The Cold War and British debates over the boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics

Abstract

This article examines the debate precipitated by the Thatcher government's (unsuccessful) attempt to secure a British boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Aware that it faced a struggle to win over the autonomous British Olympic Association, but with Thatcher in particular keen to support the United States, the government's case that the invasion required a specific response in the form of a boycott was steadily overshadowed as the public debate increasingly focused on arguments over human rights and détente and the use of state power.

Acknowledgement

I am grateful to Queen's University Belfast for providing a generous ‘Start-up Package’ that allowed me to undertake the research for this article. I would also like to thank the anonymous referees for their helpful comments and suggestions.

Notes

156 Andrew Gamble, The Free Economy and the Strong State: The Politics of Thatcherism (Basingstoke, 1988).

155 Sarantakes, Dropping the Torch.

154 ‘Olympic Reckoning’, Tablet, 9 August 1980.

153 Paul Oestreicher, ‘The Churches and the Olympics’, Church Times, 13 June 1980.

152 Editorial, The Times, 26 May 1980.

151 Margaret Thatcher, ‘What I Really Think of British Athletes’, Daily Mail, 23 May 1980.

150 The Times, 3 June 1980; Sarantakes, Dropping the Torch, 176.

149 Guardian, 17 July 1980; Sunday Telegraph, 6 July 1980.

148 Parliamentary Debates, 5^th series, vol. 987 (Commons), 2 July 1980, col. 1505.

147 Conservative Central Office News Service, ‘Extract from a speech by Mr Hector Monro’, 11 June 1980, Conservative Party Archive, CRD 4/18, box 206.

146 ‘Record of meeting between the Hon Douglas Hurd CBE MP, Minister of State, and Lt Col J. Innes, Honorary Secretary of the BOA, at the FCO’, 7 May 1980, TNA, PREM 19/376.

145 Labour Councillor, July 1980, gave the following figures: £10,000 Strathclyde Regional Council; £4,000 Birmingham City Council; £2,000 Lothian Regional Council; £1,000 London Borough of Hackney; £1,000 Stirling District; £250 London Borough of Islington.

144 Political Committee minutes, 8 May 1980, Communist Party Archive, CP/CENT/PC/15/14.

143 ‘General Council Report’, TUCAR, 1980, 224.

142 Guardian, 28 April 1980; Denis Howell, Made in Birmingham: The Memoirs of Denis Howell (London, 1990), 294.

141 Leader, Tablet, 10 May 1980; Tom Buchanan, ‘Great Britain’, in Tom Buchanan and Martin Conway (eds.), Political Catholicism in Europe, 1918–65 (Oxford, 1996), 248–274.

140 Guardian, 22 March 1980.

139 Daily Express, 6 March 1980.

138 David Reynolds, Britannia Overruled: British Policy and the World in the Twentieth Century (London, 2000), 37.

137 The Times, 7 April 1980.

136 Guardian, 28 March 1980.

135 Parliamentary Debates, 5^th series, vol. 981 (Commons), 17 March 1980, cols 77–78.

134 ‘Statement from the BOA to Members of Parliament’, 14 March 1980, Biggs-Davison papers, BD/1/340.

133 ‘Comment’, Daily Mail, 14 March 1980.

132 Philip Noel-Baker, ‘Olympics: Too Precious to be Ruined by Politics’, ibid., 17 March 1980; Beck, ‘Cultural Olympics’, 180.

131 Guardian, 3 March 1980.

130 Editorial, New Statesman, 8 February 1980. These arguments were often linked to support for a permanent Olympic home in Greece.

129 See, for instance, Editorial, Labour Weekly, 1 February 1980. The argument had academic pedigree: Richard Espy, The Politics of the Olympic Games (Berkeley, 1979), viii–ix, 9–10, ch. 2.

128 Guardian, 5 February 1980.

127 Peter Lawson (CCPR) to Margaret Thatcher, 30 January 1980, copy in BOA Archive, BOA/ADM/3/3.

126 ‘They can be Moved’, Economist, 19 January 1980.

125 ‘To the Point’, Sunday Telegraph, 10 February 1980.

124 The Times, 8 January 1980.

123 George Gale, ‘How Marvellous if they did Sink the Red Olympics’, Daily Express, 3 January 1980.

122 See, for example, Margaret Thatcher, speech to the Conservative party conference, 10 October 1975, www.margaretthatcher.org/document/102777

121 Beck, ‘Cultural Olympics’, 178–179.

120 NEC International Committee minutes, 15 April 1980, Labour Party Archive.

119 Editorial, Tribune, 21 March 1980.

118 Methodist Recorder, 10 July 1980.

117 Methodist Recorder, 17 April 1980, 7 August 1980; Hughes, Conscience and Conflict, 160.

116 Methodist Recorder, 17 April 1980.

115 Editorial, Methodist Recorder, 31 January 1980; Michael Hughes, Conscience and Conflict: Methodism, Peace and War in the Twentieth Century (Peterborough, 2008), 145–146.

114 The Times, 3 June 1980.

113 Margaret Thatcher to Jimmy Carter, 26 January 1980, TNA, PREM 19/136; Green, Thatcher, 162.

112 Parliamentary Debates, 5^th series, vol. 981 (Commons), 17 March 1980, cols 32, 34, 43–46.

111 Home Affairs Brief, ‘The Olympic Games and the Invasion of Afghanistan’, 14 March 1980, Conservative Party Archive, CRD/B/16/5.

110 Parliamentary Debates, 5^th series, vol. 977 (Commons), 28 January 1980, cols 1037–42; John Biggs-Davison, Pakistan and Western Interests (Foreign Affairs Research Institute, 1979) and John Biggs-Davison, Red Star Over Afghanistan (Foreign Affairs Research Institute, 1979), both Biggs-Davison papers, BD/1/339; Peter Blaker to John Biggs-Davison, 7 February 1980, Biggs-Davison papers, BD/1/340; John Biggs-Davison to editor, Guardian, 20 March 1980.

109 Wall endorsed the need ‘to reconsider the conventional military options’ in response to the invasion of Afghanistan at the North Atlantic Assembly (the consultative body linking NATO and its member states) where he was leader of the British delegation: ‘Draft Resolution on Afghanistan and Related Issues Presented by the Political Committee, with Amendments Presented by Mr Wall’, Hull, Hull History Centre, Sir Patrick Wall papers, U DPW/41/332.

108 Parliamentary Debates, 5^th series, vol. 977 (Commons), 1 February 1980, cols 1731, 1733, 28 January 1980, cols 1008–1014; Julian Amery to Margaret Thatcher, 27 August 1980, Churchill College, Cambridge, Julian Amery papers, 1/10/45, file 3.

107 Parliamentary Debates, 5^th series, vol. 977 (Commons), 1 February 1980, cols 1731, 1733.

106 Editorial, Spectator, 19 January 1980.

105 Christopher Booker, ‘Olympic Confusion’, Spectator, 26 January 1980.

104 Christopher Booker, ‘This Time, Will it Pay to Walk Out?’, Daily Mail, 16 January 1980. See also Christopher Booker, The Games War: A Moscow Journal (London, 1981), 32.

103 White, Détente, 138.

102 The Times, 12 March 1980; Church of England Newspaper, 28 March 1980.

101 Trevor Beeson, ‘Religious Hurdles’, Guardian, 23 February 1980.

100 Bow Group to editor, Guardian, 29 January 1980.

99 Liberal Party, Annual Report and Accounts, 1980, Liberal Party Archive, LIBERAL PARTY 6/17, appendix 1, 3.

98 Daily Mail, 26 January 1980.

97 Geoff Ball, ‘Sport and Politics Mix’, Labour Weekly, 11 January 1980. For Labour opposition to the Lions tour, see NEC International Committee minutes, 8 January 1980, Labour Party Archive.

96 The Times, 19 September 1978.

95 ‘Don't Make War with Sport’, Comment, 1 March 1980; National Executive meeting minutes, 12–13 January 1980, LHASC, Communist Party Archive, CP/CENT/EC/17/07; Political Committee minutes, 16 January 1980, Communist Party Archive, CP/CENT/PC/15/10; Geoff Andrews, Endgames and New Times: The Final Years of British Communism 1964–1991 (London, 2004), 92–95, 161–163.

94 Editorial, Tribune, 11 January 1980.

93 Vickers, Labour Party, 96–97, 113–114, 129–130.

92 ‘General Council Report’, Trades Union Congress Annual Report (hereafter TUCAR), 1980, 1980, 155–156. The TUC was later informed by the BOA that they could not do so because of fund-raising difficulties.

91 ‘General Council Report’, Trades Union Congress Annual Report (hereafter TUCAR), 1980, 1–365, 220. The General Council had not protested about dissidents, stating that trade union issues were not involved: ‘General Council's Report’, TUCAR, 1978, 1–382, 258.

90 NEC minutes, 23 January 1980, Labour Party Archive.

89 Rhiannon Vickers, The Labour Party and the World: volume 2. Labour's Foreign Policy since 1951 (Manchester, 2011), 96–97.

88 Jeremi Suri, ‘Détente and Human Rights: American and West European Perspectives on International Change’, Cold War History 8, 4 (2008): 527–545.

87 NEC International Committee minutes, 12 September 1978, Manchester, Labour History Archive and Study Centre (LHASC), Labour Party Archive.

86 Denis Healey (ed.), The Curtain Falls: The Story of Socialists in Eastern Europe with Foreword by Aneurin Bevan (London, 1951). For a recent example, see NEC International Committee, 24 May 1978, Labour Party Annual Conference Report, 1978, 42–43.

85 Liberal Party, Annual Report and Accounts, 1978, 6, noting resolution by the Party Council on 22 July, London, British Library of Political and Economic Science, Liberal Party Archive, LIBERAL PARTY/6/15.

84 Editorial, New Statesman, 14 July 1978; Sunday Telegraph, 4 June 1978; G. C. Allen et al to editor, Guardian, 7 July 1978 (other signatories included the philosopher Sir Alfred Ayer, the economist Sir Alec Cairncross and the historian W. G. Hoskins); The Times, 12 July 1978.

83 Editorial, Guardian, 20 May 1978.

82 The Times, 25 August 1978.

81 Cabinet Conclusions, 18 May 1978, TNA, CAB 128/63/19.

80 Rosemary Foot, ‘The Cold War and Human Rights’, in Melvyn P. Leffler and Odd Arne Westad (eds.), The Cambridge History of the Cold War, volume 3 (Cambridge, 2009), 445–465. See also Mark Mazower, ‘The Strange Triumph of Human Rights, 1933–50’, Historical Journal 47, 2 (2004): 379–398.

79 Brian White, Britain, Détente and Changing East-West Relations (London, 1992), ch. 2; Robert D. Schulzinger, ‘Détente in the Nixon-Ford Years’, in Melvyn P. Leffler and Odd Arne Westad (eds.), The Cambridge History of the Cold War, volume 2 (Cambridge, 2009), 373–394.

78 Editorial, The Times, 19 March 1980. See also ibid., 26 May 1980.

77 Norman Tebbit to Douglas Hurd, 27 June 1980; private secretary (to the prime minister) to S. M. Haird, 30 June 1980, both TNA, PREM 19/376.

76 Cabinet Conclusions, 11 June 1980, TNA, CAB 128/67/23, 27 March 1980, TNA, CAB 128/67/14; The Times, 6 June 1980.

75 Cabinet Conclusions, 11 June 1980, TNA, CAB 128/67/23, 19 June 1980, TNA, CAB 128/68/1.

74 Cabinet Conclusions, 11 June 1980, TNA, CAB 128/67/23.

73 P. Lever (assistant private secretary to the foreign secretary) to M. Alexander (private secretary to the prime minister), 10 June 1980, TNA, PREM 19/376.

72 Guardian, 3 May 1980, 13 May 1980. Speculation over the position of Prince Philip, as President of the International Equestrian Federation (which opposed the boycott), had been intense but he had decided not to go to Moscow. See ibid., 23 and 24 April 1980. Killanin suggested that, in part, the pro-boycott attitude of equestrianism and yachting in Britain was due to the level of international support for the boycott among those sports, meaning that the quality of the competition would be seriously diminished: Killanin, Olympic Years, 195, 209.

71 Guardian, 3 May 1980.

70 Margaret Thatcher to Denis Follows, 20 May 1980, copy in TNA, PREM 19/376.

69 Cabinet Conclusions, 17 April 1980, TNA, CAB 128/67/16; ibid., 24 April 1980, TNA, CAB 128/67/17.

68 Guardian, 24 February 2006. Wells later stated that the government sent him photographs of Soviet war atrocities in Afghanistan: Observer, 5 March 2006.

67 Postmaster-General's Office, ‘Speaking Note. Why Britain should not be represented at the Olympics’, 1 April 1980, Oxford, Bodleian Library, Conservative Party Archive, CRD 4/12, box 206.

66 Sarantakes, Dropping the Torch, 145–146.

65 Cabinet Conclusions, 6 March 1980, TNA, CAB 128/67/9; ibid., 22 May 1980, TNA, CAB 128/67/20.

64 Editorial, Guardian, 14 March 1980. The newspaper later completed its volte-face, arguing in favour of the boycott while Soviet troops were still in Afghanistan: ibid., 17 May 1980.

63 ‘Resolution of the NOC of the BOA at its meeting on 4 March 1980’, BOA Archive, BOA/ADM/3/3.

62 Cabinet Conclusions, 14 February 1980, TNA, CAB 128/67/6.

61 Cited in Sarantakes, Dropping the Torch, 95.

60 ‘Note of telephone call between Fraser (Australian Prime Minister) and Carrington’, 6 February 1980, TNA, PREM 19/136.

59 The Times, 6 February 1980.

58 BOA Press Statement, 25 March 1980, BOA Archive, BOA/ADM/3/3.

57 House of Commons, Minutes of Evidence taken before The Foreign Affairs Committee, 5 March 1980, 7, copy in BOA Archive, BOA/ADM/3/3.

56 Cabinet Conclusions, 20 March 1980, TNA, CAB 128/67/12.

55 Parliamentary Debates, 5^th series, vol. 981 (Commons), 17 March 1980, cols 160–168.

54 Parliamentary Debates, 5^th series, vol. 980 (Commons), 13 March 1980, cols 1551–1552; Guardian, 13 March 1980.

53 Cabinet Conclusions, 6 March 1980, TNA, CAB 128/67/9.

52 Guardian, 28 February 1980. The Sports Council did not formally endorse this change of policy until 10 March: The Times, 11 March 1980.

51 ‘Record of a conversation between the Prime Minister and the United States Secretary of State, Mr Cyrus Vance, at 10 Downing Street’, 22 February 1980, TNA, PREM 19/136.

50 Margaret Thatcher to Denis Follows, 19 February 1980, BOA Archive, BOA/ADM/3/3.

49 Cabinet Conclusions, 7 February 1980, TNA, CAB 128/67/5; The Times, 14 November 1980.

48 This was how Carrington described Follows to US Congressman Stephen J. Solarz in April 1980: Stephen J. Solarz, Journeys to War and Peace: A Congressional Memoir (Waltham, Mass., 2011), 90.

47 Denis Follows to Margaret Thatcher, 23 January 1980; Denis Follows to Margaret Thatcher, 1 February 1980, copies of both in BOA Archive, BOA/ADM/3/3.

46 Margaret Thatcher to Denis Follows, 22 January 1980, BOA Archive, BOA/ADM/3/3.

45 ‘Call on the Prime Minister by Deputy US Secretary of State Mr Warren Christopher’, 14 January 1980, TNA, PREM 19/135.

44 Carrington persuaded Thatcher to incorporate the Patriotic Front, including Robert Mugabe, into the negotiations that led to Zimbabwean independence in April 1980: Sharp, Thatcher's Diplomacy, 33–42; E. H. H. Green, Thatcher (London, 2006), 146–149.

43 Robert Armstrong, ‘Note on Afghanistan for PM’, 21 January 1980, TNA, PREM 19/136.

42 ‘Call on the Prime Minister by Carrington’, 8 January 1980; Annex, ‘Note by Carrington’, 19 January 1980, both TNA, PREM 19/135.

41 Nigel Q. Ffooks to editor, Spectator, 26 January 1980; Tam Dalyell in Parliamentary Debates, 5^th series, vol. 981 (Commons), 17 March 1980, cols 112–113, 116.

40 Peter Lawson (CCPR General Secretary) to Thatcher, 30 January 1980, London, University of East London, BOA Archive, BOA/ADM/3/3.

39 Parliamentary Debates, 5^th series, vol. 977 (Commons), 28 January 1980, cols 975–977. Yet Powell himself argued that Britain ‘should not have reacted at all’.

38 ‘Commentary’, Political Quarterly, February 1980.

37 Editorial, Guardian, 16 January 1980.

36 Church Times, 25 January 1980, 1 February 1980.

35 Church Times, 25 January 1980.

34 Dianne Kirby, ‘Ecclesiastical McCarthyism: Cold War Repression in the Church of England’, Contemporary British History 19, 2 (2005): 187–203, 189–191.

33 Christopher Hitchens, ‘London Diary’, New Statesman, 18 January 1980; Guardian, 21 January 1980.

32 Editorial, Daily Mail, 3 January 1980; Editorial, Sunday Telegraph, 6 January 1980; Editorial, The Times, 17 January 1980.

31 Ray Whitney (Conservative), Patrick Cormack (Conservative) and James Wellbeloved to editor, The Times, 2 January 1980. Wellbeloved was co-chairman of the campaign together with the Conservative Geoffrey Ripon and the Liberal Russell Johnston: ‘Hands Off Afghanistan’ campaign statement, 15 January 1980, London, Parliamentary Archives, Sir John Biggs-Davison papers, BD/1/340. For press coverage, see Guardian, 16 January 1980.

30 ‘Note by Carrington’, 19 January 1980, TNA, PREM 19/135.

29 Sarantakes, Dropping the Torch, 90. Robert Gery-Wade, the Deputy Secretary of the Cabinet, was particularly clear in his advice that the government should avoid giving the impression of ‘British pack-leading’ or ‘action in advance of main allies’: Robert Wade-Gery, ‘Briefing Note for PM for meeting on Iran and Afghanistan on 16 January 1980’, 15 January 1980, TNA, PREM 19/135.

28 Margaret Thatcher to Malcolm Fraser, 23 January 1980, TNA, PREM 19/136.

27 Cabinet Conclusions, 24 January 1980, TNA, CAB 128/67/3; Parliamentary Debates, 5^th series, vol. 404 (Lords), 24 January 1980, cols 534–535.

26 Statements by Douglas Hurd and Ian Gilmour: ibid., 14 January 1980, cols 1222, 1227; ibid., 16 January 1980, col. 1626.

25 Parliamentary Debates, 5^th series, vol. 976 (Commons), 17 January 1980, col. 1864.

24 Cabinet Conclusions, 13 December 1979, TNA, CAB 128/66/25. See also ibid., 6 December 1979, TNA, CAB 128/66/24, 20 December 1979, TNA, CAB 128/66/26; ibid., 17 January 1980, TNA, CAB 128/67/2.

23 Cabinet Conclusions, 13 December 1979, TNA, CAB 128/66/25. See also ibid., 6 December 1979, TNA, CAB 128/66/24.

22 Robert Armstrong, ‘Note on Afghanistan for PM’, 21 January 1980, TNA, PREM 19/136; ‘Note of a meeting held at 10 Downing Street on 16 January 1980’, TNA, PREM 19/135.

21 Cabinet Conclusions, 13 December 1979, TNA, CAB 128/66/25.

20 James Cooper, ‘The Foreign Politics of Opposition: Margaret Thatcher and the Transatlantic Relationship before Power’, Contemporary British History 24, 1 (2010): 23–42.

19 Paul Sharp, Thatcher's Diplomacy: The Revival of British Foreign Policy (Basingstoke, 1997), 44–45; ‘Transcript of telephone conversation between the Prime Minister and Chancellor Schmidt’, 15 January 1980, TNA, PREM 19/135; Sarantakes, Dropping the Torch, 80–82.

18 ‘Note of a meeting held at 10 Downing Street on 16 January 1980’, TNA, PREM 19/135; Cabinet Conclusions, 17 January 1980, TNA, CAB 128/67/2.

17 ‘Transcript of telephone conversation between the Prime Minister and Chancellor Schmidt’, 15 January 1980, TNA, PREM 19/135.

16 Note by Eastern European and Soviet Office, FCO, ‘Why did the Soviet Union invade Afghanistan?’, 7 January 1980, TNA, PREM 19/135. This contrasted with the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 when, despite condemnation, there was an understanding that the West's reaction would be muted: Geraint Hughes, ‘British Policy towards Eastern Europe and the impact of the “Prague Spring”, 1964–68’, Cold War History 4, 2 (2004): 115–139.

15 Sean Greenwood, Britain and the Cold War 1945–91 (Basingstoke, 2000), 176–177.

14 Robert Armstrong to Michael Alexander, 16 January 1980; Robert Armstrong, ‘Note for record of meeting in Paris on 15 January’, 18 January 1980, both TNA, PREM 19/135.

13 Cabinet Conclusions, 17 January 1980, TNA, CAB 128/67/2; Margaret Thatcher, The Downing Street Years (London, 1993), 88.

12 ‘Note by Carrington to PM’, 8 January 1980; ‘Call on the Prime Minister by Carrington’, 8 January 1980; ‘Call on the Prime Minister by Mr Warren Christopher’, 14 January 1980, all London, The National Archives (TNA), PREM 19/135.

11 Beck, ‘1948 London Olympics’, 620, 622, 637; Hughes and Owen, ‘Two Germanys’, 445.

10 For background on the international deliberations, see The Times, 7, 8, 15, 16 January 1980.

9 Beck, ‘Cultural Olympics’, 170; Sarantakes, Dropping the Torch, 11–12, 262–264. Joseph S. Nye Jr has played the central role in developing this analysis. For an early example, see his ‘Soft Power’, Foreign Policy 80 (1990): 153–171.

8 Hill, Olympic Politics, 140–152, focuses on the debate in Parliament; Sarantakes, Dropping the Torch, 44, 89–90, 145–150, 175–178, 198–199, 227, considers the wider debate in Britain and the British part in the unfolding international diplomacy.

7 Lord Killanin, My Olympic Years (London, 1983), chs 1, 18, 19.

6 Hill, Olympic Politics, 120–124; Nicholas E. Sarantakes, Dropping the Torch: Jimmy Carter, the Olympic Boycott, and the Cold War (New York, 2011), chs 1, 7; Nicholas E. Sarantakes, ‘Moscow Versus Los Angeles: The Nixon White House Wages Cold War in the Olympic Selection Process’, Cold War History 9, 1 (2009): 135–157.

5 Peter Beck, ‘Britain and the Cold War's “Cultural Olympics”: Responding to the Political Drive of Soviet Sport, 1945–58’, Contemporary British History 19, 2 (2005): 169–185; Peter Beck, ‘The British Government and the Olympic Movement: The 1948 London Olympics’, International Journal of the History of Sport 25, 5 (2008): 615–647; R. Gerald Hughes and Rachel J. Owen, ‘“The Continuation of Politics by Other Means:” Britain, the Two Germanys and the Olympics Games, 1949–1972’, Contemporary European History 18, 4 (2009): 443–474.

4 See Tony Shaw, ‘Introduction: Britain and the Cultural Cold War’, Contemporary British History 19, 2 (2005): 109–115. Michael F. Hopkins, ‘Continuing Debate and New Approaches in Cold War History’, Historical Journal 50, 4 (2007): 913–934, 934, makes a call for greater integration.

3 David Caute, The Dancer Defects: The Struggle for Cultural Supremacy during the Cold War (Oxford, 2003).

2 Christopher R. Hill, Olympic Politics (Manchester, 1992).

1 Lincoln Allison, ‘Sport and Politics’, in Lincoln Allison (ed.), The Politics of Sport (Manchester, 1986), ch. 1, esp. 13; Arnd Krüger, ‘On the Origin of the Notion that Sport Serves as a Means of National Representation’, History of European Ideas 16 (1993): 863–869; Lincoln Allison and Terry Monnington, ‘Sport, Prestige and International Relations’, in Lincoln Allison (ed.), The Global Politics of Sport: The Role of Global Institutions in Sport (London, 2005), ch. 2.