Apartheid's Atomic Bomb: Cold War Perspectives

ABSTRACT

This article, based on multi-archival research in the United States of America and South Africa, analyses the South African apartheid government's development of a nuclear capability within the framework of the Cold War, and the eventual destruction of this capability. Specific emphasis is placed on factors that led to the apartheid government's decision to develop a nuclear capability, including the perceived spread of communist influence in southern Africa, the escalating conflict with communist-backed forces on Namibia's northern frontier, and intensifying military and political strikes by the African National Congress (ANC) in exile. Specific focus is also placed on the existence of a long-standing nuclear relationship between the United States and South Africa, based on a complex relationship between apartheid and anti-communism. The article finally offers a brief analysis of the factors that led to the apartheid government's decision to destroy the nuclear arsenal, and concludes with the notion that while the general perception was that the apartheid government's ‘bomb in the basement’ gave it some degree of leverage in their relations with the outside world and within the geopolitical dynamics of southern Africa, it was perhaps not regarded as the ultimate threat by those aiding the liberation movements in southern Africa.

Keywords:

• Nuclear development
• nuclear weapons
• Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)
• Cold War in southern Africa
• anti-communism
• United States-South African relations
• liberation movements
• arms embargo
• Kalahari incident
• Vela incident