrote an open
letter to the United Nations, because “The
promise and danger involved in the
technical advances have now most forcibly
stressed the need for decisive steps towards
openness as a primary condition for the
progress and protection of civilisation” 166 .
The Danish debate over nuclear weapons
came after the North Atlantic Council in
December approved a political directive to
NATO’s military authorities. According to
the historians Jonathan Søborg Agger and
Lasse Wolsgård, the political directive stated, “that all NATO forces should have the
capability to respond quickly and with nuclear weapons to any type of aggressions”.
The United States stated that “modern weapons with nuclear capability would be
offered to all NATO-countries. Thus, the Danish government was forced to formulate a
policy on nuclear weapons. The Danish government declared in December 1957, that
“the government would not stockpile atomic warheads and deploy IRBMS on Danish
soil “under the present circumstances”” 167 .
In the middle of the 1950s the general view on nuclear weapons policy changed with
growing concern over health and environmental damages caused by atmospheric
nuclear weapons tests 168 . The Einstein-Russell-appeal of 1955 saw the creation of
many campaigns for nuclear disarmament. Inspired by England the Danish Campaign
against Nuclear Weapons was created in January 1960 by members of the Danish
chapter of the WRI.
166 The Challenge of an Open World: Essays dedicated to Niels Bohr, 1989. p. 7.
Christmas Møller, Wilhelm: Niels Bohr og atomvåbnet, 1985.
167 Den størst mulige fleksibilitet: Dansk atomvåbenpolitik 1956-60 / Jonathan Søborg Agger ; Lasse
Wolsgård. Historisk Tidsskrift, 2001:1 pp. 76-109.
168 Nuclear Wastelands, 1995. In 1979 Professor Bent Sørensen, Department of Plastic Surgery and
Burns Unit, Hvidovre Hospital, University of Copenhagen published a study: Burns : Management of
burns occurring as mass casualties after nuclear explosion. In Burns: The Journal of the International
Society for Burn Injuries. Vol. 6 1979 no. 1, pp. 33-36.