Sunday Times – 17 November 1985
John Witherow suggests (report, November 10) that the nuclear "Freeze" campaign is "viewed with some suspicion by CND". This shows ignorance of the role of key unilateralists at the heart of the Freeze organisation since its inception.
When the national co-ordinator of the Freeze [Will Howard] took up his post last year, he relinquished the editorship of the CND's activists' journal Campaign!. Prior to that, he had been the CND's full-time fund-raising strategy co-ordinator.
As long ago as October 28, 1983, CND Treasurer Mick Elliott was defending – in Tribune – CND's emphasis on the Freeze idea: "This is not a change of line," he said. "A freeze would only be a stage on the road to unilateral nuclear disarmament."
And so it would, because the Freeze campaign rejects not just the further deployment, but also the further development or production of any nuclear weapons. Thus, when Britain (or NATO) next needed to replace its existing devices, it would be totally incapable of doing so.
What gullible potential supporters are intended to overlook is that a nuclear Freeze, as defined by its proponents, is really unilateral disarmament by obsolescence.
Dr JULIAN LEWIS
Director
Policy Research Associates
London SE1