RENEWAL OF COURAGE
By LORD HAILSHAM THE psychology of war is one of the main elements of defence, and as such is a principal factor in modern political calculations. Since it is to be supposed that a nation which faces the prospect of a modern * war will, at least emotionally, have to consider and discount the possi- bility of the complete destruction of its cities by thermo- nuclear weapons, an understanding of the importance and bearing of this factor on national psychology is necessary to an appreciation of the military position. '
The fashionable theory that wars may be prevented or human beings deterred from a dangerous' course of conduct by fears for the planet, or for the human race as such, can be discounted as absurd. If men are not deterred by the prospect of losing their own families or cities which they have seen, they will not be deterred by fears for humanity or other countries which they have not seen.
But it is precisely the effect on the national mind of the possibilities of a sudden and devastating blow to ourselves which is, in fact. in question. Britain is immensely vulnerable to the thermo-nuclear weapon. She is not far removed from potentially hostile bases. She is highly urbanised. A small number of thermo-nuclear bombs on British targets would suffice to produce a .disproportionate degree of damage.
But here again it is important to realise that the problem is not new. It is only new for us. Britain is vulnerable to thermo-nuclear weapons, but not more at the mercy of these than was Warsaw in 1944 or Jerusalem in AD 70 at the mercy of the conventional weapons of their day. Biitain is appre- hensive that she may be drawn into a conflict by the indis- cretion of a powerful ally. But we are far less tied to the tails of the Americans than were the Platmans lo the policy of Pericles at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war. Here again the invention of the nuclear bomb has revolutionised the application of principles, as it has the scale and tempo of events. But the underlying moral and political values have not altered.
Many nations have known that the price of defeat in war would be national annihilation. Not a few have realised that the chances of victory, or even escape, were extremely slender. Yet on occasion these enormous deterrents have not pre- vented an inspired and sometimes successful resistance to the use of force. Some of the noblest examples of human courage have on occasion been provided by such acts of self-immolation. We do not despise the crazy defiance of the Athenians at Marathon or condemn the inhabitants of Warsaw for their fanatical devotion. The defence of Plattea reniains one of the supreme examples of fidelity to an ally. These stories move us not because they display courage more than human, but precisely because they remind us of the nobility of which our common clay is capable. , One can, I suppose, be completely certain that if Britain were faced with a sudden and brutal threat to employ the hydrogen bomb against her, she would be no more deterred from resistance than was Finland in 1940. It is, in fact. the realisation of this• which gives substance and form to the foreign policy of both political parties. The true psychological lesson to be learned is that, contrary to what at first sight appears to be the probability, a threat of retaliation to a potential aggressor is a more potent element, in the psycho- logical field than the threat of aggression to a potential victim. But if the problem is not new, it is at least new to us. Because we can say with certainty that the threat of force, nakedly applied, would meet with resistance rather than com- pliance, it does not follow that no changes can be expected in British national psychology.
Yet these again are to some extent predictable, and will differ in degree, but not in kind, from movements observable in the British character from 1919 onwards. The destruction of our cities is not, in principle, an entirely novel threat. There is nothing said now about the hydrogen bomb which was not said before about air attack with high explosive. The fact that it was not said truly of high explosive, and may be said truly of the hydrogen bomb, is for this purpose irrelevant, since the problem we are considering is psychological and depends on what we think. British opinion will remain ex- tremely sensitive to pacifism, to the desire for peace at any price, and to movements which postulate and preach Utopian and visionary solutions of political problems. The desire to recapture the security of mind which we enjoyed from the protection of the British Fleet in the nineteenth century will take many, and often extraordinary, forms. The Peace Ballot and the Oxford Union resolutions will have their counter- parts—indeed are beginning already to produce their counter- parts. The demand, for instance, that all nations should abolish all weapons of war, but that in the meantime we must be as strong as possible, the demand for American appeasement over Formosa, the attempt to enlist churches, trade unions and other non-political organisations in favour of curious and improbable crusades, are all examples of this tendency.
But there is also the possibility that some of these extrava- gances will prove fruitful. If we are apprehensive, it is already clear ,that our statesmen are genuinely conciliatory and are prepared to take the effective lead in conciliation. If we are apt to be visionary, it is possible also that we may see visions. We are already the spiritual origin of the European move- ment. May we not also sponsor,.and at length bring to fruition, a true system of Free World Government? If we are all subject to a common prospect of disaster, may we not also display a common unity of purpose and a common loyalty? If our faith in ourselves and in our traditional beliefs has been rudely shaken, may we not once more proVe the instruction and inspiration of free pen everywhere in the eternal gospel of liberty and justice? But the renewal of courage and self-confidence which this involves is something which cannot come by chance. It must be deliberately produced by material policies and moral leadership : by material policies which tend to minimise the chances of war and the use of the thermo-nuclear weapons, and maximise the possibilities of sheer survival if they are used; by moral leadership stressing the role of Britain in the twentieth century, and conscientiously combating any mood savouring of cowardice or despair. Such is the true psycho- logical moral of the hydrogen bomb.
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