In his memoirs published in 1996, Mikhail Gorbachev denounced the deployment of Soviet SS-20 missiles in the late 1970s as “an unforgivable adventure, embarked on by the previous Soviet leadership”, adding that they “might have assumed that, while we deployed our missiles, western countermeasures would be impeded by the peace movement. If so, such a calculation was more than naive”. Despite the best efforts of the Greenham women to prevent it, deployment of cruise missiles went ahead as planned, paving the way for the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which eliminated both cruise and the SS-20s. This multilateral deal could never have happened if their campaign for unilateral UK nuclear disarmament had succeeded.
Rebecca Johnson (Letters, 30 January) appears to have forgotten that this conclusion was shared across the political spectrum. As the Observer stated in an editorial on 20 September 1987: “Think back to 1979, when Nato settled on its ‘twin-track’ decision to deploy cruise and Pershing-2 missiles in Europe while continuing to negotiate with the Russians about the elimination of such systems. If the Soviet Union had then offered, inconceivably, to eliminate all its intermediate and short-range missiles aimed at western Europe in return for the non-deployment of cruise and Pershing-2, the offer would have been greeted with disbelief – and joy. Yet that is the very outcome that has now been achieved by deployment and negotiation: the twin-track decision has achieved its objective.
“Now is the moment for those who stood firm in 1983 – the year of deployment – to enjoy the results of their resolution. Despite public agitation and the parading of conscience through the streets, Nato was not deterred. Who would now have the nerve to claim that if the prescription of the peace groups had been followed the outcome would have been as good? The deal is a triumph for toughness and realism in international relations”.
Sir Julian Lewis MP
Chairman, defence committee, 2015-19
