All language subtitles for Secret.Wars.Uncovered.S02E05.1080p.WEB.h264-BAWD_Subtitles01_Unnamed

NARRATOR: 11th September 2021.

The world watches as
North Korean leader Kim-Jong Un

Delivers the order to test fire

newly developed
long-range cruise missiles.

South Korea and China meanwhile

meet to discuss mounting concern
over North Korea's nuclear testing.

- There are still 13,000 nuclear
weapons in the world today,

the vast majority being held by
Russia and the United States.

NARRATOR: The tit-for-tat testing

and diplomatic battles
on nuclear weapons isn't new.

Despite periodic attempts to
de-escalate testing

and reduce nuclear arsenals,

it has intensified
since the weapons were first used to

such devastating effect on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki in August 1945.

(bomb explodes)

NARRATOR: After the dismantling of
the Soviet Union,

the nuclear threat appeared briefly
to have been nullified.

But recently, with new players
entering the scene,

the arms race
has resumed with a vengeance.

- Nuclear weapons are still
spreading around the world,

whether that be with North Korean,
or Iranian ambitions,

or, of course, in the West.

Nuclear weapons have only been used

against those nations
that don't possess them.

(dramatic music)

(radio chatter)

(boots march)

NARRATOR: The race to possess
nuclear weapons

began during World War II

and from the outset was shrouded in
secrecy and bitter rivalry.

In 1943 the US launched a covert
operation named the ALSOS mission.

A unit of special operations forces
headed to the front lines

tasked with uncovering
German nuclear secrets

and smuggling them
back to the United States.

- They actually never even achieved
to create a chain reaction.

So from that point of view,
it was a massive failure.

However, it was the main force

that motivated the Allies
to start nuclear weapons research.

NARRATOR:
Although the US had discovered

there was no serious nuclear threat
from Germany,

their efforts prompted ever more
sophisticated espionage operations

as the wartime Allies

began to try to steal
each other's atomic secrets.

- The Soviet Union had a very
elaborate network of spies

and secret agents in place,

even before the Second World War,
they started these operations.

NARRATOR:
Possession of an atomic bomb

meant domination
on the world stage

and as the Nazi war machine
began to be overwhelmed,

the Soviets were determined
to enter Berlin first

in the hope of securing
German scientists

and their atomic secrets.

But it would be neither
the Soviets nor the Germans

who would succeed
in first weaponizing nuclear energy.

Instead,
the top-secret nuclear project

codenamed The Manhattan Project,

launched by the United States
and supported by Britain and Canada,

would be the first to unleash
the full horror of an atomic bomb.

A group of scientists led by
J Robert Oppenheimer

had been working tirelessly since
1942 to harness atomic energy

and had already successfully built
the world's first nuclear reactor.

They tested the world's first
atomic explosive device,

a plutonium bomb,
in secret on July 16, 1945,

at the Trinity test site
at Alamogordo, New Mexico.

(explosion)

(eerie music)

NARRATOR: This would change
the nature of warfare... forever.

On the 6th of August 1945,

a 9,000-pound uranium-235 bomb
known as "Little Boy"

was dropped
from an American B-29 bomber

on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

At 8:15 am it exploded

2,000 feet above
the city of around 350,000 people.

- There was about five square miles
of the city that was flattened

and fires ranged across
a much wider area.

The estimates of how many people
that were killed, really ranges,

it's very hard to get an accurate
estimation of how many were killed,

but it's up to 140,000 people

were killed by the blast
in Hiroshima.

NARRATOR: Despite the devastation,
Japan still refused to surrender.

US President Harry Truman ordered
the dropping of a second atomic bomb

on Nagasaki,
with a population of around 250,000.

This time the 10,000-pound plutonium
bomb known as 'Fat Man'

killed around 70,000 people

and seriously injured
around 75,000 more.

- Many people, then and since,

have really questioned
why the United States did that

because it's well-known
and documented that

at the time, the Japanese
were already trying to surrender.

In fact, they had been
exploring that through back roots

since much earlier, in 1945.

Many senior military
and political figures

from the US in the UK have said that
it was not necessary

to use nuclear weapons
to end the Second World War.

And as a result,
some people have said, actually,

it was the first action
in the Cold War.

It was the United States wanting to
show its overwhelming military might

and wanting to assert itself
as the chief global superpower.

NARRATOR:
The Japanese surrender finally came

at noon on August the 15th, 1945.

Amid the jubilation
over the end of World War II,

came a realisation that
the world had entered a new era;

one in which military conflict
could wipe out entire cities.

- What Hiroshima and Nagasaki did
was that they really demonstrated

the power of these new weapons

and their effects
on urban environments,

really visualising
these massive impacts.

NARRATOR: Despite public fear
of nuclear weapons,

a fully-fledged nuclear arms race
was emerging between East and West

and the United States would do
whatever it could to get ahead.

The US began secretly smuggling
ex-Nazi scientists to America

to accelerate
their atomic programme.

- They started an operation called
Operation Paperclip.

And this was an attempt to hoover up
all the scientists they could

to come back to the US
and to work on rocket technologies,

intercontinental ballistic missiles

that could be used to fire
atomic weapons,

and also the researchers
that could help

create ever larger
nuclear bombs.

People like Verner von Braun,
who was taken in by the US,

he'd been working on
the Nazi V1s and V2s,

he was the German rocket expert,

and he became
a high-ranking official in NASA.

It was partly due to him that the US
was able to win in the space race

and send the US to the moon first,
as opposed to the Soviet Union.

NARRATOR: Not to be outdone,
on the 29th August 1949

the Soviet Union
tested its first atomic bomb.

Other nations followed

with Great Britain
commencing nuclear testing in 1952

and France in 1960.

- Certainly for Britain, getting
nuclear weapons of their own,

I think one of the politicians
at the time said,

"We've got to have nuclear weapons

"with a bloody great union jack
on top",

it was a way of asserting the role
of the country in the world.

(explosion)

(dramatic music)

NARRATOR: By the mid-1950s,

the world was split into
two major spheres of influence

and each side could defeat
and destroy the other

several times over.

The nuclear threat
was at an all-time high.

As the arms race continued,

the dangers of nuclear testing

were about to be demonstrated
as never before,

on a remote island in the Pacific,
Bikini Atoll.

Here, the United States would test
the world's first hydrogen bomb...

..unleashing deadly waves
of radiation,

whose effects would be felt
for decades.

(dramatic music)

(dramatic music)

(explosion)

NARRATOR:
Despite the fear of a nuclear war

spreading across the globe,

America was determined
to test bigger

and more devastating
atomic weapons.

Their newest test site

was a set of far-flung islands
in the South Pacific.

- The United States tested nuclear
weapons in the Marshall Islands

from 1946 to 1958,

conducting 67 tests
during that time.

The extent of the test was so great
it was the equivalent of

the explosive power of
1.6 Hiroshima-sized bombs

every day for those 12 years.

The first tests
were conducted on Bikini Atoll

as part of Operation Crossroads.

-Operation Crossroads marks
the first time that

the US conducts nuclear tests

at Bikini Atoll
in the Marshall Islands.

They destroy entire islands,
they poison the soil,

they create massive craters
in this distant part of the world

that was seen to be out of sight,
out of mind

and secret so that
the Soviet Union couldn't see

just how far American nuclear power
had advanced.

NARRATOR: The Marshall Islands
would never be the same again.

The true perils of the US military's
testing in the Marshall Islands

would become apparent with the
infamous Castle Bravo test in 1954.

On the morning
of March the 1st 1954,

the Japanese trawler
'the Lucky Dragon'

had just completed
a long night's fishing.

Most of its crew were sleeping
below deck

when the US detonated
a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb

on the Bikini Atoll.

- This weapon was so powerful that

it went beyond
the anticipated yield.

So the fallout extended far
beyond the exclusion zone.

And so
this Japanese tuna-fishing boat

happened to sail
through this cloud

and the crew then suffered
from radiation sickness,

and one crew member
even died as a result of this.

NARRATOR: Although the Lucky Dragon

was over 80 miles
from the test site,

radioactive ash
fell over the men on board,

with devastating consequences.

- This was a pivotal moment

because these Japanese fishermen
who were on the boat,

many were veterans
and many had known those who were

caught up in the US offensive
attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,

again, with atomic bombs,
nuclear weapons.

And it was this moment
when Japanese civilians

were once again caught up
in a US nuclear explosion,

that it really set a fire
under the anti-nuclear movement

and opens people's eyes to
these tests that are going on

across the Marshall Islands.

NARRATOR: As the devastating effects
of nuclear testing became clear,

a series of international
nuclear test limiting treaties

were put in place.

Despite these treaties, the
arms race showed no signs of slowing

and the tensions
of the Cold War lived on.

In January 1981, a new
American president took office,

one who was willing to fully embrace
the arms race

if it could ultimately lead to
American hegemony

and destruction of
what he called 'the evil empire'.

- In your discussions of
the nuclear freeze proposals,

I urge you to beware
the temptation of pride,

the temptation of blithely
declaring yourselves above it all,

label both sides equally at fault.

To ignore the facts of history

and the aggressive impulses
of an evil empire,

to simply call the arms race
a giant misunderstanding

and thereby remove yourself
from the struggle

between right and wrong,
and good and evil.

NARRATOR: In British Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher,

President Reagan
found a steadfast ally,

willing to join him in his
ideological battle with communism.

She was happy to accept

American Nuclear Missiles on
British soil

to counter the threat of Soviet
intermediate-range nuclear missiles,

or SS-20s, which had been deployed
in Eastern Europe in 1976.

When American Pershing Cruise
Missiles were brought into the UK

destined for the RAF's Greenham
Common air base in Berkshire,

a group of unlikely protesters
began to mobilise.

- In August of 1981,

a few dozen women, I think maybe
30-odd women from South Wales,

decided that
they were going to march

or walk to Greenham Common
airbase in Berkshire.

And that they were going to demand
to see the base commander

and express their concerns
about cruise missiles

because the cruise missiles
were heading for both

Greenham Common and RAF Molesworth.

Those were the two bases that
cruise missiles would be located at.

Initially, they decided
they'd try and speak to him,

they'd leave a message,
and then go back to Cardiff.

But when they got there,
they decided,

"Well, actually no,
we're not going to leave.

"We're going to stay here and
we're going to make a protest camp."

And of course, eventually,
that was what they did.

And they stayed there,

with many other people joining them,
people coming and going,

staying and then moving away
and so on,

new people, new women
coming in for several years.

(dramatic music)

NARRATOR: The women were made up of
mothers, housewives

and members of the CND, the Campaign
for Nuclear Disarmament.

They blocked the RAF site

and set up a series of protests
against nuclear weapons.

They chained themselves to gates
and set up camp in a nearby field.

(chains rattle)
(crowd cheers)

NARRATOR: At first,

the Thatcher government tried to
dismiss the protestors

as an eccentric novelty
which would soon fade away.

But this growing movement
was no flash in the pan.

(protestors play drums)

NARRATOR: In the early 1980s,
as fears grew

that more nuclear weapons
might arrive on British soil,

the CND's membership grew
from 3,500 to 50,000.

By 1983,
the women of Greenham Common

had lived at the protest camp
for 2 years

and were showing
no signs of giving up.

Fearful of their rising popularity,

the Conservative government launched
a full-blown MI5 covert operation

to infiltrate them.

- The government,
I think it was Heseltine at the time

who was Secretary of State
for defence,

he organised a covert group within
the Ministry of Defence called DS19.

NARRATOR: Years later,

Lord Heseltine would be at pains
to deny that there was any misuse

or abuse of the information
provided to him

and the Ministry of Defence
about CND membership.

-Of course, well, what else would
a Secretary of State do?

If you have a particular problem
in any field,

you have a group of officials that
advised you.

If you have an ongoing confrontation
with a group of people,

or a problem that you have to
cope with that is ongoing,

you have a team to help you
keep abreast, advise you,

And that's what that committee was,

there was absolutely a typical,
Whitehall response

to a given problem.

NARRATOR:
As a general election loomed,

the debate about nuclear weapons
entered the political arena,

as the Labour Party
made nuclear disarmament

a key pledge of their manifesto.

-That was a general election year,
1983.

And of course,
the leader of the Labour Party

at that time was Michael Foot.

He had been one of the founders
of CND,

he was an opponent
of nuclear weapons,

and the Labour Party at that time
had a policy of

unilateral nuclear disarmament.

They thought Britain should
get rid of nuclear weapons.

But instead of having
a political debate about it,

people opposed to that
started saying that

he was this pro-Soviet person,
that somehow he was a traitor.

They produced anti-labour and
anti-Michael Foot material

saying that the CND, which he was
associated with,

stood for Communist, Neutralist and
Defeatist.

Real terrible political sabotage

and antagonism towards CND.

- They were a left-wing front
organisation, that's what they were,

acting in many ways against the
national interest of this country

and in support of enemies
of our country.

- Michael Heseltine, he said that

once the nuclear weapons,
the missiles came to Greenham,

he said that if any of the women
got too close to the missiles,

they would be shot.
And he said that in Parliament!

So there was massive outrage
about that

and, of course,
they never were shot, fortunately.

NARRATOR: Tensions between
the women of Greenham Common,

who were supported
by the Labour Party,

and the Conservative government
went on for years

with rumours of MI5
bugging CND phones

and infiltrating
their London offices.

- Kathy Massiter, who was
the whistle-blower from MI5,

subsequently
she revealed information

about someone who'd
been put into the CND office

to keep an eye on what was going on
and report back.

We know since then,
of course,

following the recent
spy cops inquiry,

of which CND is a core participant,

that the police,
the special services of the police,

also put people into CND.

So, it's a long history of that,

but it didn't put us off
or deter us

from our campaigning
in any way.

- MI5 would be a source of
intelligence information.

And whilst I would be
party to their findings,

in no way did that information,
that security information,

play any part in the disclosure of
the affiliations of members of CND.

NARRATOR: The women remained
at the camp for 19 years.

The Pershing missiles were finally
removed from the site in 1991,

as a result of the Intermediate
Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

The last of the Greenham Common
protestors

only left the site
in the year 2000.

(dramatic music)

(dramatic music)

NARRATOR:
10th July, 1985, New Zealand.

A Greenpeace vessel,
the Rainbow Warrior,

is berthed at Auckland Harbour.

In the morning, it will lead out
a flotilla of boats in a protest

against French Nuclear testing
on the Mururoa Islands.

Around 11:30 pm,

a bomb that had been attached
to the front of the boat explodes,

blowing a hole in its side.

The crew are thrown into the water

but luckily, no one is hurt.

Fernando Pereira, a Greenpeace
Portuguese-Dutch photographer,

returns to the ship to retrieve
some photography equipment.

Suddenly, a second bomb detonates.

Pereira is caught in that second,
bigger blast and killed.

Greenpeace and the rest of
the world was left stunned.

All eyes turned to the French
government

as the Greenpeace chairman
travelled to Paris

to demand answers from
President Mitterrand.

- Yes, I understand that
but you know as well as I do

that the investigation could go on
for a hell of a long time.

Therefore,
would you tell the president

that we have started
our own investigation?

I will call again tomorrow morning.

Unless I get to see him soon,

we will be moving in a stronger way
and I mean it.

NARRATOR: Even though
French authorities

denied any responsibility
for the bombing,

two days later,
two of their secret agents,

Dominique Prieur and Alain Mafart,

were arrested by New Zealand Police
and charged with murder.

Two months later, in September 1985,

'Le Monde' revealed details
of the operation

orchestrated against Greenpeace

by the French foreign intelligence
service, the DSGE.

So concerned
had the French government become

that the Rainbow Warrior
would interrupt nuclear testing

on the Mururoa islands,

they launched a covert operation
codenamed Operation Satanique.

French secret agents
disguised as tourists

were deployed to the boat
weeks earlier

to investigate the on-board workings
of the vessel.

DSGE then had divers
attach the explosives to the boat

that would detonate minutes apart.

The attack was a public relations
disaster for France.

It led to the resignation
of the defence minister

and the dismissal
of the DSGE Director,

before, finally,
the French government

issued a formal apology
for the bombing.

Despite this, however,
less than a decade later,

the French were back
in the Mururoa Atoll,

resuming their nuclear tests, as if
nothing untoward had ever happened.

In 1985,
even as the world reeled

from the shock of the attack
on Rainbow Warrior,

the Cold War
was finally starting to thaw.

- When Mikhail Gorbachev became
leader of the Soviet Union in 1985,

this played an important part

in ending a period of
increased tensions

between the United States
and the Soviet Union

that had occurred
during the early 1980s.

President Ronald Reagan also reacted
very positively to Gorbachev.

This created a new,
more constructive atmosphere

and a sense of cooperation

that led to really important nuclear
disarmament treaties

like the Intermediate Nuclear Forces
Treaty of 1987, for example.

NARRATOR: Under the 1987

Intermediate Range
Nuclear Forces Treaty,

the United States
and the Soviet Union

mutually agreed to give up
all of their nuclear

and conventional ground-launched
ballistic and cruise missiles

with ranges between
500 to 5,500 kilometres.

They also agreed
to allow onsite inspections

of each other's
weapons installations.

In a little over 3 years,

the US and Soviet Union dismantled
2,692 nuclear missiles between them.

After the huge progress of 1987

and the dissolution
of the Soviet Union in 1991

there was a feeling that
the nuclear problem was finally over

but this would not last.

- From the early 1990s,
NATO began to expand

into the areas that had previously
been in the Warsaw Pact,

into Eastern Europe, which had been
in the Soviet sphere of influence

and even eventually,
into former Soviet republics.

So, NATO expanded
as a nuclear military alliance

up to the border with Russia.

So it became increasingly obvious

that we were not going in
a good peaceful direction,

we were going in
a more military direction.

NARRATOR: In 1995, the new President
of France, Jacques Chirac,

announced the resumption of nuclear
testing in the Mururoa atoll

sparking a wave of protests
around the world.

(boat horns blare)

NARRATOR: But behind the scenes,
genuine progress was being made

towards a
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

- The Comprehensive
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

opened for signature in 1996.

And this was a treaty that
prohibited all nuclear testing.

So previously, members of
the partial Test Ban Treaty

had agreed not to test out in the
atmosphere or underwater,

but this would stop
all nuclear weapons tests,

including those underground tests.

NARRATOR: 71 states

signed the Comprehensive
Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty

and since 1996, that number
has grown to 185 countries.

But there are some nations who
refuse to ratify it, even today.

- This treaty has not yet entered
into force,

so it's not become
international law,

because several of the states that
need to ratify it

have not yet done so.

NARRATOR: In May 1998, India's new
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee

ordered 5 nuclear tests.

Despite much of the world having
abandoned testing 2 years earlier,

Vajpayee was determined to show
India as a great power.

This caused a major public rebuke
from the United States.

- This action by India

not only threatens
the stability of the region,

it directly challenges
the firm international consensus

to stop the proliferation of
weapons of mass destruction.

NARRATOR: The hostile action from
India

was quickly followed by
retaliation from Pakistan,

who carried out five simultaneous
underground nuclear tests

two weeks after India's.

Tests from these countries showed
the rest of the world

that they would not be
bound by nuclear treaties.

New players were emerging
on the nuclear scene.

The Cold War
was heating up once again...

(dramatic music)

(dramatic music)

NARRATOR:
Over the last 20 years,

despite multiple international
nuclear treaties,

the threat of nuclear war
has not abated.

And now,
thanks to Russian aggression

and Chinese military expansionism,
the threat is greater than ever...

- There are still 13,000 nuclear
weapons in the world today,

the vast majority being held by
Russia and the United States.

There are three more
nuclear weapons States

since the end of the Cold War,
India, Pakistan, and Israel.

And that brings, you know,
more complicated dynamics

in terms of nuclear relationships.

NARRATOR: New players have now
entered the nuclear arena

spreading a sense of fear and unease
across the world.

In particular,

in potential flashpoint areas like
the Middle East and the Gulf.

Iran, despite being
one of the original signatories

of the 1970
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,

resumed a major uranium-enriching
program in the 1990s.

- When it comes down to
Iranian technologies,

that ability to deploy the nuclear
missiles that it wants to obtain,

well, that's when you can look to
closer ties to North Korea

and to the Chinese as well,
of course, nuclear armed states.

They shared their rocket systems,

their ability to deploy
nuclear weapons with the Iranians,

and the Iranians have been
able to really advance those.

So they have a medium range
rocket technology,

ready for when they do obtain
that nuclear grade material,

if that's
something they choose to do.

NARRATOR: In 2002,

an Iranian opposition group revealed
that the Islamic Republic

was engaged in a covert program of
uranium enrichment and processing.

This prompted the International
Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA,

to visit the fuel enrichment
facilities the following year.

Following this inspection,
the IAEA declared that Iran had

"failed to meet its obligations
under its Safeguards Agreement."

The nuclear capabilities of Iran
were becoming a real concern,

in particular to one of America's
main allies in the region, Israel.

And Iran was not the only state

to push back against
nuclear restrictions.

- I think it was in 2002,

shortly after President Bush
had talked about the axis of evil.

This is at the height of
the war on terror.

And, of course, people could see
what was happening to Iraq.

So, North Korea,

which had been a member of the
nuclear non-proliferation treaty,

withdrew from the treaty,

as all countries have a right to do,
because it said that

it had a deterrent need to develop
nuclear weapons,

that it needed to
protect itself

in the context of
being put on the axis of evil list.

And so North Korea began to develop
its nuclear technology,

or further develop
its nuclear technology.

NARRATOR: By 2006,

North Korea's nuclear programme
was sufficiently developed

for it to carry out
its first nuclear test.

Despite having an energy discharge

of less than a tenth of
the size of the Hiroshima bomb,

the blast sent a clear message

that the state had joined
the nuclear club

and would continue to test
bigger and better weapons

over the next 15 years.

With the emergence
of new nuclear powers,

disarmament treaties
have remained fragile.

Iran's refusal to suspend all
enrichment-related activities

and cooperate with the IAEA

led to sanctions being implemented
by western powers in 2006.

- The United States may have
the power to cause harm and pain...

..but it is also susceptible
to harm and pain.

So,

if the United States
wishes to choose that path,

let the ball roll.

NARRATOR: Crippled by sanctions
for over a decade,

Iran eventually agreed to suspend
their nuclear programme

allow the IAEA

to carry out new inspections
of its nuclear facilities.

Today, however, the fragile
nuclear amnesty with Iran

is on the brink of collapse.

- When President Trump was in power,

unfortunately, he decided to
withdraw from that nuclear deal,

he wanted to
put more sanctions on Iran

and he wanted a new type of
agreement with Iran,

which would limit their capabilities
as a regional power,

nothing to do with nuclear stuff,

but to kind of add-in
further elements

to limit the influence of
Iran in the region.

NARRATOR: The other signatories of
the nuclear non-proliferation deal

including China, France, Russia,
the United Kingdom and Germany

all fought
for the deal to be upheld...

..but Trump's actions
made this almost impossible.

The president pulled the US
out of the deal in May 2018

and reinstated US sanctions on Iran
with the aim of forcing them

to wind down their
ballistic missile programme

and involvement
in regional conflicts.

Iran refused
and resumed enriching uranium.

With the build-up of
Iran's nuclear arsenal,

there is a fear that the world
could once again

be on the brink of
nuclear catastrophe.

In 2021,

despite the new US President Biden
committing himself to reinstatement

of the Nuclear Non-proliferation
agreement with Iran,

he was unable
to come up with a deal.

Also, in 2021,

North Korea continued
to flex its nuclear muscles.

In the full glare of publicity,
Kim Jong-Un proudly tested

a submarine launched ballistic
missile for the first time.

South Korea also makes their
nuclear testing clear to the world.

And many were left asking whether

these countries were slipping
into an old Cold War brinkmanship.

- It is different, I guess,
from the Cold War

because we're not talking about

the same arsenals that the
superpowers had in the Cold War.

What is very concerning, though,
in the minds of many governments

and people are the governments
of these states.

In North Korea,
we have a Stalinist regime

that is facing
severe economic issues

and there is a worry that
they might eventually

use nuclear weapons to some extent
to counter those issues.

And Iran, of course,

we have a religious fundamentalist
regime in power

and there are serious concerns

that they might also
develop nuclear weapons,

use them or proliferate
nuclear materials

to terrorist groups.

NARRATOR: On January the 22nd 2021,

the Treaty on the Prohibition of
Nuclear Weapons

finally came into force.

This is the first international
agreement ever entered into

that prohibits nuclear weapons,
rather than just limiting them,

with the aim of ultimately leading
to their total elimination.

- This has made nuclear weapons
illegal under international law,

and it's been championed
by many, many states.

So it's not just CND and other
strange anti-nuclear activists

that are opposed to nuclear weapons,

it's actually the majority of
states in the world.

NARRATOR: Even as the anti-nuclear
coalition remains globally strong,

the fear of a nuclear war
still hangs over the world.

As history has shown us,
previous treaties have failed

to stop nuclear weapons
development and testing.

So why would this one
prove any different?

- It's safe to say that

although some non-proliferation
attempts have been successful,

nuclear weapons are still spreading
around the world,

whether that be with North Korean
or Iranian ambitions,

or, of course in the West,

and we've seen that with the UK
and Boris Johnson's government,

there has been an
announcement that the UK

will increase its nuclear arsenal
by 40%.

Many have seen this
as the start of a new Cold War.

And one of the sad facts here

is that nuclear weapons have
only been used

against those nations
that don't possess them.

NARRATOR: Nuclear armament continues
to be a geopolitical currency

to demonstrate military power
on a global scale.

Rightly or wrongly,

it ensures countries have
a seat at the top table.

But how can we guarantee

the continued presence
of nuclear weapons

will only be used as a status symbol
and a deterrent,

instead of as a devastating
weapon of mass destruction?

And how, once a global amnesty on
nuclear weapons has been enforced,

can we guarantee the nuclear age

won't give way to
something even more deadly?

- Britain has an independent
nuclear deterrent to this day.

It's a complete delusion that

because you change one weapon system
for another,

that you will have
abandoned your deterrence.

We just have a different deterrent,
that's all.

(ominous music)

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