Families for defence: an argument for nuclear defence

A talk with Lady Olga Maitland, founder of Families for Defence. Families for Defence was launched in March 1983 in response to the mounting demonstrations by the anti-nuclear protest movement, led by CND and supported by the Women of Greenham Common.

"Having visited Greenham Common and debated with CND, I realised that these demonstrations were not to be ignored as a sideshow. Their arguments against nuclear weapons as such could be accepted. We had one common agreement. Nuclear weapons are indeed a threat to humanity, as demonstrated at Hirsoshima and Nagasaki.

Never again should they be let off in anger. And next time, the weapons could be infinitely more powerful. But, they exist. They cannot be disinvented. They have to be managed and in doing so keep a peace. This called for a balanced multilateral verified disarmament which could only be achieved by careful negotiation in the face of a determined Soviet Union which had built up a hefty arsenal of nuclear weapons, SS18 and SS20 and a massive conventional army targeted on Europe and the NATO Alliance." - Lady Olga Maitland
Speaker

Lady Olga Maitland is a Conservative politician and journalist, becoming MP for Sutton and Cheam in 1992. Before this time, Olga worked as a journalist for the Fleet Street News Agency, and in 2005 launched the Algeria British Business Council (AGB) in partnership with Arslan Chikhaoui. Olga has curated a section of the current Library exhibition featuring items from her personal archive of Families for Defence.
Chair

Dr Luc-Andre Brunet is Senior Lecturer in Contemporary International History at the Open University and Co-Director of the Peace and Security Project at LSE IDEAS. His research focuses on the dynamics between peace and anti-nuclear activism, on the one hand, and policymaking and diplomacy, on the other.

The British Library of Political and Economic Science (@LSELibrary) was founded in 1896, a year after the London School of Economics and Political Science. It has been based in the Lionel Robbins Building since 1978 and houses many world class collections, including the Women's Library and Hall-Carpenter Archives.