Nuclear blackmail

Nuclear blackmail is a form of nuclear strategy in which an aggressor uses the threat of use of nuclear weapons to force an adversary to perform some action or make some concessions. It is a type of extortion, related to brinkmanship.

Effectiveness

It is generally regarded as ineffective against a rational opponent who has or is an ally of someone who has assured destruction capability. If both states have nuclear weapons, the form of nuclear blackmail becomes a threat of escalation. In this situation if the opponent refuses to respond, then one's choices are either surrender or suicide. During the Cold War, the explicit threat of nuclear warfare to force an opponent to perform an action was rare in that most nations were allies of either the Soviet Union or the United States.

History

In 1950, President Truman publicly stated that the use of nuclear weapons was under "active consideration" against Communist Chinese targets during the Korean War. [1][2][3][4]

In 1953, President Eisenhower threatened the use of nuclear weapons to end the Korean War if the Communist Chinese refused to negotiate. [5][6][7]

In order to support the continued existence of the Republic of China government, the United States issued several nuclear threats against the People's Republic of China in the 1950s to force the evacuation of outlying islands and the cessation of attacks against Quemoy and Matsu.[8][9][10][11][12]

Declassified documents from the National Archives (UK) indicate that the United Kingdom considered threatening China with nuclear retaliation in 1961 in the event of a military reclamation of Hong Kong by China.[13]

Ali Magoudi, a psychoanalyst of French president François Mitterrand, claimed that Margaret Thatcher threatened nuclear war against Argentina during the 1982 Falklands War in order to procure codes from France to disable Argentina's French-made missiles.[14] This claim has not been confirmed by either the French or British governments.

In 1981, the United States Department of Energy said there had been 75 cases of nuclear blackmail against the United States, though only several were serious attempts.[15]

In 1991, Israel threatened Iraq with a "nuclear counter-response" if Iraq attacked with chemical weapons during the Gulf War. [16]

In 2002, the Bush administration declared that they were prepared to strike with nuclear missiles against Iraq if biological or chemical weapons were used against American troops or their allies during the Iraq War. [17]

On January 2, 2018, Donald Trump threatened North Korea that the US has much more nuclear firepower than North Korea, in response to their press release stating that a "nuclear button is on Kim Jong-un's desk at all times".[18]

In fiction

Nuclear blackmail, typically by a supervillain rather than a state, has been frequently employed as a plot device in spy fiction and action films. Since such a scheme appeared in the film Thunderball, the trope has been particularly associated with the James Bond series and the TV series 24. The notion of a supervillain threatening world leaders with a nuclear device has since become a cliché, and has been parodied in Charles K. Feldman's Casino Royale, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, The Simpsons episode "You Only Move Twice", and other espionage spoofs.

See also

References
  1. "FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES, 1950, KOREA, VOLUME VII". The Office of the Historian. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  2. "The President's News Conference". Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum. 1950-11-30.
  3. "Examples of past nuclear threats between countries". The Seattle Times. 2013-03-08.
  4. Norris, Robert S.; Kristensen, Hans M. (1 September 2006). "U.S. nuclear threats: Then and now". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 62 (5): 69–71. Bibcode:2006BuAtS..62e..69N. doi:10.2968/062005016.
  5. "U.S. PAPERS TELL OF '53 POLICY TO USE A-BOMB IN KOREA". The New York Times. 1984-06-08.
  6. "Eisenhower goes to Korea". History . 2019-11-13.
  7. Norris, Robert S.; Kristensen, Hans M. (1 September 2006). "U.S. nuclear threats: Then and now". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 62 (5): 69–71. Bibcode:2006BuAtS..62e..69N. doi:10.2968/062005016.
  8. Friedman, Edward (January 1975). "Nuclear Blackmail and the end of the Korean War". Modern China. 1 (1): 75–91. doi:10.1177/009770047500100103. S2CID 143664791.
  9. "In 1955, America Was Ready for a Nuclear War with China over Taiwan". Yahoo News. 2018-08-19.
  10. "Nixon intervention saved China from Soviet nuclear attack". South China Morning Post. 2010-05-12.
  11. "Examples of past nuclear threats between countries". The Seattle Times. 2013-03-08.
  12. Norris, Robert S.; Kristensen, Hans M. (1 September 2006). "U.S. nuclear threats: Then and now". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 62 (5): 69–71. Bibcode:2006BuAtS..62e..69N. doi:10.2968/062005016.
  13. "UK pondered China nuclear attack". Yahoo News. 2018-08-19. Retrieved 2013-11-08.
  14. Henley, Jon (2005-11-22). "Thatcher 'threatened to nuke Argentina'". The Guardian. Retrieved 2013-11-08.
  15. "75 Nuke Extortion Cases". The Telegraph-Herald. UPI. 1981-06-15. Retrieved 2013-11-08.
  16. Strategic Defense Initiative : what are the costs, what are the threats? : hearing before the Legislation and National Security Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, House of Representatives, One Hundred Second Congress, first session, May 16 and October 1, 1991. U.S. G.P.O. 1992. ISBN 9780160385803.
  17. "Examples of past nuclear threats between countries". The Times. 2002-12-12.
  18. Trump, Donald. "...my Button works!". Twitter. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
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