ABSTRACT
The development of Britain's independent nuclear deterrent was due perhaps as much to political factors as to military ones. The Labour government elected in July 1945 assumed from the outset that Britain would remain a great power. The British Government had commissioned the Valiant in January 1947. The Labour government had been ready to leave the strategic bombing of the Soviet Union to the Americans, while concentrating on the air defences of Great Britain, and tactical missions from Middle Eastern bases. The presence of American strategic bombers on British soil, under exclusive American control, raised acutely sensitive problems for the Labour administration, especially with the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950. Britain had long-standing commercial and strategic interests in the Middle East, built up during centuries of Ottoman rule, under the privileges afforded by the Capitulations. The Chiefs of Staff believed that the February 1947 decisions had eroded the foundations of Britain's global strategy.
