Britain's Nuclear Debate

...The government at one point planned an advertising campaign to undermine the heart-in-the-right-place image of the women and their supporters...

...It was difficult for the audience to avoid the conclusion that the CND aims to leave Britain weak in every area save moral rectitude...

...He insists that effective deterrence requires only the means of inflicting unacceptable damage on an aggressor, not the present ability to kill each citizen of the hostile nation many times over...

...He seems admirably suited to the task...

...Two of the most eminent in this category, Field Marshal Lord Carver, a former chief of the British Defense Staff, and Lord Solly Zuckerman, Winston Churchill's scientific adviser, have (along with the Anglican Synod) called on nato to renounce first use of atomic weapons...

...The scheme appears to have been scotched, however, because a leak to the press produced a maelstrom of sarcasm about promoting nuclear policy as if it were an improved brand of cornflakes...

...Foreign Secretary Francis Pym has warned that a "dangerous strain of anti-Americanism" is creeping into discussions of military options all over Western Europe...

...A recent public opinion poll, in fact, showed that 88 per cent of the nation would prefer their government to have some say in a decision to fire the new weapons...

...Sixty-four per cent of those questioned said they have little or no confidence in the White House's approach to the nuclear peril...

...In the past, Heseltine has usually moved quickly to stage center of any affair he has involved himself in...

...For despite the pervasive suspicion of President Reagan, the electorate continues to be unflagging in its support of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, whose defense doctrine is identical to Washington's and who repeatedly voices unquestioning confidence in the American Chief Executive...

...Norman Gelb, the NL's London correspondent, is author of The British, recently published by Everest House...

...Other unilateralists have compared the militantswho have been sleeping outside or in makeshift structures all winter-with the heroic English suffragettes of the early part of this century...

...Still others liken them to Joan of Arc, struggling as they are to save their country from imminent holocaust...

...Heseltine, who assumed the Defense portfolio after the embarrassing information surfaced, has been telling reporters that the PR approach is simply one idea under consideration and they should not assume it will ever be effected...

...Even taking into account probable advances in Soviet technology, he goes on to argue, the West could reduce its stockpile unilaterally while still retaining enough firepower to withstand a first strike and wreak unacceptable destruction in retaliation...

...A more far-reaching view has been put forward by Oxford physicist Sir Rudolf Peierls...

...But their supporters hope that if the U .S.-Soviet talks in Geneva and Vienna do one day make some genuine progress, the positions espoused by these men will begin to arouse genuine interest as a way to further defuse international tensions...

...CRUISE JITTERS Britain's Nuclear Debate By Norman Gelb London As the December 1983 target date for the deployment of United States cruise missiles in England approaches, the "dual key" controversy has emerged here as a major element in the larger debate on nuclear policy: The question is whether, assuming the warheads are actually installed, London and Washington are to have joint control of their launching systems...

...Vice President George Bush's tour of Western Europe in early February hurt the disarmament movement a bit, too, convincing some doubters that Washington is prepared for serious arms reduction negotiations with the Russians and will eventually prove it by showing flexibility on the "zero option" approach...

...The consensus in Britain is that the Reagan Administration's professed goal of eliminating all Soviet medium-range missiles targeted on Europe is an idle fantasy, at least for the time being...

...The women have managed to stay in the headlines for several months now with their energetic protests, including several "invasions" of the military premises...

...And the Oxford Student Union, in its widely publicized annual debate, voted overwhelmingly to affirm the morality of the principle of fighting for Queen and Country-an unmistakable snub to the ban-the-bomb advocates...

...This time he is finding it difficult to steal the spotlight from the women of Green-ham Common, a band of anti-cruise demonstrators who have established a semi-permanent "Peace Camp" just outside the base...

...The Defense Minister was reluctant to dwell on procedural details, but he dismissed as far-fetched the possibility of a future confrontation between gung-ho American personnel and their peace-loving British counterparts...

...For her part, Thatcher has directed her new Defense Minister, Michael Hes-eltine, to secure the high ground...

...The Opposition Labor Party, hoping to catch hold of a dovish groundswell, certainly will seek to play up its affiliation-albeit never unequivocal-with the idea of unilateral nuclear disarmament and its strong opposition to the cruise missiles...

...A dynamic, articulate politician on the left of the ruling Conservative Party, Heseltine earned the nickname "Tarzan" a few years back after he grabbed the ceremonial mace from in front of the Speaker's chair in Commons and flourished it furiously above his head to silence Labor members who were celebrating a minor parliamentary victory by singing a chorus of Red Flag, one of several party anthems...

...A majority favor maintaining the country's independent atomic arsenal, but they are distrustful of U.S...

...The session at Oxford was all the more dramatic because it brought to mind the Union's debate of 1933, when notwithstanding the new menace of Nazi Germany, the students decided it would be wrong to fight for King and Country...

...That, however, would have cost $1.5 billion that the country could ill afford...

...This reportedly was going to explain to the public why the virtuous-sounding theories espoused by the activists could have wicked consequences in practice...

...Ultimately, in fact, the many British strategic thinkers standing somewhere between the government and the unilateralists may exert the greatest influence on long-term nuclear policy here...

...He revealed that when cruise deployment was originally proposed, Britain was offered a dual key system, provided it share the expense of basing the missiles...

...No one expects Carver, Zuckerman, Peierls and others like them to sway the Thatcher government for the moment...

...They have also maintained that the West could try to negotiate a number of arms concessions without jeopardizing its defense capability...

...The implications of this sentiment extend beyond the immediate issue...

...The same survey revealed that most Britons are not opposed to nuclear weapons per se...

...His words reflected a firm belief at the British Foreign Office that particularly since Yuri V. Andropov took charge of the Kremlin, Moscow has been employing increasingly sophisticated maneuvers to nurture overconfidence and dissension in the West...

...Upon taking up his post last January, he quickly leaped into the fray over the missiles...

...Labor Party Leader Michael Foot visited the Peace Camp not long ago, bringing a symbolic gift of cheese...

...The Synod of the Church of England recently rejected a motion to support the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND...

...Indeed, key signs indicate they are losing ground among groups they had hoped to find sympathetic...

...The weapons have to be moved outside the base to be fired, he noted, a procedure that requires the permission and cooperation of Whitehall...

...Pym urged both his countrymen and the allies on the continent to remember that their security could be safeguarded only by partnership with the U.S., and declared that the Soviet Union was well aware of the mood of complacency in the nato countries...

...Whatever the validity of these fears, the Russians must be bewildered when trying to evaluate the success of their efforts in the United Kingdom...

...Yet despite this botch by the Tories, the unilateralists seem to be having trouble converting their positive press into hard political gains...

...President Ronald Reagan...

...Periodic arrests on charges of "breach of the peace" and subsequent courtroom appearances have only generated additional publicity and sympathy for the crusade...

...Nevertheless, the nuclear issue is volatile and promises to figure prominently in the national election that is likely to take place within the next few months (although technically it need not be held until the spring of 1984...

...Heseltine maintained, moreover, that the arrangement agreed to gives Britain de facto control over launchings because the storage site, Greenham Common military installation 50 miles west of London, is after all in the hands of the British...

...In addition, during a broadcast debate with former Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath, a leading CND figure made it clear that his organization not only favors dismantling Britain's nuclear deterrent but objects to any compensatory increase in conventional forces...

...Many British citizens are concerned about the present arrangement, which reserves the buttons exclusively for American fingers...