War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Interview with Helmut Schmidt, 1987
- Raw Footage
- Interview with Helmut Schmidt, 1987
- Contributing Organization
- WGBH (Boston, Massachusetts)
- AAPB ID
- cpb-aacip/15-6d5p843v5p
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- Description
- Episode Description
- Helmut Schmidt became the head of Germany's Social Democratic Party in 1967 and deputy chairman of the party in 1968. Between 1969 and 1972, he served as defense minister, minister for economics and finance, and minister of finance. From 1974 to 1982, he was the chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany. In the interview he conducted for War and Peace in the Nuclear Age, Schmidt recalls his anger and the political damage he suffered in 1978 when President Carter suddenly delayed his decision to produce the neutron bomb. He analyzes why the Soviet-U.S. relations deteriorated as the 1970s wore on, goes over Carter successor Ronald Reagan's initial receptivity to a "zero-zero" option, relays the subsequent internal dissension and ascendancy of hardliners within the Reagan administration, and sheds light on the shift within the administration toward arms reductions. Schmidt describes what he terms "Euro-strategic" SS-20 missiles, which the Soviet Union began deploying along its western and southeastern borders in 1977. He viewed this deployment as destabilizing the nuclear balance in Europe, and he vigorously - but unsuccessfully - pressed President Jimmy Carter to include these missiles in the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) II negotiations. He recounts his conviction that the threat of deploying U.S. Pershing II and cruise missiles in response to the threat of the Soviet SS-20s brought the Soviet Union to the negotiating table. The Guadeloupe meeting that Schmidt helped organize produced the "double-track decision" that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) council adopted at the end of 1979: to deploy the U.S. intermediate-range missiles while simultaneously bargaining them away in Geneva. Unlike some of his counterparts, Schmidt never feared the "de-coupling" of the U.S. strategic deterrent from the defense of NATO Europe. He remained, though, keenly sensitive to the concentration of nuclear weapons deployed by other countries in the Federal Republic. In his interview, Schmidt explains the need for European collaboration in building up conventional forces to achieve both nuclear and non-nuclear parity between the Warsaw and NATO blocs.
- Date
- 1987-11-12
- Date
- 1987-11-12
- Asset type
- Raw Footage
- Subjects
- Carter, Jimmy, 1924-; Brezhnev, Leonid Il'ich, 1906-1982; nuclear weapons; Nuclear arms control; Strategic Arms Limitation Talks II; Reagan, Ronald; International Relations; Germany; Soviet Union; United States; North Atlantic Treaty Organization; Warsaw Treaty Organization; Warfare, Conventional; nuclear warfare; Pershing (Missile); Intermediate-range ballistic missiles; Neutron bomb; Nitze, Paul H.; Shultz, George Pratt, 1920-; Weinberger, Caspar W.; Ford, Gerald R., 1913-2006; Gaulle, Charles de, 1890-1970; Callaghan, James, 1912-2005; World War II; China; Middle East; SS-20 Missile; Cruise missiles; Afghanistan
- Rights
- Rights Note:,Rights:,Rights Credit:WGBH Educational Foundation,Rights Type:All,Rights Coverage:,Rights Holder:WGBH Educational Foundation
- Media type
- Moving Image
- Duration
- 00:00:00
- Credits
-
-
Publisher: WGBH Educational Foundation
Writer: Schmidt, Helmut, 1918 Dec. 23-
- AAPB Contributor Holdings
-
WGBH
Identifier: d6250234d64b027f6eefc6f9adbb4ff90d986edb (ArtesiaDAM UOI_ID)
Format: video/quicktime
Color: Color
Duration: 00:00:00
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- Citations
- Chicago: “War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Interview with Helmut Schmidt, 1987,” 1987-11-12, WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed May 20, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-6d5p843v5p.
- MLA: “War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Interview with Helmut Schmidt, 1987.” 1987-11-12. WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. May 20, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-6d5p843v5p>.
- APA: War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Interview with Helmut Schmidt, 1987. Boston, MA: WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-6d5p843v5p