South Africa And The Bomb

Part of the Global Perspectives on War and Peace Collection.

A short segment in which American scientists and analysts discuss the threat posed by South Africa’s clandestine nuclear weapons program. Includes 1977 footage of South Africa’s former prime minister Johannes Vorster threatening the world to stop meddling in its nuclear plans: “If these things continue and don’t stop, the time will arrive when South Africa will have no option – small as it is – [but] to say to the world. ‘So far and no further. Do your damnedest if you so wish!'” A South African scientist warns, “The free world hasn’t got any way of assessing what South Africa is doing in the nuclear arena.”