ABSTRACT
In reviewing the early months of his administration in January 1965, Harold Wilson claimed one major foreign success: ‘Apart from anything else we have killed the MLF.’1 The MLF, or Multilateral Force, was a scheme to create a jointly owned nuclear force for European defence among certain NATO members. This study examines Wilson’s claim, in the light of numerous other problems that faced the MLF, and places a particular emphasis on British relations with the United States and West Germany. It will be seen that the most significant step taken by Labour was to launch a counter-initiative, the Atlantic Nuclear Force (ANF), which itself never came to fruition. In asking whether Wilson’s government ‘killed’ the MLF, it is essential to discuss the origins and fate of the alternative proposal. In contrast to earlier works, the following will argue that the essential element of the MLF-a mixed-manned surface fleet-remained a testing problem in the debate over European defence until April 1966, well after Wilson’s claim to have ‘killed’ the project. Paradoxically, however, he does deserve credit for helping end the project and pave the way for a European security situation based around East-West détente, nonproliferation and a system of NATO nuclear consultation.
