COLD WAR 1957 WHITE PAPER
90 FLYPAST February 2018
A CHANGE
In The Weather
Sixty years on, the Defence White Paper of 1957 can still evoke
bitter recrimination. Andrew Brookes examines its intentions
Defence: The Outline of Future
Secretary of State for Defence Policy, April 4, 1957
Duncan SandysF
rom the middle of the 1950s
there was a clear political will
to reduce the defence budget
and the responsibility for doing so
was entrusted to the 49-year-old
Secretary of State for Defence,
Duncan Sandys. The content of
his April 1957 White Paper has the
potential to raise blood pressures
even today.
In a BBC television interview on
April 5, 1957, Sandys was asked
how long he thought manned
aircraft would retain their usefulness
and he replied: “I am afraid I can’t
give you a definite answer in dates. I
would say that there are some roles,
for example in minor wars and anti-
submarine work, where manned
aircraft continue to be needed as far
ahead as one can see.”
But did Sandys, as some believe,
set out to axe manned fast-jet
aircraft? Was the White Paper all
negative?Where are the planes?
Sandys was first elected to
parliament in 1935. He became
a close ally of his father-in-law,
Winston Churchill, and during
World War Two became chairman
of the War Cabinet Committee for
defence against the onslaught of
German V-1 flying-bombs and V-2
rockets.
With the return of the Churchill
administration in 1951, Sandys
was appointed Minister of Supply- “the ministry of boots to atoms”
as somebody called his overarching
organisation. Sandys was a hard
man and a politically astute defence
modernist.
But it was the view of his boss in
10 Downing Street that mattered.
Harold Macmillan took over as
Prime Minister in early 1957 but
before that he had served as Air
Minister, Defence Minister and
Chancellor of the Exchequer.
When at the Treasury in May
1956, Macmillan viewed fixed-wing
interceptors as not effective against
ballistic missiles. Fighter Command
could not achieve its purpose in thenuclear age and, therefore, had no
part to play in the emerging type of
global war.
He regarded the Gloster Javelin
and Hawker Hunter as the last of
their kind for Fighter Command.
But he appreciated the need for such
aircraft to support the RAF overseas,
and the Fleet Air Arm.
When Macmillan took on
the premiership, he appointed
Welshman Aubrey Jones as Minister
of Supply. Jones, a dry Thatcherite
long before the term was coinedman and a politically astute defence
modernist.
But it was the view of his boss innuclear age and, therefore, had no
part to play in the emerging type of
global war.An air-to-air view of English Electric P.1A WG760. This
forerunner of the Lightning fi rst fl ew from Boscombe
Down in 1954. KEY