International History Seminar: Matthew Jones on The Origins of British Nuclear Retaliation Procedures

Photo of Matthew Jones with text ‘A Matter of Joint Decision’: The Origins of British Nuclear Retaliation Procedures and the Murphy-Dean Agreement of 1958

April 24, 2024

12:00PM - 1:30PM

Derby Hall 1039

Add to Calendar 2024-04-24 12:00:00 2024-04-24 13:30:00 International History Seminar: Matthew Jones on The Origins of British Nuclear Retaliation Procedures Registration Abstract‘A Matter of Joint Decision’: The Origins of British Nuclear Retaliation Procedures and the Murphy-Dean Agreement of 1958This paper explores the background to the Anglo-American Murphy-Dean Agreement of June 1958, which codified the joint procedures to be followed if US nuclear forces in Britain were to be used, or US nuclear weapons allocated to the Royal Air Force released to the UK. As well as presenting the reasons for the negotiation of the agreement, and the substantive issues at stake, the paper also makes clear that examining its background also illuminates the origins of the UK’s own procedures for launching its nuclear forces in the event of a general war with the Soviet Union. The paper’s findings lead to the conclusion that the British government’s projection of nuclear independence in the late 1950s was built on very shaky foundations and also tell us something about the Eisenhower administration’s approach to bilateral nuclear arrangements with close allies in the era of ‘massive retaliation.’ Speaker Matthew Jones is Professor of International History at the LSE, where he served as Head of Department between 2017 and 2020. Professor Jones specializes in US and British foreign and defense policy, decolonization in South East Asia, and nuclear history. After undergraduate study at the University of Sussex, he gained his DPhil in Modern History from St Antony’s College, Oxford. In 2008, he was appointed as a Cabinet Office official historian by the then Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, and in 2017, he published two volumes resulting from that role: The Official History of the UK Strategic Nuclear Deterrent: Volume I: From the V-Bomber Era to the Arrival of Polaris, 1945-1964, and The Official History of the UK Strategic Nuclear Deterrent: Volume II: The Labour Government and the Polaris Programme, 1964-1970. A third and final volume of the official history covering UK strategic nuclear policy in the 1970s is in progress. Professor Jones’s other books have included a study of inter-allied command relationships, Britain, the United States and the Mediterranean War, 1942-44 (Macmillan, 1996); an examination of the creation of Malaysia and the West’s relations with Indonesia, entitled Conflict and Confrontation in South East Asia, 1961-1965 (Cambridge University Press, 2002) and After Hiroshima: The United States, Race, and Nuclear Weapons in Asia, 1945-1965 (Cambridge University Press, 2010), which looked at the development of US nuclear strategy in Asia in the period marked by the Korean War, confrontation with China, and the early phases of US engagement in Vietnam, placing a special emphasis on the influence of the widespread perception that the atomic bomb was a ‘white man’s weapon’ and the diplomatic and military dilemmas this helped create for American policymakers. In 2019 he also published a co-written book with Kevin Ruane, Anthony Eden, Anglo-American Relations and the 1954 Indochina Crisis (Bloomsbury Academic), which revisits a Cold War episode in which British diplomacy played a vital role in settling a crucial question of international war and peace. His many articles have appeared in English Historical Review, Diplomatic History, International History Review, Historical Journal, Journal of Cold War Studies, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, and Intelligence and National Security, among others.Professor Jones has received grants and awards from the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council, the British Academy, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, the Gilder Lehrman Institute for American History, and the Eccles Centre for North American Studies at the British Library. About the International History SeminarIf you are interested in attending this semester’s events and joining the International History Seminar, please send an email confirming your interest to the Hayes Chair Graduate Research Associate, Cam Givens, at hayeschairgra@osu.edu, and you will be included on the mailing list going forward. Select materials can only be pre-circulated to those who have signed up. Derby Hall 1039 OSU ASC Drupal 8 ascwebservices@osu.edu America/New_York public

Add to Calendar 2024-04-24 12:00:00 2024-04-24 13:30:00 International History Seminar: Matthew Jones on The Origins of British Nuclear Retaliation Procedures Registration Abstract‘A Matter of Joint Decision’: The Origins of British Nuclear Retaliation Procedures and the Murphy-Dean Agreement of 1958This paper explores the background to the Anglo-American Murphy-Dean Agreement of June 1958, which codified the joint procedures to be followed if US nuclear forces in Britain were to be used, or US nuclear weapons allocated to the Royal Air Force released to the UK. As well as presenting the reasons for the negotiation of the agreement, and the substantive issues at stake, the paper also makes clear that examining its background also illuminates the origins of the UK’s own procedures for launching its nuclear forces in the event of a general war with the Soviet Union. The paper’s findings lead to the conclusion that the British government’s projection of nuclear independence in the late 1950s was built on very shaky foundations and also tell us something about the Eisenhower administration’s approach to bilateral nuclear arrangements with close allies in the era of ‘massive retaliation.’ Speaker Matthew Jones is Professor of International History at the LSE, where he served as Head of Department between 2017 and 2020. Professor Jones specializes in US and British foreign and defense policy, decolonization in South East Asia, and nuclear history. After undergraduate study at the University of Sussex, he gained his DPhil in Modern History from St Antony’s College, Oxford. In 2008, he was appointed as a Cabinet Office official historian by the then Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, and in 2017, he published two volumes resulting from that role: The Official History of the UK Strategic Nuclear Deterrent: Volume I: From the V-Bomber Era to the Arrival of Polaris, 1945-1964, and The Official History of the UK Strategic Nuclear Deterrent: Volume II: The Labour Government and the Polaris Programme, 1964-1970. A third and final volume of the official history covering UK strategic nuclear policy in the 1970s is in progress. Professor Jones’s other books have included a study of inter-allied command relationships, Britain, the United States and the Mediterranean War, 1942-44 (Macmillan, 1996); an examination of the creation of Malaysia and the West’s relations with Indonesia, entitled Conflict and Confrontation in South East Asia, 1961-1965 (Cambridge University Press, 2002) and After Hiroshima: The United States, Race, and Nuclear Weapons in Asia, 1945-1965 (Cambridge University Press, 2010), which looked at the development of US nuclear strategy in Asia in the period marked by the Korean War, confrontation with China, and the early phases of US engagement in Vietnam, placing a special emphasis on the influence of the widespread perception that the atomic bomb was a ‘white man’s weapon’ and the diplomatic and military dilemmas this helped create for American policymakers. In 2019 he also published a co-written book with Kevin Ruane, Anthony Eden, Anglo-American Relations and the 1954 Indochina Crisis (Bloomsbury Academic), which revisits a Cold War episode in which British diplomacy played a vital role in settling a crucial question of international war and peace. His many articles have appeared in English Historical Review, Diplomatic History, International History Review, Historical Journal, Journal of Cold War Studies, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, and Intelligence and National Security, among others.Professor Jones has received grants and awards from the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council, the British Academy, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, the Gilder Lehrman Institute for American History, and the Eccles Centre for North American Studies at the British Library. About the International History SeminarIf you are interested in attending this semester’s events and joining the International History Seminar, please send an email confirming your interest to the Hayes Chair Graduate Research Associate, Cam Givens, at hayeschairgra@osu.edu, and you will be included on the mailing list going forward. Select materials can only be pre-circulated to those who have signed up. Derby Hall 1039 Mershon Center mershoncenter@osu.edu America/New_York public

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Abstract

‘A Matter of Joint Decision’: The Origins of British Nuclear Retaliation Procedures and the Murphy-Dean Agreement of 1958

This paper explores the background to the Anglo-American Murphy-Dean Agreement of June 1958, which codified the joint procedures to be followed if US nuclear forces in Britain were to be used, or US nuclear weapons allocated to the Royal Air Force released to the UK. As well as presenting the reasons for the negotiation of the agreement, and the substantive issues at stake, the paper also makes clear that examining its background also illuminates the origins of the UK’s own procedures for launching its nuclear forces in the event of a general war with the Soviet Union. The paper’s findings lead to the conclusion that the British government’s projection of nuclear independence in the late 1950s was built on very shaky foundations and also tell us something about the Eisenhower administration’s approach to bilateral nuclear arrangements with close allies in the era of ‘massive retaliation.’

Speaker

Matthew Jones is Professor of International History at the LSE, where he served as Head of Department between 2017 and 2020. Professor Jones specializes in US and British foreign and defense policy, decolonization in South East Asia, and nuclear history. After undergraduate study at the University of Sussex, he gained his DPhil in Modern History from St Antony’s College, Oxford. In 2008, he was appointed as a Cabinet Office official historian by the then Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, and in 2017, he published two volumes resulting from that role: The Official History of the UK Strategic Nuclear Deterrent: Volume I: From the V-Bomber Era to the Arrival of Polaris, 1945-1964, and The Official History of the UK Strategic Nuclear Deterrent: Volume II: The Labour Government and the Polaris Programme, 1964-1970. A third and final volume of the official history covering UK strategic nuclear policy in the 1970s is in progress. Professor Jones’s other books have included a study of inter-allied command relationships, Britain, the United States and the Mediterranean War, 1942-44 (Macmillan, 1996); an examination of the creation of Malaysia and the West’s relations with Indonesia, entitled Conflict and Confrontation in South East Asia, 1961-1965 (Cambridge University Press, 2002) and After Hiroshima: The United States, Race, and Nuclear Weapons in Asia, 1945-1965 (Cambridge University Press, 2010), which looked at the development of US nuclear strategy in Asia in the period marked by the Korean War, confrontation with China, and the early phases of US engagement in Vietnam, placing a special emphasis on the influence of the widespread perception that the atomic bomb was a ‘white man’s weapon’ and the diplomatic and military dilemmas this helped create for American policymakers. In 2019 he also published a co-written book with Kevin Ruane, Anthony Eden, Anglo-American Relations and the 1954 Indochina Crisis (Bloomsbury Academic), which revisits a Cold War episode in which British diplomacy played a vital role in settling a crucial question of international war and peace. His many articles have appeared in English Historical Review, Diplomatic History, International History Review, Historical Journal, Journal of Cold War Studies, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, and Intelligence and National Security, among others.

Professor Jones has received grants and awards from the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council, the British Academy, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, the Gilder Lehrman Institute for American History, and the Eccles Centre for North American Studies at the British Library.

About the International History Seminar

If you are interested in attending this semester’s events and joining the International History Seminar, please send an email confirming your interest to the Hayes Chair Graduate Research Associate, Cam Givens, at hayeschairgra@osu.edu, and you will be included on the mailing list going forward. Select materials can only be pre-circulated to those who have signed up.

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