Tactical Nuclear Weapons and NATO.pdf - Program on Strategic ...

as removing <strong>NATO</strong>’s qualitative deterrent edge <strong>and</strong>
so helping the USSR “to intimidate, coerce, blackmail,
<strong>and</strong> neutralize Western Europe without calling troops
out of barracks.” He therefore called—<strong>and</strong> in this was
representative of wider opinion—for the rapid implementation
of the second half of the 1983 Montebello
Accords, i.e., the modernization of short-range nuclear
forces (SRNF). Those plans envisaged that some older
systems like artillery munitions <strong>and</strong> Lance would be
withdrawn, but a number of possible new TNW systems
under development would be introduced, including
better nuclear artillery shells with increased
range, the Follow On To Lance (FOTL), an improved
surface-to-surface missile which could be fired from
existing <strong>NATO</strong> Multiple-launch rocket systems, <strong>and</strong>
a supersonic Tomahawk anti-ship air-to-surface missile
(TASM) to improve the penetrability of tactical
aircraft (some 389 had been planned to be placed in
vaults in European airfields). 109
Political opposition made this proposed modernization
impossible. Anti-nuclear campaigners discovered
<strong>NATO</strong> plans more rapidly than at previous TNW
decision points <strong>and</strong> were able to mount effective opposition
in the news media, denouncing the proposed
package as “like trading in 2 pistols for an assault rifle
<strong>and</strong> calling it arms reductions.” The plans needed
to be resisted particularly strongly at that historical
moment, according to the antinuclear campaigners,
because “by keeping alive the traditional <strong>NATO</strong> doctrine
of flexible response, the TASM could slow the
process of change in Europe.” 110 The Cold War was
not yet conclusively over, <strong>and</strong> after visiting Europe,
the new U.S. Secretary of State, James Baker, had concluded
that “modernization [of SNF] would indeed
show the Alliance’s resolve, yet it would simultane-
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