Beyond Hollanditis: The Campaigns against the Cruise Missiles in the Benelux (1979–1985)

Abstract

This article compares the anti-nuclear weapon campaigns in the Netherlands and Belgium during the political struggle against the NATO Double-Track Decision of December 1979 to deploy new nuclear missiles in Western Europe. While the traditional view is that the Dutch peace movement, and more specifically the Inter-Church Peace Council (IKV), was unique for leading the Europe-wide protests against nuclear weapons, this comparison reveals that the IKV campaign was in most aspects not very different from the anti-nuclear campaign of its counterpart in Belgium, the Flemish Action Committee Against Nuclear Weapons (VAKA). Both peace movements used similar methods, strategies and forms of actions, and both succeeded in making their respective governments repeatedly delay the final decision on cruise missile deployment until 1985.