World on fire: the politics of napalm in the Global Cold War

Abstract

This essay discusses the ways in which napalm contributed to the militarisation of global landscapes during the 1960s and 1970s, shaped distinctly by the interrelated geopolitical dynamics of the Cold War, decolonisation, and the rise of global public opinion against napalm and other weapons of terror. Using case studies and primary documents from British Archives, I argue that napalm played a significant role in shaping multiple military landscapes during this period, not just in terms of its direct effects on people, places, and the natural environment, but as a result of the moral, cultural, and political consequences of those effects.

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank the editors and anonymous reviewers at Cold War History for their careful reading and helpful comments on this essay.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. By far the best history to date is Robert M. Neer’s Napalm: An American Biography (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013).

2. Napalm has been used for both military and civilian uses to destroy flora and fauna. Brazil, for example, has used it to clear large areas of rainforest. In Vietnam, the US used it as part of large-scale efforts to use forest fire as a military weapon. For more on this, see Edwin Martini, “Even We Can’t Prevent Forests: The Chemical War and the Illusion of Control,” War and Society 31, no. 3 (2012), 264–79.

3. For more on these and other examples, see Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) 1955–1957, vol. 7, no. 427; FRUS 1964–1968, vol. 27, no. 117; FRUS 1964–1968, vol. 18, no. 316; Napalm and Incendiary Weapons: Legal and Humanitarian Aspects (Stockholm: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, 1972); Napalm and Other Incendiary Weapons and All Aspects of Their Possible Use, Report of the Secretary General of the United Nations (New York, 1974); Neer, Napalm, 104–108.

4. Peter Coates, Tim Cole, Marianna Dudley, and Chris Pearson, “Defending Nation, Defending Nature? Militarized Landscapes and Military Environmentalism in Britain, France, and the United States,” Environmental History 16 (2011): 456–91, 458.

5. Among many important works in this area, see Richard Miller, Under the Cloud: The Decades of Nuclear Testing (New York: The Free Press, 1986); Arjun Makhijani, Howard Hu, and Katherine Yih, eds., Nuclear Wastelands: A Global Guide to Nuclear Weapons Production and Its Health and Environmental Effects (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1995); Mark Merlin and Ricardo Gonzalez, “Environmental Impacts of Nuclear Testing in Remote Oceania, 1946–1996,” in Environmental Histories of the Cold War, ed. J.R. McNeill and Corinna R. Unger (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 167–202; Neil Oatsvall, ‘Weather, Otters, and Bombs: Policymaking, Environmental Science, and US Nuclear Weapons Testing, 1945–1958,” in Proving Grounds: Military Landscapes, Weapons Testing, and the Environmental Impact of US. Bases, ed. Edwin A. Martini (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2015), 43–74. ; Leisl Carr Childers, ‘Incident at Galisteo: The 1955 Teapot Series and the Mental Landscape of Contamination.” in Proving Grounds, Military Landscapes, Weapons Testing, and the Environmental Impact of US. Bases, ed. Edwin A. Martini (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2015), 75–110.

6. In doing so, it seeks to build upon the groundbreaking work of, in particular, Odd Arne Westad and his The Global Cold War (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), in its disruption of traditional and artificial East-West dichotmomies in the Cold War.

7. Louis Feiser, The Scientific Method: A Personal Account of Unusual Projects in War and Peace (New York: Reinhold, 1964), 29. As described below, the lack of a distinct chemical meaning for napalm would be exploited by British officials and others who argued for more generic terms and descriptions, such as ‘firebombing’, to lessen the political and moral implications of napalm use. For more on these early forms, see J.R. Partington, A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder (Cambridge: W. Hefer & Sons, 1960), chs 2 and 5; Alfred W. Crosby, Throwing Fire: Projectile Technology Through History (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), ch. 5, esp. 89–92; Adrienne Mayor, Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World (New York: Overlook Duckworth, 2003), ch. 7; Napalm and Incendiary Weapons: Legal and Humanitarian Aspects (United Nations), 17.

8. Partington, A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder, 19–21; 28–9. Crosby, Throwing Fire, 91–2. Alex Roland, “Secrecy, Technology, and War: Greek Fire and the Defense of Byzantium, 678–1204,” Technology and Culture 33 (October 1992), 655–9.

9. Neer, Napalm, 59–61.

10. For instance, while reports from US forces seem to uniformly praise the effectiveness of napalm, some early British reports questioned this position, arguing that it was difficult to separate the reaction of Japanese forces specifically to napalm attacks from the larger reaction to air attacks. See “O.R.S./ACSEA Report No. S.43,” The National Archives (Kew, UK; hereafter TNA), AIR 20/5665.

11. Neer, Napalm, 91; 106–107.

12. Sahr Conway-Lanz, “Beyond No Gun Ri: Refugees and the United States Military in the Korean War,” Diplomatic History 29, no. 1 (January 2005), 49–81. For an excellent extended discussion of this and related topics, see Conway-Lanz, Collateral Damage: Americans, Noncombatant Immunity, and Atrocity after World War II (New York: Routledge, 2006).

13. Prime Minister to Minister of Defence, “Secret and Personal, re: Use of Napalm Bomb in Korea,” 21 August 1952, TNA: PREM 11/ 115. A later, edited version of the memo is also quoted and discussed in Neer, Napalm, 103. For more on the cabinet’s response to the objections of Parliament and the Archibishop of York, see Cabinet Reocrds, TNA: CAB/195/10, CAB/128/24.

14. “Napalm Fire Bomb,” Minute Sheet 1, G.D. 52/61, 15 May 1961, TNA: ADM 1/27924.

15. “Napalm Fire Bomb,” TNA: ADM 1/27924.

16. “Introduction of Napalm for Use by Ground Attack Aircraft, Air Council Conclusions of Meeting, Secret Annex B,” 30 August 1962, TNA: AIR 20/11378.

17. “Napalm,” Report from Ministry of Defence, 8 December 1964, TNA: Prime Minister’s Office – Correspondence and Papers (PREM) 13/2570.

18. “Secret – Prime Minister,” December 1964, TNA: PREM 13/2570.

19. “Correspondence: NAPALM,” 8 May 1963, TNA: ADM 1/2794.

20. “Secret – MO/26/14, Minister of Defence to Prime Minister,” 19 September 1966, TNA: PREM 13/2570.

21. “Countries Training With Napalm,” Annex A to DSTI Tech (Air) Report, April 1967, TNA: DEFE 24/64.

22. “Live Training with Fire Bombs,” Draft Minute, Secretary of State for Defence, 5 December 1966, TNA: FCO 16/15.

23. “Secret: Country or Area – Singapore; Subject – Napalm,” no date, TNA: ADM 1/2794.

24. “Live Training with Fire Bombs,” Scottish Office to Prime Minister, 10 March 1969, TNA: DEFE 24/64.

25. “Live Training with Fire Bombs,” Defence Ministry to Prime Minister, December 1967, TNA: PREM 13/2570.

26. “Napalm - Reference HCTC/853470/9/Ops; 12 June 1967,” TNA:DEFE 24/64.

27. See, e.g., “Napalm Live Training: Loose Minute (Confidential),” RL Wade to Director of Ops, RAF, TNA: DEFE 24/64.

28. “Use of El Adem Range by U.S. Navy,” Air Vice Marshall H.B. Martin to Air Commomdore C.J. Mount, 11 November 1966, TNA: AIR 2/17221.

29. “Torrey Canyon,” 19 April 1967, TNA: DEFE 24/64.

30. “Napalm (Secret),” October 1966, TNA: DEFE 24/64; “M.I Golding to Sir Edward Peck: Secret and Personal,” 25 February 1969, TNA: FCO 46/381.

31. “Arms for Middle East,” Memo from the Levant Department, no. V1192/159, 10 February 1956, TNA: FO 371/121326.

32. “Ministry of defence to BJSM, Washington,” 2 May 1956, TNA: FO 371/121325. For more on the diplomatic, strategic, and economic dimensions of the crisis, see Reassessing Suez 1956: New Perspectives on the Crisis and its Aftermath, ed. Simon Smith (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Press, 2008).

33. Michael Oren, Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East (New York: Oxford, 2002), 243.

34. “Letter From the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs (Hare) to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs (Hoopes),” FRUS Vol. 18, Arab-Israeli Dispute, 1964–67, no. 316, http://19972001.state.gov/www/about_state/history/vol_xviii/zf.html

35. Confidential: Amman to Foreign Office, 15 June 1967, TNA: FCO 15/16.

36. “Golding to Peck,” 25 February 1969.

37. “Live Training with Fire Bombs,” TNA: FCO 16/15.

38. “Comments on ‘Live Training With Fire Bombs,’” 15 June 1968, TNA: FCO 8/599.

39. Handwritten Notes, no date, attached to confidential memo, “Tel Aviv to Foreign Office,” 21 June 1967, TNA: FCO 16/15.

40. “The Use of Napalm,” Stewart Crawford to Richard Sykes, 16 May 1968; “The Use of Napalm,” Sykes to Crawford, 22 May 1968; ‘The Use of Napalm,” D.J. McCarthy, Arabian Department to Foreign Office, 27 May 1968, TNA: FCO 8/599.

41. “Nigerian Use of Napalm,” 24 April 1969, TNA 65/351.

42. “Use of Napalm,” British High Commission, Lagos to FCO, London, 7 May 1969, TNA: 65/351; Neer, Napalm, 107.

43. “Practice With Napalm Bombs,” A.A. Duff to Cptn. Colbett, 5 April 1968, TNA: FCO 8/599.

44. Ronald Hyam, Britain’s Declining Empire: The Road to Decolonization, 1918–1968 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 327. Also see Piers Brendon, The Decline and Fall of the British Empire (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008).

45. Quoted in Hyam, Britain’s Declining Empire, 387, n. 202.

46. Note attached to “Secret – MO/26/14, Minister of Defence to Prime Minister,” 19 September 1966, TNA: PREM 13/2570.

47. “Operation Mop-Up,” TNA: AIR 15/911. For more on Torrey Canyon, see John Sheail, “Torrey Canyon: The Political Dimension,” Journal of Contemporary History 42, no. 3 (July 2007), 485–504.

48. “Correspondence: Miss Annie Jack to Ministry of Defence,” 5 April 1967; “Loose Minute – Draft Reply-Napalm,” 16 May 1967, TNA: DEFE 24/64.

49. “Correspondence: Mr. G.J. Pitt to MP Hunt,” 14 November 1967, TNA: DEFE 24/64.

50. Feiser, Scientific Method, 29. Quoted in Neer, Napalm, 33 n. 18.

51. “ASR 1209 – 50 Gallon Fire Bomb,” 10 August 1970, TNA: AIR 20/12573.

52. “Memorandum: Napalm (FIRE BOMBS),” Directorate of Surface Warfare (Naval) to Head, DS9, 25 April 1967, TNA: DEFE 24/64.

53. “Secret-Draft: Training with Fire Bombs, Note by the Secretary of State for Defense,” October 1967, TNA: DEFE 24/64.

54. Handwritten Notes on margins of “Memorandum: Napalm (FIRE BOMBS),” no date, TNA: AIR 2/17221.