There was no going back. The nuclear arms race had begun. During the 50s and 60s the superpowers built increasingly bigger bombs in a bid to defend themselves from each other. The result was an arsenal of weapons that could wipe humanity from the face of the earth. The threat of Armageddon was real. And many people lived with the daily fear of nuclear annihilation. The End of the World? A Horizon Guide to Armageddon, BBC 2011
Thousands took to the streets in protests against the apparent insanity of the arms race. ibid.
Of course industrial deserts like this are not hard to find. With the exception of one industry in which Britain is still a world leader. Indeed it has twenty per cent of a world market second only to the United States. And this industry is considered so important by the government that it consumes almost half of all research and development funds. Strangely, it produces not consumer goods that people want but machines that hardly any of us use or want to use. John Pilger, Flying the Flag (Arming the World), ITV 1994
It wasn’t the Tories that boosted the modern arms trade, it was Labour. In 1966 Denis Healey then Defence Secretary set up the defence sales organisation with these words: ‘While the government attach the highest importance to making progress in the field of arms control and disarmament, we must also take what practical steps we can to ensure that this country does not fail to secure its rightful share of the valuable commercials market.’ ibid.
In 1985 Margaret Thatcher negotiated what was called the Arms Deal of the Century. The customer was Saudi Arabia, the medieval keeper of much of the world’s oil ... The deal ... was said to be thirty billion pounds in exports of fighter aircraft, missiles and ships. ibid.
In fact British arms have been supplied to some of the worst human rights violators in the world. ibid.
This is where Lord Justice Scott conducted his Inquiry into the scandal of Britain’s arms that went illegally to Saddam Hussein. The Scott Inquiry sat for four hundred hours and gathered evidence from more than two hundred witnesses, including the government’s chief arms salesman Ian McDonald, who said, ‘Truth is a very difficult concept.’ ibid.
The truth is that as soon as Thatcher took power, her ministers courted Saddam Hussein. A procession of them went to Baghdad: Lord Carrington, Cecil Parkinson, John Knott, John Biffin, Paul Channon, William Waldergrave. In 1981 Douglas Hurd tried to sell Saddam Hussein an entire air-defence system. And when in 1985 Britain banned the sales of arms to Iraq the flow of British arms and money did not stop. ibid.
We have had nothing to do with other countries and their shipment of arms. Ronald Reagan, news conference 19th November 1986
For no amount of arms and armies can help stabilize those governments which are unable or unwilling to achieve social and economic reform and development. Military pacts cannot help nations whose social injustice and economic chaos invite insurgency and penetration and subversion. John F Kennedy, speech Joint session of Congress May 1961
The arms industry is enjoying one of the most rewarding times thanks to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In the meantime the Pentagon’s budget has risen to over $400,000,000,000 per year. That’s more than four times the amount the Neo-Conservatives ever dreamed in the year 2000. The New American Century
The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its labourers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. Dwight D Eisenhower, speech 1953
We face a hostile ideology global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method. Unhappily the danger it poses promises to be of indefinite duration ... A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction. Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea. Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations. This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence – economic, political, even spiritual – is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together. Dwight D Einseinhower, farewell address to nation 17th January 1961
Bribery: it’s a trillion dollars a year. Now there is an international crackdown and a pivotal case. Frontline: Black Money PBS 2009
BAE aka British Aerospace is the world’s third largest arms manufacturer. ibid.
An $80 billion international arms deal: a fighter jet deal involving BAE, the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia. ibid.
In late 1977 Congress passed the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. ibid.
The first investigation in the United Kingdom of oversees bribery. ibid.
Prince Bandar brought a letter from his father Crown Prince Sultan threatening to cut off cooperation on terrorism. ibid.
Since this programme was first broadcast in the US in 2009 BAE has admitted in the US to false accounting and ... guilty to a breach of duty to keep accounting records, and agreed to pay £30m in respect of separate wrongdoings concerning Tanzania. ibid.
You’re all being fed this bullshit that we’ve reached Peak Oil. That we’re running out of oil ... There is more oil on this planet than we know what to do with. One of the whole purposes of the Gulf Wars was to keep the Iraqi oil in the ground. ’Cause there is so much oil in Iraq that when Saddam was running the show there the concern was that Saddam, because he had so much oil, would put it on the market, and keep the price suppressed. And the US needs a high price in oil because oil is still currently just about traded in US dollars. And they need other countries to have US dollars so that they can buy US goods – arms. The US only has one product that it manufactures today in any volume – arms. Military equipment. That’s why the US needs war. It needs war because that’s the only industry that it’s got. Ian R Crane, lecture Liverpool 2008, ‘New World Order’
By 1847 Armstrong had given up practising law; he opened his Elswick works on the banks of the River Tyne where he manufactured hydraulics and all sorts of other engineering equipment. Fred Dibnah’s World of Steam, Steel and Stone: Men of Steel, BBC 2006
By 1867 the Armstrong company had begun to build iron warships, and in the first fifteen years they built twenty. ibid.
The greatest armament supplier of the time. ibid.
By the 1890s the manufacture of arms and battleships had become one of our major industries. ibid.
We have ordered one hundred cannon. The Borgias: The Beautiful Deception s2e3, Rodrigo to Cardinals, Showtime 2012
One of the most dangerous men on the face of the Earth. 2010: Viktor Bout en route to United States. Storyville: The Notorious Mr Bout, BBC 2014
‘This is my first visit to America. On the drive to jail I saw the Brooklyn Bridge. I recognised it from the movies.’ ibid.
1) Evil all-powerful super-villain, merchant of death that got his comeuppance; 2) Stooge and victim of a conspiracy. ibid.
Questions of how the arms industry works. ibid.
The move from communism to capitalism ... 04.22.2012: ‘If you had brain, it wasn’t hard to make money in Moscow doing business. But all business in Moscow was crooked business. You had to have protection and then protection for your protection.’ ibid. Viktor
Bulgaria 1996: ‘The Bulgarians were desperate to sell arms.’ ibid.
Afghanistan 1996: 'Things took a wrong turn.' ibid.
After the boys came home, my company stronger than ever. By twenty-five I was a millionaire ... I had an empire. ibid.
DEA Special Agents ... New York 2011 ... ‘Dealer of death on trial.’ ibid.
D R Congo 2000: Arms Dealer Viktor Bout Wanted in Africa ... ‘I had a lot of government contracts in Africa.’ ibid.
‘I wanted to travel. To see world. To make documentary film.’ ibid. Viktor
‘Viktor Bout is indeed the chief sanctions buster at this present time. A real merchant of death.’ ibid. Peter Hain
Douglas Farah & Stephen Braun: Merchant of Death ... The man who makes war possible. ibid. book & TV interview
The world's largest illegal arms dealer. ibid. Russian radio
‘I am innocent. I didn't commit any crime.’ ibid. Bout to judge
The global arms industry remains one of the least regulated. Every years enough bullets are made to kill every person on the planet twice. ibid.
Meeting with North Korean arms dealers in Africa, or going to the North Korean embassy in Sweden to pick up secret documents, but this is no fiction … and has been going on for more than ten years. Storyville: The Mole I, BBC 2020
To infiltrate and expose the most brutal dictatorship of all: North Korea. ibid.