Return to a National Strategy

Abstract

The Defence Policy outlined in the White Papers of 1981 and 1982, and to a large extent restated in that of 1983, is based on several fundamental misconceptions, of which the most dangerous (certainly in the long term) may be briefly summarised as: ‘Our front line is in Germany where lies the greatest threat to the United Kingdom; war, if it comes in Europe, will be short, so the Atlantic (never mind more distant seas) hardly matters, and where it does it can be defended by a handful of nuclear submarines and long-range maritime patrol aircraft.’ Virtually every word of this is demonstrable rubbish; it flies in the face of history and the NATO assessment of the total threat, and would serve neither our national interests, nor those of the Alliance, best.