Euromissile Crisis

Euromissile Crisis
Part of the Cold War
Two missiles standing side by side in a museum
SS-20 and Pershing II missiles, two of the main missiles involved within this crisis, on display in the National Air and Space Museum
DateLate 1970s to late 1980s
Location
Europe, North America
Belligerents

The Euromissile Crisis, also known as the INF affair,[1] was a late-Cold War affair occurring when the Soviet Union began deploying SS-20 missiles to Eastern Europe. In response to the crisis, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) began developing the double-track plan, to either negotiate the Soviet missiles out of Europe or to bring in American missiles to counterbalance the Soviets'. In response to NATO's plan, leftist, pacifist protests spread across several European nations. The crisis would also eventually lead to the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty).

Background

For quite some time, the Western Bloc had been able to threaten the Soviet Union with tools such as the Boeing B-47 Stratojet.[2] This capability prompted the Soviets to enable them to menace the western powers just as well.[2] In 1972, the Soviet Union and United States signed the first Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I).[3] They would then sign SALT II in 1979.[3] The agreements created restrictions on missiles with a range greater than 5,500 kilometres (3,400 mi).[4] In a speech by Helmut Schmidt to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, he stated that SALT could leave Europe undefended by the United States.[5] Harold Brown, the United States Secretary of Defense, stated in 1977 that NATO operations would not decrease due to SALT.[5] In Asia, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, threatening Détente.[6]

Among the Western Bloc, France had withdrawn from NATO's unified command structure a couple decades prior.[1] NATO leadership also became concerned that Détente could not replace military build-up and that the United States could no longer defend Europe.[5][6]

Deployment and negotiations

In March 1976, the Soviet Union began deploying the SS-20 missile in Europe.[4] The missile was stealthy, medium-range (compliant with SALT), and relatively accurate compared to its predecessors.[4] The missile also used solid fuel, instead of liquid fuel, and carried three warheads.[7] Tupolev Tu-22M bombers were also being deployed and threatening Western Europe; the United States did not see it as an intercontinental bomber.[5] The Soviets attempted to prevent more weapons from reaching Europe through threats, negotiations, and exploiting the West's internal fighting.[8]

The Carter Administration was initially hesitant to deploying missiles in Europe to counter the Soviets.[9] Jimmy Carter was also hesitant towards the neutron bomb.[5] More generally, deploying weapons was viewed as a possible destabilizer to Détente.[8] NATO's heads of states assembled in Washington, D.C., in 1978 to improve military capabilities and expand military spending by 3% annually.[5] Per Raymond Garthoff, the American government would eventually support giving nuclear weapons to NATO members to prove that the United States could robustly respond to requests from allies.[5] In January 1979, Jimmy Carter, Helmut Schmidt, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, and James Callaghan met in Guadeloupe to discuss the crisis.[5] Schmidt offered to host long-range theater nuclear forces in Germany in the conference.[5] On October 9, Leonid Brezhnev proposed in a speech in East Berlin to remove some of the missiles from the western Soviet Union if NATO did not deploy more missiles in Europe.[5]

In December 1979, NATO adopted the double-track policy, with one method of resolution being through negotiations and the other was deploying American ground-launched cruise and Pershing II missiles if negotiations failed.[4][8] The decision was unanimous.[5] The Prime Ministers of the Netherlands and Norway and the Foreign Minister of Denmark traveled to Washington to promote negotiation over deployment.[5] At the end of 1980, Carter lost the 1980 United States presidential election and became a lame duck.[5][10]

In 1981, Ronald Reagan proposed to the Soviet Union that he would remove the entire deployment if the Soviets removed their SS-4, SS-5, and SS-20 missiles.[5] In 1983, the Double-Track policy was implemented.[11] By late 1985, 108 Pershing II launchers were deployed under the second track.[12] There were 464 ground-launched cruise missiles[5] hosted in Belgium,[13] the Netherlands,[14] Italy,[15] West Germany,[16] and the United Kingdom.[13] The United States spent $10 billion on the deployment.[7] France did not support the decision militarily.[1]

In Greece, according to Eirini Karamouzi and Dionysios Chourchoulis, Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou used the crisis to renegotiate American bases in Greece.[6]

Protests

Protests in Bonn in 1981

Public opinion towards the deployment of more nuclear weapons in Europe began to become negative as the Soviet Union pursued a propaganda campaign in Western media, framing the double decision as a provocation and act of aggression.[5]

From 1981 to 1983, protests broke out across Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, West Germany, and the United Kingdom against American and NATO influence as well as nuclear proliferation.[11][17] Central Europeans like those in Germany were generally opposed to escalation due to the view that any war would be fought in their nation.[8] In October 1981, around 250,000 Germans protested in Bonn.[8] These demonstrations were the largest West Germany had experienced up to that point.[18] Schmidt's government opposed the protests, calling them a "declaration of war".[18]

Left-leaning parties generally supported decreasing influence from the Americans.[11] In France, the involvement of the French Communist Party worked to discredit their respective peace movements.[1] According to the Project on Nuclear Issues, non-nuclear weapon wielding government leaders felt that they could not publicly support introducing American missiles to their nations.[19]

Against the backdrop of the Euromissile Crisis, the "Six Nation Initiative" was launched in May 1984 by Greece, together with India, Argentina, Mexico, Tanzania, and Sweden. The group emerged as a diplomatic effort by non-aligned states seeking to promote arms control, reduce the risk of nuclear escalation in Europe, and encourage renewed dialogue between the major Cold War blocs.[20]

Aftermath

The Euromissile Crisis is described as starting a Second Cold War, a new period of heightened tensions between the superpowers.[21]

The Social Democratic Party of Germany's lack of support for the double-track decision led to their coalition breaking in 1982 after the Free Democratic Party began coalitioning with CDU/CSU.[8] The party would stay out of power until 1998.[11] This was influenced by the Green Party gaining support from protestors against nuclear weaponry.[8] According to Jeffrey Herf, the aftermath of the Euromissile Crisis would lead to reforms under Mikhail Gorbachev.[11] The double-track policy led to further negotiations that culminated to the signing of the INF Treaty.[9] The INF Treaty marked the end of hostilities and tensions related to the Euromissile Crisis.[7]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Lellouche, Pierre (1983). "France and the Euromissiles: The Limits of Immunity". Foreign Affairs. 62 (2): 318–334. doi:10.2307/20041820. ISSN 0015-7120 – via JSTOR.
  2. 1 2 Ruehl, Lothar (1983). "La querelle des euromissiles". Politique étrangère. 48 (1): 27–38. doi:10.3406/polit.1983.3281.
  3. 1 2 "Strategic Arms Limitation Talks". Britannica. 1 April 2023. Retrieved 12 March 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Correll, John T. (1 February 2020). "The Euromissile Showdown". Air & Space Forces Magazine. Retrieved 12 March 2026.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Garthoff, Raymond L. (1983). "The NATO Decision on Theater Nuclear Forces". Political Science Quarterly. 98 (2). Oxford University Press: 197–214. doi:10.2307/2149415. ISSN 0032-3195 – via JSTOR.
  6. 1 2 3 Karamouzi, Eirini; Chourchoulis, Dionysios (2 January 2019). "Troublemaker or peacemaker? Andreas Papandreou, the Euromissile Crisis, and the policy of peace, 1981–86". Cold War History. 19 (1): 39–61. doi:10.1080/14682745.2018.1497014. ISSN 1468-2745.
  7. 1 2 3 Anderson, Justin V.; Nelson, Amy J. (2019). "The INF Treaty: A Spectacular, Inflexible, Time-Bound Success" (PDF). Strategic Studies Quarterly – via Air University.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Haftendorn, Helga (1984). "Germany and the Euromissile Debate". International Journal. 40 (1): 68–85. doi:10.2307/40184597 – via JSTOR.
  9. 1 2 Burr, William (10 December 2009). "Thirtieth Anniversary of NATO's Dual-Track Decision". George Washington University. Retrieved 12 March 2026.
  10. ↑ Elving, Ron (29 December 2024). "Carter's single White House term still stirs controversy after more than 40 years". National Public Radio. Retrieved 18 March 2026.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 Tismaneanu, Vladimir (2022). "Success Was Not an Orphan: The Battle of the Euromissiles in 1983 and the events of 1989 to 1991". The End and the Beginning: The Revolutions of 1989 and the Resurgence of History. Central European University Press. ISBN 9786155053672.
  12. ↑ Markham, James M. (24 November 1983). "FIRST U.S. PERSHING MISSILES DELIVERED IN WEST GERMANY". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 13 May 2024.
  13. 1 2 "The Verification Sites". Washington Post. 10 December 1987.
  14. ↑ "Agreement Between The United States Of America And The Netherlands Concerning The Stationing, Support And Operation Of The Ground Launched Cruise Missile (GLCM) System In The Territory Of The Netherlands". www.un-ilibrary.org. The Hague. 4 November 1985. doi:10.18356/085bfbf8-en-fr. Retrieved 14 May 2024.
  15. ↑ Gilbert, Sari (15 April 1982). "Italy Begins Cruise Missile Base Despite Left's Protest". Washington Post. Rome. Retrieved 14 May 2024.
  16. ↑ Fisher, Marc (11 April 1990). "CRUISE MISSILE 'DRAWDOWN' BEGINS AT U.S. AIR BASE IN WEST GERMANY". Washington Post. Retrieved 14 May 2024.
  17. ↑ Wittner, Lawrence S. (1 August 1991). "Nuclear Weapons, Resistance, and the Nation-State System". Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East. 11 (1, 2): 136–142. doi:10.1215/07323867-11-1_and_2-136. ISSN 1089-201X. Archived from the original on 10 December 2020 – via Duke University Press.
  18. 1 2 Blake, Patricia (19 October 1981). "West Germany: Rallying for Peace". Time. Retrieved 19 March 2026.
  19. ↑ Lutsch, Andreas (13 June 2017). "A New Euromissile Crisis? NATO and the INF-Treaty Crisis in Historical Perspective". Project on Nuclear Issues. Retrieved 12 March 2026.
  20. ↑ Crump, Laurien; Erlandsson, Susanna, eds. (2020). Margins for manoeuvre in Cold War Europe: the influence of smaller powers. Routledge studies in modern European history. Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-38837-6.
  21. ↑ Lang, Peter (2012). Warlouzet, Laurent (ed.). "Maria Găinar, Aux origines de la diplomatie européenne. Les Neuf et la coopération politique européenne, 1973–1980". European Review of International Studies. ISBN 978-90-5201-845-4 – via Brill Publishers.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: periodical has ISBN (link)

Further reading

  • Colbourn, Susan (2022). Euromissiles: the nuclear weapons that nearly destroyed NATO. Cornell University Press. ISBN 9781501766039.
  • Shaw, Martin (2024). The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Agenda Publishing. Full access available to users of The Wikipedia Library.
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