The Danish Peace Academy

Holger Terp: Danish Peace History

Working paper 1

Flexible double standards policies during the cold war

The Danish Communist magazine the Time, June 1952. The Danish Communists were against NATO and against the militarization of Denmark during the Cold War. Artist unknown.

The cold war in Denmark is the subject of both heated political debates and historical research. The main Danish contributions to the iron curtain of the cold war were the membership of NATO and the American Thule Air Base¹⁵⁴.

This goes back to the second world war: 'Bowman’s territorial group registered the one immediate impact of the War and Peace Studies upon evolving foreign policy. On March 17, 1940, the Council submitted a memo, “The Strategic Importance of Greenland,” advising that, since the Danish outland was properly a part of the Western Hemisphere, it should be covered by the Monroe Doctrine. President Roosevelt promptly invited Bowman for a discussion at the White House, and one day after Nazi Germany occupied Denmark in April, Roosevelt declared American policy along the lines proposed by the Council group, including the intent to establish military bases in Greenland'. Source: CFR: Continuing the Inquiry, War and Peace. http://www.cfr.org/about/history/cfr/war_peace.html

According to a study by the Norwegian professor Geir Lundestad, “it is impossible to study American-Danish relations without bringing in Greenland”¹⁵⁵; and the Danish governments top secret allowances of US nuclear weapons in Greenland, contradicting the official security policy of no foreign bases and no nuclear weapons on Danish territory.

This was made possible by a little known Danish-American agreement, dated January 27, 1950, which article III stated, that “all military related information between the two governments should be classified”¹⁵⁶.

A new treaty on general security of military information was made February 27, 1981 after Scandinavian peace researchers discovered that the American archival rules were more liberal than their own countries restricted rules¹⁵⁷.

The much debated anthology: “Grønland Middelhavets Perle : Et indblik i amerikansk atomkrigsforberedelse” from 1983 is one of many samples of peace researchers who were looking too close into the politicians cards.

The American's activities in Greenland and Denmark have been investigated by the Danish Institute of International Affairs, Greenpeace, Hans M. Kristensen and others, though not all yet has been said in this matter, neither by the historians nor the courts¹⁵⁸.

The American military facilities in the Faroe Islands during and after the cold war needs also a closer look.

After Denmark in the spring of 1949 became a member of NATO two communistic inspired peace organisations were created: the Danish Peace Conference and the Danish chapter of the international les Partisans de la Paix¹⁵⁹. From March 1950 the Danish Peace Supporters collected signatures to the World Peace Council’s Stockholm-appeal against nuclear weapons; while the Danish Peace Conference during the first part of the cold war in the 1950s held three conferences to get the labour movement into organised peace work with little success. Other new initiatives were the Committee on a independent foreign policy established by the magazine “Frit Danmark”, Danish chapters of the One World Movement and Federation demokratique internationale des femmes. The Federation demokratique internationale des femmes held an international congress in Copenhagen at the same time as the new Danish constitution entered into force 1953.

In May 1951 two well-known Danish women, the editor of the magazine "Frit Danmark / Free Denmark", Kate Fleron and chief librarian Ida Bachmann was with an international delegation of women in North Korea. And appalling is their reports submitted in later meetings on the horrors of war brought upon the Korean people. The Commission of Inquiry and the journey was organized by the Women's Democratic World Federation.

A good candidate for the first protest song against nuclear weapons is the American journalist Vernon Partlow’s Atomic Blues or Talking Atomic Blues, written in 1945, published and recorded in 1950 by Sam Hinton. During the Newport 1963 Folk Festival Sam Hinton made a new recording of the song. In the autumn of 1953 Atomic Blues was translated into Danish and performed by actress and jazz singer Lise Ringheim (1926-1994), together with composer Børge Roger-Henrichsen (1915-1989) in a Saturday Martine for the Partisans for peace in the Hall of the Student Union in Copenhagen. Atomic Blues was later published in the magazine Dialog in November 1953.

Danes protested against West Germany's admission in NATO.

The radical liberal politican Else Zeuthen (1897-1975) had became member of the executive committee of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom in 1946. In 1954 Zeuthen was elected chairwomen of the organisation; also she had become member of the parliament in 1953¹⁶⁰.

After the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956 the umbrella organisation Danish Refugee Council was created for the Danish aid and refugee organisations¹⁶¹.

Both official and private intelligence services surveyed and recorded opposition groups as well as peace groups during and after the cold war; contradicting official government policy statements of March 5, 1947, November 13, 1952 and September 30, 1968 on no intelligence filings of “lawful political activities”. As one of many protests against the intelligence services huge files on political active persons, the Zealand Committee against the Card Files was established in 1965¹⁶². The Danish intelligence services activities needs more research¹⁶³.

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