ABSTRACT
The well-organized campaign in the Netherlands proved successful beyond expectation. The campaign against the neutron bomb thus marked the resurgence of pacifism and antinuclear protest in the Netherlands. Concern over nuclear weapons is no new phenomenon for the Christian churches in the Netherlands. For historical reasons, the Catholic church is much less inclined to intervene directly in political debates and has not been urged to speak out on nuclear weapons. The resurgence of pacifism has certainly been facilitated by the political responses of the Netherlands and Belgium to the changing international situation. Soviet-manipulated pacifism has appeared as a considerable political force inside the countries of Western Europe through the transmission belts of the Soviet network for political warfare. Virtuous pacifism in postwar Western Europe has been politically irrelevant outside the framework of Soviet peace campaigns. The combined network of so-called peace movements certainly at its core has evolved into what might be characterized as an alternative political subculture.
