The CND symbol, designed by Gerald Holtom in 1958. It later became a universal peace symbol used in many different versions worldwide.^[1]

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The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is an anti-nuclear organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It opposes military action that may result in the use of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and the building of nuclear power stations in the UK.

CND was formed in 1957 and since that time has periodically been at the forefront of the peace movement in the UK. It claims to be Europe's largest single-issue peace campaign. Since 1959, it has organised the Aldermaston March, which is held over the Easter weekend from the Atomic Weapons Establishment near Aldermaston to Trafalgar Square, London. The first Aldermaston March in 1958 went the other way (from London to Aldermaston) and was organised by the Direct Action Committee.

The Campaign's General Secretary is Kate Hudson.

Campaigns[link]

CND's current strategic objectives are:

• The elimination of British nuclear weapons and global abolition of nuclear weapons. It campaigns for the cancellation of Trident by the British government and against the deployment of nuclear weapons in Britain.
• The abolition of weapons of mass destruction, in particular chemical and biological weapons. CND wants a ban on the manufacture, testing and use of depleted uranium weapons
• A nuclear-free, less militarised and more secure Europe. It supports the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). It opposes US military bases and nuclear weapons in Europe and British membership of NATO.
• The closure of the nuclear power industry.^[2]

In recent years CND has extended its campaigns to include opposition to U.S. and British policy in the Middle East, rather as it broadened its anti-nuclear campaigns in the 1960s to include opposition to the Vietnam War. In collaboration with the Stop the War Coalition and the Muslim Association of Britain, CND has organised anti-war marches under the slogan "Don't Attack Iraq", including protests on September 28, 2002 and February 15, 2003. It also organised a vigil for the victims of the 2005 London bombings.

CND campaigns against the Trident missile. In March 2007 it organised a rally in Parliament Square to coincide with the Commons motion to renew the weapons system. The rally was attended by over 1,000 people. It was addressed by Labour MPs Jon Trickett, Emily Thornberry, John McDonnell, Michael Meacher, Diane Abbott and Jeremy Corbyn, and Elfyn Llwyd of Plaid Cymru and Angus MacNeil of the Scottish National Party. In the House of Commons, 161 MPs (88 of them Labour) voted against the renewal of Trident and the Government motion was carried only with the support of Conservatives.^[3]

In 2006 CND launched a campaign against nuclear power. Its membership, which had fallen to 32,000 from a peak of 110,000 in 1983, increased threefold after Prime Minister Tony Blair made a commitment to nuclear energy.^[4]

Structure[link]

CND has a national organisation based in London, national groups in Wales, Ireland and Scotland, regional groups in Cambridgeshire, Cumbria, the East Midlands, Kent, London, Manchester, Merseyside, Mid Somerset, Norwich, South Cheshire and North Staffordshire, Southern England, South West England, Suffolk, Surrey, Sussex, Tyne and Wear, the West Midlands and Yorkshire, and local branches.

There are four "specialist sections": Trade Union CND, Christian CND, Labour CND and Ex-Services CND,^[5] which have rights of representation on the governing council. There are also parliamentary, youth and student groups.

The Council is made up of the chair of CND, the treasurer, three vice-chairs, 15 directly elected members, a representative of each of the specialist sections, one from Student CND, three from Youth CND and 27 from the regional groups. Employees sit on the Council but do not vote.^[5]

History[link]

The First Wave 1958-1963[link]

The flag semaphore symbols for letters "N" (green) and "D" (blue)

On 2 November 1957, the New Statesman magazine published an article by J. B. Priestley on "Britain and the Nuclear Bombs", which was critical of Aneurin Bevan for changing his mind about nuclear weapons and ceasing to advocate unilateral nuclear disarmament by Britain. The journal received many letters of support, reflecting the growth in opposition to nuclear weapons following Britain's recent H-bomb tests. At the end of November, a meeting was held in the rooms of Canon John Collins, chaired by the editor of the New Statesman, Kingsley Martin, to launch the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Collins was chosen as its Chairman, Bertrand Russell as its President and Peggy Duff as its organising secretary. The other members of its executive committee were Ritchie Calder, journalist James Cameron, Howard Davies, Michael Foot, Arthur Goss, Kingsley Martin, J. B. Priestley and Joseph Rotblat.

CND held an inaugural public meeting at Central Hall, Westminster, on 17 February 1958, attended by five thousand people. After the meeting a few hundred left to demonstrate at Downing Street.^[6][7] The new organisation attracted considerable public interest and draw support from a range of interests, including scientists, religious leaders, academics, journalists, writers, actors and musicians. Its sponsors included John Arlott, Peggy Ashcroft, the Bishop of Birmingham Dr J. L. Wilson, Benjamin Britten, Viscount Chaplin, Michael de la Bédoyère, Bob Edwards, MP, Dame Edith Evans, A.S.Frere, Gerald Gardiner, QC, Victor Gollancz, Dr I.Grunfeld, E.M.Forster, Barbara Hepworth, Patrick Heron, Rev. Trevor Huddleston, Sir Julian Huxley, Edward Hyams, the Bishop of Llandaff Dr Glyn Simon, Doris Lessing, Sir Compton Mackenzie, the Very Rev George McLeod, Miles Malleson, Denis Matthews, Sir Francis Meynell, Henry Moore, John Napper, Ben Nicholson, Sir Herbert Read, Flora Robson, Michael Tippett, the cartoonist 'Vicky', Professor C. H. Waddington and Barbara Wootton.^[8] Other prominent founding members of CND were Fenner Brockway, E. P. Thompson, A. J. P. Taylor, Anthony Greenwood, Lord Simon, D. H. Pennington, Eric Baker and Dora Russell. Organisations that had previously opposed British nuclear weapons supported CND, including the British Peace Committee, the Direct Action Committee,^[9] the National Committee for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons Tests^[8] and the Quakers.^[10] In the same year, a branch of CND was also set in the Republic of Ireland by John de Courcy Ireland, and his wife Beatrice, aiming to campaign for the Irish government to support international efforts to achieve nuclear disarmament and to keep Ireland free of nuclear power.^[11] Notable supporters of the Irish CND included Peadar O'Donnell, Owen Sheehy-Skeffington and Hubert Butler.^[12]

CND's declared policies were the unconditional renunciation of the use, production of or dependence upon nuclear weapons by Britain and the bringing about of a general disarmament convention. In the meantime, Britain should halt the flight of planes armed with nuclear weapons, end nuclear testing, not proceed with missile bases and not provide nuclear weapons to any other country.^[8]

The symbol adopted by CND was designed in 1958 by Gerald Holtom^[8] and in the following decade became an international peace symbol. It is based on the semaphore symbols for "N" (two flags held 45 degrees down on both sides, forming the triangle at the bottom) and "D" (two flags, one above the head and one at the feet, forming the vertical line) (for Nuclear Disarmament) within a circle. Holtom later said that it also represented "an individual in despair, with hands palm outstretched outwards and downwards in the manner of Goya's peasant before the firing squad."^[13]

In Easter 1958, a 52-mile march from London to the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston was organised by the Direct Action Committee, supported by CND after some initial reluctance. The march was the subject of a documentary by Lindsay Anderson, March to Aldermaston. Thereafter, CND organised annual Easter marches starting at Aldermaston and ending in London. 60,000 people participated in the 1959 march and 150,000 in the 1961 and 1962 marches.^[14][15]

CND supporters were generally left of centre in politics. About three-quarters of CND supporters were Labour voters^[10] and many of the early executive committee were Labour Party members.^[8] Its founders envisaged CND as a campaign by eminent individuals who would work through the Labour Party and lobby government for a change in defence policy. The Labour Party voted at its 1960 Conference for unilateral nuclear disarmament, representing CND's greatest influence on national politics and coinciding with the highest level of public support for its policy of unilateralism.^[16] Hugh Gaitskell, the Labour Party leader, received the vote with a promise to "fight, fight, and fight again" against the decision and it was overturned at the 1961 Conference. Labour's failure to win the General election of 1959 and its rejection of unilateralism in 1961 upset the plans of the CND leadership and, although CND retained the support of a significant minority of the population, from this point onwards its prospects of success began to fade.

CND rapidly became a mass movement and attendance at CND demonstrations increased until about 1963. A network of autonomous branches and specialist groups (such as Christian CND) sprang up^{[citation needed]}. The Aldermaston march, the CND symbol and its slogan "Ban the Bomb" became icons and part of the youth culture of the 1960s. The different conceptions of CND - campaign by eminent individuals or mass movement - caused friction between leaders and supporters. Until the formation of a national council in 1961, supporters and local groups had no formal voice in the national organisation, which until then had been led by the self-appointed executive committee.

In 1960 Bertrand Russell resigned from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in order to form the Committee of 100, which became, in effect, the direct action wing of CND. Russell argued that direct action was necessary because the press was losing interest in CND and because the danger of nuclear war was so great that it was necessary to obstruct government preparations for it.^[17] In 1958 CND had cautiously accepted direct action as a possible method of campaigning,^[8] but, largely under the influence of Canon John Collins, the CND chairman, the CND leadership opposed any sort of unlawful protest. The Committee of 100 was created as a separate organisation partly for that reason and partly because of personal animosity between Collins and Russell. Although the Committee was supported by many in CND, it has been suggested^[18] that the campaign against nuclear weapons was weakened by the friction between the two organisations. The Committee organised large sit-down demonstrations in London and at military bases. It later became involved in other political campaigns, including Biafra, the Vietnam war and housing in the UK. It was dissolved in 1968. When direct action came to the fore again in the 1980s, it was generally accepted by the peace movement as a normal part of protest.^[19]

On the 1963 Aldermaston march, a clandestine group calling itself Spies for Peace distributed leaflets about a secret government establishment, RSG 6, that the march was passing. The leaflet said that RSG 6 was to be the local HQ for a military dictatorship after nuclear war. A large group left the march, much against the wishes of the CND leadership, to demonstrate at RSG 6. Later, when the march reached London, there were disorderly demonstrations in which anarchists were prominent, quickly deprecated in the press and in parliament.^[8] In 1964 there was only a one-day march, partly because of the events of 1963 and partly because the logistics of the march, which had grown beyond all expectation, had exhausted the organisers.^[6] The Aldermaston March was resumed in 1965.

The Cuban Missile Crisis in the Autumn of 1962, in which the United States blockaded a Soviet attempt to put nuclear missiles on Cuba, created some anxiety about the possibility of imminent nuclear war and CND organised demonstrations on the issue. But six months after the crisis, a Gallup Poll found that public worry about nuclear weapons had fallen back to its lowest point since 1957,^[8] and there was a view, disputed by CND supporters,^[20] that U.S. President John F. Kennedy's success in facing down Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev turned the British public away from CND.

John Collins helped to form the International Confederation for Disarmament and Peace in 1963^[21] and resigned as chairman of CND in 1964. He had been unpopular with many CND supporters and he found himself out of sympathy with the direction the movement was taking.

Support for CND dwindled after the 1963 Test Ban Treaty. From the mid-1960s, the anti-war movement's preoccupation with the Vietnam War tended to eclipse concern about nuclear weapons but CND continued to campaign against them.

CND has never allied itself to any political party and has never sought to form itself into an election campaigning body. However, several CND members and supporters have stood for election at various times as Independent Nuclear Disarmament candidates. The nearest CND has come to having an electoral arm was the Independent Nuclear Disarmament Election Campaign (INDEC) which stood candidates in a few local elections during the 1960s. Although never formally endorsed by CND nationally, INDEC candidates were generally put up by local CND groups as a means of raising the profile of this issue in public politics.

The Second Wave 1980-89[link]

In the 1980s, CND underwent a major revival, its membership increasing from 4,000 to 100,000 between 1979 and 1984. This was a response to increasing tension between the superpowers following the deployment of American Pershing missiles in Western Europe, SS20s in the Soviet Bloc countries and Britain's replacement of the Polaris armed submarine fleet with Trident missiles in 1982. The NATO exercise Able Archer 83 also added to international tension. CND attracted supporters who opposed the Government’s civil defence plans as outlined in an official booklet, Protect and Survive. This publication was ridiculed in a popular pamphlet, Protest and Survive, by E.P.Thompson, a leading anti-nuclear campaigner of the period. Public support for unilateralism reached its highest level since the 1960s.^[22] More women than men supported it.^[6]

At its 1982 conference, the Labour Party adopted a policy of unilateral nuclear disarmament. It lost the 1983 general election "in which, following the Falklands war, foreign policy was high on the agenda. Election defeats under, first, Michael Foot, then Neil Kinnock, led Labour to abandon the policy in the late 1980s."^[23]

The British anti-nuclear movement at this time differed from the movement of the 1960s. Many groups sprang up independently of CND, some affiliating later. CND's previous objection to civil disobedience was dropped and it became a normal part of anti-nuclear protest. The women's movement had a strong influence, much of it emanating from the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp.^[6]

New CND sections were formed, including Ex-services CND, Green CND, Student CND, Tories Against Cruise and Trident (TACT), Trade Union CND, and Youth CND. A network of protesters, calling itself Cruise Watch, tracked and harassed Cruise missiles whenever they were carried on public roads. After a while, the missiles traveled only at night under police escort. The peace movement of early 1980s was the largest in modern history. In October 1981, 250,000 people joined an anti-nuclear demonstration in London. In October 1983, three million people took part in simultaneous demonstrations across Europe, 300,000 of them in London.^[24]

Extent of public support for CND policies[link]

As CND did not have a national membership until 1966, the strength of public support in its early days can be estimated only from the numbers of those attending demonstrations or expressing approval in opinion polls. Between 1955 and 1962, between 19% to 33% of people in Britain expressed disapproval of the manufacture of nuclear weapons.^[25]

Public support for unilateralism in September 1982 was 31%, falling to 21% in January 1983, but it is hard to say whether this decline was a result of the contemporary propaganda campaign against CND or not.^[22] Support for CND fell after the end of the Cold war. It had not succeeded in converting the British public to unilateralism and even after the collapse of the Soviet Union British nuclear weapons still have majority support.^[22] "Unilateral disarmament has always been opposed by a majority of the British public, with the level of support for unilateralism remaining steady at around one in four of the population."^[16][26]

In 2005, MORI conducted an opinion poll which asked about attitudes to Trident and the use of nuclear weapons. When asked whether the UK should replace Trident, without being told of the cost, 44% of respondents said "Yes" and 46% said "No". When asked the same question and told of the cost, 33% said "Yes" and 54% said "No".^[27]

When asked "Would you approve or disapprove of the UK using nuclear weapons against a country we are at war with?"

• 9% would approve if that country does not have nuclear weapons, and 84% would disapprove.
• 16% would approve if that country has nuclear weapons but has never used them, and 72% would disapprove,
• 53% would approve if that country uses nuclear weapons against the UK, and 37% would disapprove.^[27]

CND's policy of opposing American nuclear bases is said to be in tune with public opinion.^[28]

Organised opposition to CND[link]

CND's growing support in the 1980s provoked opposition from several sources, including Peace Through Nato, the British Atlantic Committee (which received government funding),^[29] Women and Families for Defence (set up by conservative journalist Lady Olga Maitland to oppose the Greenham Common Peace Camp), the Conservative Party's Campaign for Defence and Multilateral Disarmament, the Coalition for Peace through Security, the Foreign Affairs Research Institute, and The 61, a private sector intelligence agency. The British government also took direct steps to counter the influence of CND, Secretary of State for Defence Michael Heseltine setting up Defence Secretariat 19 "to explain to the public the facts about the Government's policy on deterrence and multilateral disarmament".^[30] The activities of anti-CND organisations are said to have included research, publication, mobilising public opinion, counter-demonstrations, working within the Churches, smears against CND leaders and spying.

In an article on anti-CND groups, Steve Dorril reported that in 1982 Eugene V. Rostow, Director of the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, became concerned about the growing unilateralist movement. According to Dorril, Rostow helped to initiate a propaganda exercise in Britain, "aimed at neutralising the efforts of CND. It would take three forms: mobilising public opinion, working within the Churches, and a 'dirty tricks' operation against the peace groups."^[31]

One of the groups set up to carry out this work was the Coalition for Peace through Security (CPS), modelled on the US Coalition for Peace through Strength. The CPS was founded in 1981. Its main activists were Julian Lewis, Edward Leigh and Francis Holihan.^[31]

Amongst the activities of the CPS were commissioning Gallup polls^[32] which showed the levels of support for British possession of nuclear weapons, providing speakers at public meetings, highlighting the left-wing affiliations of leading CND figures and mounting counter-demonstrations against CND. These including haranguing CND marchers from the roof of its Whitehall offices flying a plane over a CND festival with a banner reading, "Help the Soviets, Support CND!"^[33] It also denounced Bruce Kent, the general secretary of CND, as a supporter of IRA terrorism.^[33]

The CPS attracted criticism for refusing to say where its funding came from while alleging that the anti-nuclear movement was funded by the Soviet Union.^[34] Although the CPS called itself a grass-roots movement, it had no members and was financed by The 61,^[33] "a private sector operational intelligence agency"^[35] said by its founder, Brian Crozier, to be funded by "rich individuals and a few private companies".^[36] It is said to have also received funding from the Heritage Foundation.^[37]

Bruce Kent alleged in his autobiography that Francis Holihan spied on CND. It was said that Holihan sent senior clerics in the Catholic Church material on Kent^[31] (Kent was a catholic priest), that Holihan organised the aerial propaganda against CND, that he had entered CND offices under false pretences, and that CPS workers had joined CND in order to gain access to the Campaign's 1982 Annual Conference.^[31] It was said that when Kent went on a speaking tour of America, Holihan followed him, that offensive material on Kent was sent to newspapers and radio stations, and that demonstrations were organised against him.^[31]

Brian Crozier claimed in his book Free Agent: The Unseen War 1941-1991 (Harper Collins, 1993) that The 61 infiltrated a mole into CND in 1979.^[37]

Gerald Vaughan, a government minister, tried to halve government funding for the Citizens Advice Bureau, apparently because Joan Ruddock, CND's chair, was employed part-time at his local bureau. Bruce Kent was warned by Cardinal Basil Hume not to become too involved in politics.

CND's opponents claimed that CND was a Communist or Soviet-dominated organisation. In 1981, the Foreign Affairs Research Institute, which shared an office with the CPS, was said by Sanity, the CND newspaper, to have published a booklet claiming that Russian money was being used by CND.^[31] In response to Lord Chalfont's claim in that the Soviet Union was giving the European peace movement £100 million a year, Bruce Kent said, "If they were, it was certainly not getting to our grotty little office in Finsbury Park."^[38] In the 1980s, the Federation of Conservative Students alleged Soviet funding of CND.

Intelligence operations against CND[link]

The security service (MI5) has carried out surveillance of CND members it considered to be subversive. From the late 1960s until the mid-1970s, MI5 designated CND as subversive by virtue of its being "communist controlled". Communists have played an active role in the organisation, and John Cox, its chairman from 1971 to 1977, was a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain.^[39] From the late 1970s, MI5 downgraded CND to "communist-penetrated". MI5 says it has no current investigations in this area.^[40]

In 1985, Cathy Massiter, an MI5 officer who had been responsible for the surveillance of CND from 1981 to 1983, resigned and made disclosures to a Channel 4 20/20 Vision programme, "MI5's Official Secrets".^[41][42] She said that her work was determined more by the political importance of CND than by any security threat posed by subversive elements within it. In 1983, she analysed telephone intercepts on John Cox that gave her access to conversations with Joan Ruddock and Bruce Kent. MI5 also placed a spy, Harry Newton, in the CND office. According to Massiter, Newton believed that CND was controlled by extreme left-wing activists and that Bruce Kent might be a crypto-communist, but Massiter found no evidence to support either opinion.^[43] On the basis of Ruddock's contacts, MI5 suspected her of being a communist sympathiser. Speaking in the House of Commons, Dale Campbell-Savours, MP, said,

"it was felt within the service that officers were likely to be questioned about the true political affiliation of Mrs. Joan Ruddock, who became chair of CND in 1983. It was fully recognised by the service that she had no subversive affiliations and therefore should not be recorded under any of the usual subversive categories. In fact, she was recorded as a contact of a hostile intelligence service after giving an interview to a Soviet journalist based in London who was suspected of being a KGB intelligence officer. In Joan Ruddock's file, MI5 recorded special branch references to her movements—usually public meetings—and kept press cuttings and the products of mail and telephone intercepts obtained through active investigation of other targets, such as the Communist party and John Cox. There were police reports recording her appearances at demonstrations or public meetings. There were references to her also in reports from agents working, for example, in the Communist party. These would also appear in her file."^[42]

According to Stephen Dorril, at about the same time, Special Branch officers recruited an informant within CND, Stanley Bonnett, on the instructions of MI5.^[37] MI5 is also said to have suspected CND's treasurer, Cathy Ashton, of being a communist sympathiser^[39] because she shared a house with a communist.^[37] When Michael Heseltine became Secretary of State for Defence, Massiter prepared a report on CND for him. She was asked to provide information for Defence Secretariat 19 about leading CND personnel but was instructed to include only information from published sources. Ruddock claims that DS19 released distorted information regarding her political party affiliations to the media and Conservative Party candidates.^[44]

In 1990, it was discovered in the archive of the Stasi (the state security service of the former German Democratic Republic) that a member of CND's governing council, Vic Allen, had passed information to them about CND. This discovery was made public in a BBC TV programme in 1999, reviving debate about Soviet links to CND. Allen stood against Joan Ruddock for the leadership of CND in 1985, but was defeated. Ruddock responded to the Stasi revelations with "[Allen] certainly had no influence on national CND, and as a pro-Soviet could never have succeeded to the chair. CND was as opposed to Soviet nuclear weapons as Western ones."^[45][46]

Chairs of CND since 1958[link]

• Canon John Collins 1958–1964
• Olive Gibbs 1964–1967
• Sheila Oakes 1967–1968
• Malcolm Caldwell 1968–1970
• April Carter 1970–1971
• John Cox 1971–1977
• Bruce Kent 1977–1979
• Hugh Jenkins 1979–1981
• Joan Ruddock 1981–1985
• Paul Johns 1985 – 1987
• Bruce Kent 1987 –1990
• Marjorie Thompson 1990–1993
• Janet Bloomfield 1993–1996
• David Knight 1996–2001
• Carol Naughton 2001–2003
• Kate Hudson 2003– 2010
• Dave Webb 2010– present

General Secretaries of CND since 1958[link]

• Peggy Duff 1958–1967
• Dick Nettleton 1967–1973
• Dan Smith 1974–1975
• Duncan Rees 1976–1979
• Bruce Kent 1979–1985
• Meg Beresford 1985–1990
• Gary Lefley, 1990–1994

The post was abolished in 1994, and reinstated by Kate Hudson for herself in 2010.

• Kate Hudson, 2010–

Archives[link]

Much of National CNDs historical archive is at the Modern Records Centre at the University of Warwick and the London School of Economics, although records of local and regional groups are spread throughout the country in public and private collections.

• Catalogue of CNDs papers held at LSE Archives

See also[link]

• Anti-war
• Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (NZ)
• European Nuclear Disarmament
• European Peace Marches
• Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp
• Independent Nuclear Disarmament Election Committee
• Koeberg Alert
• Nuclear disarmament
• Nuclear-Free Future Award
• Nuclear-free zone
• Nuclear Information Service
• Nuclear proliferation
• Nuclear weapons and the United Kingdom
• Peace movement
• Peace symbols

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Ross Bradshaw, From Protest to Resistance, A Peace News pamphlet (Mushroom Books: London 1981) ISBN 0-907123-02-3
• Paul Byrne, Social Movements in Britain (Routledge: London, 1997) ISBN 0-415-07123-2
• Paul Byrne, The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (Croom Helm: London, 1988) ISBN 0-7099-3260-X
• Christopher Driver, The Disarmers: A Study in Protest (Hodder and Stoughton: London, 1964)
• Peggy Duff, Left, Left, Left: A personal account of six protest campaigns 1945-65 (Allison and Busby: London, 1971) ISBN 0-85031-056-3
• Kate Hudson, CND - Now More Than Ever: The Story of a Peace Movement (Vision Paperbacks: London, 2005) ISBN 1-904132-69-3
• John Mattausch, A Commitment to Campaign: A Sociological Study of CND (Manchester University Press: Manchester: 1989) ISBN 0-7190-2908-2
• John Minnion and Philip Bolsover (eds.), The CND Story: The first 25 years of CND in the words of the people involved (Allison & Busby: London, 1983) ISBN 0-85031-487-9
• Holger Nehring, 'Diverging perceptions of security: NATO and the protests against nuclear weapons', in Andreas Wenger, et al. (eds.), Transforming NATO in the Cold War: Challenges beyond Deterrence in the 1960s (Routledge: London, 2006)
• Holger Nehring, 'From Gentleman's Club to Folk Festival: The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in Manchester, 1958-63', North West Labour History Journal, No. 26 (2001), pp. 18–28
• Holger Nehring, 'National Internationalists: British and West German Protests against Nuclear Weapons, the Politics of Transnational Communications and the Social History of the Cold War, 1957–1964', Contemporary European History, 14, No. 4(2006)
• Holger Nehring, 'Politics, Symbols and the Public Sphere: The Protests against Nuclear Weapons in Britain and West Germany, 1958-1963', Zeithistorische Forschungen, 2, No. 2 (2005)
• Holger Nehring, 'The British and West German Protests against Nuclear Weapons and the Cultures of the Cold War, 1957–64', Contemporary British History, 19, No. 2 (2005)
• Frank Parkin, Middle class radicalism: The Social Bases of the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (Manchester University Press: Manchester, 1968)
• Richard Taylor and Colin Pritchard, The Protest Makers: The British Nuclear Disarmament of 1958-1965, Twenty Years On (Pergamon Press: Oxford, 1980) ISBN 0-08-025211-7
• Byrne, Paul (1997). Social Movements in Britain. Routledge. p. 91. ISBN 0-415-07123-2. 

External links[link]

• Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
• "BBC ON THIS DAY". BBC Online. 1960-04-18. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/18/newsid_2909000/2909881.stm. Retrieved 8 January 2012.  - Report of the 1960 Aldermaston March
• BBC Report of CND Protest in London 22 October 1983
• 20/20 Vision: MI5's Official Secrets
• Exhibition - CND: The story of a peace movement (LSE Archives)
• A British Museum expert's view of the CND badge
• Anti-Nuclear.com

News items

• McGuffin, Paddy (7 March 2007). "A new generation of CND goes on the march". Telegraph & Argus. http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/1243041.a_new_generation_of_cnd_goes_on_the_march/. 
• "Anniversary demo at nuclear site". BBC Online. 2 January 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/berkshire/7167771.stm. 
• Campbell, Duncan; Williams, Rachel (16 February 2008). "CND veterans remain unbowed, 50 years on". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/16/nuclear.greenpolitics. 
• Sengupta, Kim (7 January 2012). "How Thatcher's election win launched secret war on CND". The Independent (London). http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/how-thatchers-election-win-launched-secret-war-on-cnd-6286326.html. 

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The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament symbol, designed by Gerald Holtom in 1958. It later became a universal peace symbol used in many different versions worldwide.^[1]

Nuclear disarmament refers to both the act of reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons and to the end state of a nuclear-free world, in which nuclear weapons are completely eliminated.

Major nuclear disarmament groups include Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Greenpeace and International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. There have been many large anti-nuclear demonstrations and protests. On June 12, 1982, one million people demonstrated in New York City's Central Park against nuclear weapons and for an end to the cold war arms race. It was the largest anti-nuclear protest and the largest political demonstration in American history.^[2][3]

Proponents of nuclear disarmament say that it would lessen the probability of nuclear war occurring, especially accidentally. Critics of nuclear disarmament say that it would undermine deterrence.

History[link]

United States and USSR/Russian nuclear weapons stockpiles, 1945-2006. These numbers include warheads not actively deployed, including those on reserve status or scheduled for dismantlement. Stockpile totals do not necessarily reflect nuclear capabilities since they ignore size, range, type, and delivery mode.

After the Partial Test Ban Treaty (1963), which prohibited atmospheric testing, the movement against nuclear weapons somewhat subsided in the 1970s (and was replaced in part by a movement against nuclear power).

In the 1980s, a popular movement for nuclear disarmament again gained strength in the light of the weapons build-up and aggressive rhetoric of US President Ronald Reagan. Reagan had "a world free of nuclear weapons" as his personal mission,^[4][5][6] and was largely scorned for this in Europe.^[6] His officials tried to stop such talks but Reagan was able to start discussions on nuclear disarmament with Soviet Union.^[6] He changed the name "SALT" (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) to "START" (Strategic Arms Reduction Talks).^[5]

After the 1986 Reykjavik summit between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and the new Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, the United States and the Soviet Union concluded two important nuclear arms reduction treaties: the INF Treaty (1987) and START I (1991). After the end of the Cold War, the United States and the Russian Federation concluded the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (2003) and the New START Treaty (2010).

In the Soviet Union (USSR), voices against nuclear weapons were few and far between^{[citation needed]} since there was no widespread Freedom of speech and Freedom of the press as political factors. Certain citizens who had become prominent enough to safely criticize the Soviet government, such as Andrei Sakharov, did speak out against nuclear weapons, but that was to little effect.^{[citation needed]}

When the extreme danger intrinsic to nuclear war and the possession of nuclear weapons became apparent to all sides during the Cold War, a series of disarmament and nonproliferation treaties were agreed upon between the United States, the Soviet Union, and several other states throughout the world. Many of these treaties involved years of negotiations, and seemed to result in important steps in arms reductions and reducing the risk of nuclear war.

Key treaties

• Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) 1963: Prohibited all testing of nuclear weapons except underground.
• Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)—signed 1968, came into force 1970: An international treaty (currently with 189 member states) to limit the spread of nuclear weapons. The treaty has three main pillars: nonproliferation, disarmament, and the right to peacefully use nuclear technology.
• Interim Agreement on Offensive Arms (SALT I) 1972: The Soviet Union and the United States agreed to a freeze in the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) that they would deploy.
• Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) 1972: The United States and Soviet Union could deploy ABM interceptors at two sites, each with up to 100 ground-based launchers for ABM interceptor missiles. In a 1974 Protocol, the US and Soviet Union agreed to only deploy an ABM system to one site.
• Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT II) 1979: Replacing SALT I, SALT II limited both the Soviet Union and the United States to an equal number of ICBM launchers, SLBM launchers, and heavy bombers. Also placed limits on Multiple Independent Reentry Vehicles (MIRVS).
• Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) 1987: Created a global ban on short- and long-range nuclear weapons systems, as well as an intrusive verification regime.
• Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I)—signed 1991, ratified 1994: Limited long-range nuclear forces in the United States and the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union to 6,000 attributed warheads on 1,600 ballistic missiles and bombers.
• Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty II (START II)—signed 1993, never put into force: START II was a bilateral agreement between the US and Russia which attempted to commit each side to deploy no more than 3,000 to 3,500 warheads by December 2007 and also included a prohibition against deploying multiple independent reentry vehicles (MIRVs) on intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs)
• Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT or Moscow Treaty)—signed 2002, into force 2003: A very loose treaty that is often criticized by arms control advocates for its ambiguity and lack of depth, Russia and the United States agreed to reduce their "strategic nuclear warheads" (a term that remain undefined in the treaty) to between 1,700 and 2,200 by 2012.
• Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)—signed 1996, not yet in force: The CTBT is an international treaty (currently with 181 state signatures and 148 state ratifications) that bans all nuclear explosions in all environments. While the treaty is not in force, Russia has not tested a nuclear weapon since 1990 and the United States has not since 1992.^[7]
• New START Treaty—signed 2010, into force in 2011: replaces SORT treaty, reduces deployed nuclear warheads by about half, will remain into force until at least 2021

Only one country has been known to ever dismantle their nuclear arsenal completely—the apartheid government of South Africa apparently developed half a dozen crude fission weapons during the 1980s, but they were dismantled in the early 1990s.

Nuclear disarmament movement[link]

Women Strike for Peace during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

In 1954 Japanese peace movements converged to form a unified "Japanese Council Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs". Japanese opposition to the Pacific nuclear weapons tests was widespread, and "an estimated 35 million signatures were collected on petitions calling for bans on nuclear weapons".^[8]

In the United Kingdom, the first Aldermaston March organised by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament took place at Easter 1958, when several thousand people marched for four days from Trafalgar Square, London, to the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment close to Aldermaston in Berkshire, England, to demonstrate their opposition to nuclear weapons.^[9][10] The Aldermaston marches continued into the late 1960s when tens of thousands of people took part in the four-day marches.^[8]

In 1959, a letter in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists was the start of a successful campaign to stop the Atomic Energy Commission dumping radioactive waste in the sea 19 kilometres from Boston.^[11] In 1962, Linus Pauling won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to stop the atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons, and the "Ban the Bomb" movement spread.^[12]

In 1963, many countries ratified the Partial Test Ban Treaty prohibiting atmospheric nuclear testing. Radioactive fallout became less of an issue and the nuclear disarmament movement went into decline for some years.^[13][14]

On June 3, 1981, Thomas launched the longest running peace vigil in US history at Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C..^[15] He was later joined on the White House Peace Vigil by anti-nuclear activists Concepcion Picciotto and Ellen Benjamin.^[16]

On June 12, 1982, one million people demonstrated in New York City's Central Park against nuclear weapons and for an end to the cold war arms race. It was the largest anti-nuclear protest and the largest political demonstration in American history.^[2][3] International Day of Nuclear Disarmament protests were held on June 20, 1983 at 50 sites across the United States.^[17][18] In 1986, hundreds of people walked from Los Angeles to Washington DC in the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament.^[19] There were many Nevada Desert Experience protests and peace camps at the Nevada Test Site during the 1980s and 1990s.^[20][21]

On May 1, 2005, 40,000 anti-nuclear/anti-war protesters marched past the United Nations in New York, 60 years after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.^[22][23] This was the largest anti-nuclear rally in the U.S. for several decades.^[24] In Britain, there were many protests about the government's proposal to replace the aging Trident weapons system with a newer model. The largest protest had 100,000 participants and, according to polls, 59 percent of the public opposed the move.^[24]

The International Conference on Nuclear Disarmament took place in Oslo in February, 2008, and was organized by The Government of Norway, the Nuclear Threat Initiative and the Hoover Institute. The Conference was entitled Achieving the Vision of a World Free of Nuclear Weapons and had the purpose of building consensus between nuclear weapon states and non-nuclear weapon states in relation to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.^[25]

Among the prominent figures who have called for the abolition of nuclear weapons are "the philosopher Bertrand Russell, the entertainer Steve Allen, CNN’s Ted Turner, former US Sen. Claiborne Pell, Notre Dame president Theodore Hesburg, South African Bishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama".^[26]

US nuclear policy[link]

Despite a general trend toward disarmament in the early 1990s, the George W. Bush administration repeatedly pushed to fund policies that would allegedly make nuclear weapons more usable in the post–Cold War environment [1], [2]. To date the U.S. Congress has refused to fund many of these policies. However, some [3] feel that even considering such programs harms the credibility of the United States as a proponent of nonproliferation.

Recent controversial U.S. nuclear policies

• Reliable Replacement Warhead Program (RRW): This program seeks to replace existing warheads with a smaller number of warhead types designed to be easier to maintain without testing. Critics charge that this would lead to a new generation of nuclear weapons and would increase pressures to test. Congress has not funded this program.
• Complex Transformation: Complex transformation, formerly known as Complex 2030, is an effort to shrink the U.S. nuclear weapons complex and restore the ability to produce “pits” the fissile cores of the primaries of U.S. thermonuclear weapons. Critics see it as an upgrade to the entire nuclear weapons complex to support the production and maintenance of the new generation of nuclear weapons. Congress has not funded this program.
• Nuclear bunker buster: Formally known as the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP), this program aimed to modify an existing gravity bomb to penetrate into soil and rock in order to destroy underground targets. Critics argue that this would lower the threshold for use of nuclear weapons. Congress did not fund this proposal, which was later withdrawn.
• Missile Defense: Formerly known as National Missile Defense, this program seeks to build a network of interceptor missiles to protect the United States and its allies from incoming missiles, including nuclear-armed missiles. Critics have argued that this would impede nuclear disarmament and possibly stimulate a nuclear arms race. Elements of missile defense are being deployed in Poland and the Czech Republic, despite Russian opposition.

Former U.S. officials Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, Bill Perry, and Sam Nunn proposed in January 2007 that the United States rededicate itself to the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons, concluding: "We endorse setting the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons and working energetically on the actions required to achieve that goal."^[27] Arguing a year later that "with nuclear weapons more widely available, deterrence is decreasingly effective and increasingly hazardous," the authors concluded that although "it is tempting and easy to say we can't get there from here, . . . we must chart a course” toward that goal."^[28] During his Presidential campaign, U.S. President Elect Barack Obama pledged to "set a goal of a world without nuclear weapons, and pursue it."^[29]

U.S. policy options for nuclear terrorism[link]

The United States has taken the lead in ensuring that nuclear materials globally are properly safeguarded. A popular program that has received bipartisan domestic support for over a decade is the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program (CTR). While this program has been deemed a success, many believe that its funding levels need to be increased so as to ensure that all dangerous nuclear materials are secured in the most expeditious manner possible. The CTR program has led to several other innovative and important nonproliferation programs that need to continue to be a budget priority in order to ensure that nuclear weapons do not spread to actors hostile to the United States.

Key programs:

• Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR): The CTR program provides funding to help Russia secure materials that might be used in nuclear or chemical weapons as well as to dismantle weapons of mass destruction and their associated infrastructure in Russia.
• Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI): Expanding on the success of the CTR, the GTRI will expand nuclear weapons and material securing and dismantlement activities to states outside of the former Soviet Union.

Other states[link]

While the vast majority of states have adhered to the stipulations of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, a few states have either refused to sign the treaty or have pursued nuclear weapons programs while not being members of the treaty. Many view the pursuit of nuclear weapons by these states as a threat to nonproliferation and world peace, and therefore seek policies to discourage the spread of nuclear weapons to these states, a few of which are often described by the US as "rogue states".

• Declared nuclear weapon states not party to the NPT:^[30]

• Indian nuclear weapons: 80–110 active warheads
• Pakistani nuclear weapons: 90–110 active warheads
• North Korean nuclear weapons: <10 active warheads

• Undeclared nuclear weapon states not party to the NPT:

• Israeli nuclear weapons: 75–200 active warheads^[31]

• Nuclear weapon states not party to the NPT that disarmed and joined the NPT as non-nuclear weapons states:

• South African nuclear weapons: disarmed from 1989–1993

• Former Soviet states that disarmed and joined the NPT as non-nuclear weapons states:

• Belarus
• Kazakhstan
• Ukraine

• Non-nuclear weapon states party to the NPT currently accused of seeking nuclear weapons:

• Iran

• Non-nuclear weapon states party to the NPT who acknowledged and eliminated past nuclear weapons programs:

• Libya^[32]

See also[link]

• Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
• Countdown to Zero
• International Atomic Energy Agency
• Nuclear-free zone
• Nuclear proliferation
• Nuclear warfare
• Nuclear weapon
• Nuclear weapons convention
• Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone
• Nuclear weapons and the United States
• Seabed Arms Control Treaty
• Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT)
• United Nations
• Tehran International Conference on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, 2010

References[link]

External links[link]

• New Video: A World Without Nuclear Weapons
• Nuclear Files.org—Arms Control and Disarmament
• Annotated bibliography for nuclear arms control from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues
• Council for a Livable World
• Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation
• People v The Bomb: Showdown at the UN—TV documentary report on 2005 NPT Review crisis
• William Walker, "President-elect Obama and Nuclear Disarmament. Between Elimination and Restraint.", Proliferation Papers, Paris, Ifri, Winter 2009
• Robert S. Norris & Hans M. Kristensen, "Nuclear U.S. and Soviet/Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles, 1959-2008"
• Robert S. Norris & Hans M. Kristensen, "U.S. nuclear forces, 2009", Nuclear Notebook, "Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists"
• Seiitsu Tachibana, "Bush administration's nuclear weapons policy : New obstacles to nuclear disarmament" Hiroshima Peace Science, Vol. 24, pages 105-133 (2002)
• Nuclear Disarmament at the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs
• Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's Research on Nuclear weapons

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Bruce Kent (born 22 June 1929) is a British political activist and a former Roman Catholic priest. Active in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), he was the organisation's general secretary from 1980 to 1985 and its chair from 1987 to 1990. He now holds the honorary title of vice-president.^[1] In 1960 he joined the Christian Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament,^[2] a specialist section of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.^[3]

Early life[link]

Kent was educated in Canada before attending Stonyhurst College. He served as an officer in the Royal Tank Regiment from 1947 to 1949 and afterwards read jurisprudence at Brasenose College, Oxford from 1949 to 1952.

Priesthood[link]

In 1958 Kent was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest and was a chaplain to the University of London from 1966 to 1974. He was chair of the charity War on Want from 1974 to 1976.

In 1987, Kent left the priesthood rather than comply with an instruction from the late Cardinal Basil Hume to desist from involvement in that year's UK General Election in accordance with the canon law of the Catholic Church.^[4]

During his time as a priest Kent attained the status of a monsignor.^[5]

Politics[link]

From 1985-1992 Kent succeeded the late Sean MacBride as President of the International Peace Bureau.^[6]

In 1992 Kent was a candidate for the Labour Party in the constituency of Oxford West and Abingdon, where he came third. Had he been elected, he would at the time have been prevented, as an ordained priest, from taking his seat in the House of Commons.^[7] Sitting Member of Parliament and former Conservative minister John Patten, also a Catholic, retained his seat.^[8] Kent is also a member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Personal life[link]

Kent married Valery Flessati on 4 July 1988 and now lives in Harringay, North London.

References[link]

External links[link]

• National Portrait Gallery Images of Bruce Kent
• Interview about CND for the WGBH series, War and Peace in the Nuclear Age
• My Favourite Books Article in Socialist Review Issue 191, 1995
• Articles written by Bruce Kent in The New Statesman
• The myths of the Arms Trade article in The Tablet
• The Abolition of War: The Politics of Realistic Utopianism article in Disarmament Diplomacy

Kate Hudson
Hudson after an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, July 2006
Born	Kate Garry Hudson (1979-04-19) April 19, 1979 (age 33) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1996–present
Spouse	Chris Robinson (2000-2007)
Partner	Matthew Bellamy (2010-present)
Children	2
Parents	Bill Hudson, Goldie Hawn
Relatives	Oliver Hudson (brother)

Kate Garry Hudson (born April 19, 1979) is an American actress. She came to prominence in 2001 after winning a Golden Globe and receiving several nominations, including a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, for her role in Almost Famous. She then starred in the hit film How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003) which gained her wider fame. She has since established herself in Hollywood after starring in several productions including Raising Helen (2004), The Skeleton Key (2005), You, Me and Dupree (2006), Fool's Gold (2008) and Bride Wars (2009).

Early life[link]

Hudson was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Academy Award-winning actress Goldie Hawn and Bill Hudson, an actor, comedian, and musician.^[1] Her parents divorced eighteen months after her birth; she and her brother, actor Oliver Hudson, were raised in Colorado by her mother and her mother's long-time boyfriend, actor Kurt Russell.^[2]

Hudson has stated that her biological father "doesn't know me from a hole in the wall", and that she considers Russell to be her father.^[3] Her biological father has indicated that he has made several efforts to connect with Kate and Oliver, but neither has reciprocated.^[4] Hudson has described her mother as "the woman that I've learned the most from, and who I look up to, who has conducted her life in a way that I can look up to".^[5] She has four half-siblings: Emily and Zachary Hudson, from her biological father's subsequent marriage to actress Cindy Williams; Lalania Hudson, from his relationship with another woman;^[4] and Wyatt, from her mother's relationship with Russell.

Hudson is of Italian (from her paternal grandmother),^[6] English, and Hungarian Jewish descent.^[7] She was raised in her maternal grandmother's Jewish religion.^[8][9] In 1997, she graduated from Crossroads, a college preparatory school in Santa Monica. She was accepted to New York University but chose to pursue an acting career instead of an undergraduate degree.^[2]

Career[link]

Hudson's breakthrough was as Penny Lane in Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous (2000), for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture.^[2] She had previously appeared in the lesser-known films Gossip, a teenage drama, and 200 Cigarettes, a New Year's-set comedy with a large cast of actors. Regarding her early career and success, Hudson has noted that she is a "hard worker", and did not want to be associated with her well-known parents, wishing to avoid the perception that she "rode on somebody's coattails".^[2]

In 2002, she starred in the remake of the historical romance The Four Feathers, a film which was not well-received by critics or audiences. Her next film, the romantic comedy How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, was a box office success, grossing over $100 million after its February 2003 release. Hudson subsequently appeared in several romantic comedies, including Alex and Emma and Raising Helen; the films met with varying degrees of success.

Hudson signing autographs in July 2006

Hudson headlined a thriller called The Skeleton Key in 2005. The film, which had a production budget of $43 million, enjoyed box office success, grossing over $91.9 million worldwide ($47.9 million in North America).^[10] Her later film, a comedy titled You, Me and Dupree and co-starring Owen Wilson and Matt Dillon, grossed $21.5 million on its opening weekend of July 14, 2006.^[11]

In 2007, Hudson directed the short film Cutlass, one of Glamour magazine's "Reel Moments" based on readers' personal essays. Cutlass co-stars Kurt Russell, Dakota Fanning, Virginia Madsen, Chevy Chase and Kristen Stewart.^[12]

In 2008, she appeared in Fool's Gold, a romantic comedy released on February 8, and her second film to co-star Matthew McConaughey. She had been certified in scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef for the movie's underwater scenes. Also the same year, she appeared in another romantic comedy, My Best Friend's Girl, which was released in September.

Hudson next appeared in the musical film Nine, alongside Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman and Judi Dench. The film, directed by Rob Marshall, was released in December 2009. Hudson was critically acclaimed for her unknown dancing skills, showcased in a stylish 60's inspired original piece called "Cinema Italiano", which was written specifically for the film and for Hudson's character.

She starred in the film adaptation of Jim Thompson's The Killer Inside Me. The film premiered on January 24, 2010 at the Sundance Film Festival.

In 2011, she played Darcy in Something Borrowed, based on Emily Giffin's novel of the same name.

Personal life[link]

Hudson married Chris Robinson, the frontman for The Black Crowes, on December 31, 2000 in Aspen, Colorado. The couple lived in a house that was once owned by director James Whale and traveled together during Hudson's film shoots or Robinson's music tours.^[2] Hudson gave birth to son Ryder Russell Robinson in January 2004. On August 14, 2006, Hudson's publicist announced that Hudson and Robinson had separated. On November 18, 2006, Robinson filed divorce papers, citing "irreconcilable differences".^[13] The divorce was finalized on October 22, 2007.^[14]

In spring 2010, Hudson began dating Muse frontman Matthew Bellamy.^[15] In January 2011, it was announced Hudson and Bellamy were expecting a child.^[16][17] In February 2011, Hudson bought a house in London, England. A Daily Mail source reported that she plans to live in London with her partner six months a year.^[18] On April 27, 2011 on The Today Show she said that she and Matthew Bellamy got engaged the prior week. Their son Bingham Hawn Bellamy was born in July 2011.^[19][20]

Hudson has also said that she does not enjoy seeing herself on screen, specifying that she "gets cold... shakes and... sweats" when watching her performances for the first time.^[5]

In July 2006, Hudson sued the British version of the National Enquirer after it reported she had an eating disorder, describing her as "painfully thin". Hudson said the tabloid's statements were "a blatant lie" and she was concerned about the impact the false report could have on impressionable young women.^[21] The newspaper apologized and compensated her.^[22]

Filmography[link]

Films[link]

Television[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Kate Hudson

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kate Hudson

• Kate Hudson at the Internet Movie Database
• Kate Hudson at People.com