ABSTRACT
In 1956, the British government and its Conservative supporters would be thrown into confusion by the humiliation of the Suez campaign. Simultaneously the Labour opposition, especially the fellow-travelling left wing, was equally disoriented by the Soviet invasion of Hungary. The first event showed that the United States could not always be relied on to protect British vital interests; the second, that the disappearance of Stalin did not mean that the antagonism between the Soviet Union and the Western world was in any way abated. Debates in the House of Commons were monopolised by Conservative members demanding more money for the Services and Labour demanding less; while among the general public there was a massive lack of interest. British scientists did not on the whole agonise so publicly about the development of nuclear weapons as did their American colleagues who published The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, with its clock ticking inexorably towards midnight.
