The Key to Nuclear Restraint: The Swedish Plans to Acquire Nuclear Weapons During the Cold War

305 Pages·2016·2.26 MB·English

by  Thomas Jonter (auth.)

THE KEY
TO
NUCLEAR
RESTRAINT
The Swedish Plans to Acquire Nuclear
Weapons During the Cold War
THOMAS JONTER
The Key to Nuclear Restraint

Thomas   Jonter
The Key to Nuclear
Restraint
The Swedish Plans to Acquire Nuclear Weapons
During the Cold War
Thomas   Jonter
Stockholm University
Graduate School of
International Studies
Stockholm, Sweden
ISBN 978-1-137-58112-9 ISBN 978-1-137-58113-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-58113-6
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016936405
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2 016
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Printed on acid-free paper
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature
The registered company is Macmillan Publishers Ltd. London
For my family: Åsa, Otto and Vilhelm

A
CKNOWLEDGEMENTS
With this book many years of research have come to an end. It has been a
long journey with many obstacles and unexpected discoveries. This proj-
ect would never have been completed without help and assistance from
a number of organizations and individuals. First, I would express grati-
tude to the Swedish Research Council and the Swedish Radiation Safety
Authority for their fi nancial support which enabled me to spend several
years digging in archives and gave me time to analyse the voluminous
source material. I am also grateful for the travel grants I received from the
Swedish Institute to conduct archival research in the National Archives in
Washington, DC. Thanks, also, to three research institutes who hosted me
and allowed me to work on different parts of the book manuscript: the
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the Europe
Center at Freeman Spogli Institute of International Studies, Stanford
University, and the Judith Reppy Institute for Peace and Confl ict Studies,
Cornell University.
Several people have read and commented on the manuscript, in part or
in its entirety. A special thanks goes to Professor Judith Reppy at Cornell
University. She spent many hours reading and correcting misunderstand-
ings and giving good advice on how to restructure certain parts of the
manuscript. That I did not always take her good advice absolves her from
responsibility for faults that remain in the fi nal draft. I would also like
to thank Dr. Leon Sigal for his comments, which have strengthened the
structure of the book in many ways. Thanks also to Meena Strömqvist
who has been very helpful in correcting my English, and to a number
of colleagues who have been helpful in the process of completing this
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
research project: Tor Wennerberg, David Holloway, Jeffrey Knopf, Emma
Rosengren, Benoit Pelopidas, Mark Rhinard, Stellan Andersson, Maria
Rost Rublee, and Jacques Hymans.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge personal debts to my family for
their support and patience during this long journey: to my wife Åsa and
my sons Otto and Vilhelm.
C
ONTENTS
1 Introduction 1
Previous Research and Sources Used 9
Nuclear Reversal: An Analytical Framework 1 2
Core Arguments 1 7
Outline of This Book 1 9
2 The Idea of Initiating a Nuclear Weapons Programme
Starts to Grow 21
Central Actors in the Decision-Making Process 3 1
3 The Development of a Latent Capability to Produce
Nuclear Weapons, 1945–59 3 5
The Initiation of Nuclear Weapons Research at FOA 4 0
Swedish Defence Planning and Nuclear Weapons, 1945–47 47
Collaboration Between FOA and AE 53
The First Study of How to Produce Nuclear Weapons Is Made 57
The 1953 Study Is Completed 6 2
The Supreme Commander’s Report ÖB-54 6 8
The 1955 FOA Study Is Completed 71
Tensions Between Civilian and Military Goals 7 6
Preparations for a Political Decision 8 0
New Investigations Are Planned 8 9
ix