The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) - a personal perspective

I was talking to a friend the other day and we were reminiscing about our youth and various events that were to the fore in those days. So I thought I may give you my view of some of them at the time, albeit remembered 40 years onward.

I progressed through childhood to adulthood in the 70s and early 80s when CND was at its height. But even as an impressionable youth, I never understood the logic behind the CND campaign; at least not beyond the obvious for all of us that no-one wants any war, let alone a nuclear one.

But you can’t uninvent something.
So even if, in some utopia, you got all nations to agree to get rid of their nuclear weapons in the now, someone would find a pretext for making them again in the future and the arms race would start all over again.

Also, on what planet did they expect to get Russia & China to give up their nuclear weapons, when they saw them as essentially the only thing guaranteeing the survival of their dictatorial regimes?
Or for the likes of North Korea to stop trying to get them?
And therefore, on what planet would the USA, the UK, France etc do so unilaterally?

On what plane of existence did they think ‘the West’ giving up their nuclear deterrent would result in all other countries following suit in joyous harmony as opposed to laughing and knowing they now had a strategic and blackmailing advantage?
Not the plane of existence we inhabit on this earth for sure.

The whole thing was a naïve emotion-based wishful thinking exercise on a level you would expect from young children.
Worse, the child-like naivety and shallowness of thought was also tinged with what we now see more openly & widely expressed in parts of society, namely, a detestation for their own country, it’s history, its achievements and its values.

So I wasn't a supporter at the time, and time has done nohting to change my mind.