Cold War Scotland

Harper, Sarah

Cold War Scotland

Resource type

Lecture

Creator (person)

Harper, Sarah

ORCID

Abstract

At the last meeting of the session, the topic will be Cold War Scotland: the why, the when and the how of the Cold War in Scotland – and the way we remember it nowadays. The talk takes place in the, EH49 7RA, on Wednesday 21 May at 7.30pm, and will be given by Dr Sarah Harper, Cold War Research Fellow at Stirling University. Most of us, being of a certain age, lived through the Cold War - that 40-year stand-off between the USA and the Soviet Union after the Second World War, during which we somehow grew used to relying on the deterrent effect of MAD – Mutually Assured Destruction. Scotland’s location and landscape made it a useful base for Allied military preparations and research, and also a centre for opposition to nuclear weapons and war. Government made preparations to keep some measure of order and control going even in the event of a nuclear conflict; indeed, the basement of County Buildings in Linlithgow was to be the local command centre in the event of attack, and still has its sealable doors, an air filtration system, and a blackboard for recording the locations and casualties of ‘bomb bursts’. A free exhibition currently on at the National Museum of Scotland looks at the impact of the Cold War, and the ways in which it still lingers in Scottish politics, culture and memory. Scots played an active role in the global conflict as soldiers within intelligence services, as part of voluntary civil defences, and as contributors to Cold War protest and activism.