Halban’s ‘Diplomatic Flu’: A Case Study in Nuclear Diplomacy in World War II

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article recounts an incident in Anglo-American nuclear diplomacy during the Second World War, in which Hans Halban – a French physicist researching nuclear fission on behalf of the British government at a joint Anglo-Canadian research facility in Montreal – was forbidden to participate in technical discussions with his American counterparts. This previously neglected incident usefully highlights the complex and contested nature of Anglo-American nuclear diplomacy during the Second World War. In February 1943 Halban had been invited to participate in a discussion concerning his work on heavy water, a topic with immense potential significance to the American nuclear programme. The invite came at a low point in Anglo-American nuclear relations. Interchange between the two states had effectively ceased. Fearing that allowing the trip might weaken the British negotiating position, Halban’s superiors sought to forbid the discussion, and at first instructed Halban to fake an illness to excuse his non-attendance. This ruse was eventually abandoned, but the trip was nevertheless cancelled. The article provides a granular contextualised account of these events and the British rationale throughout. Focussing on the perspectives of scientists and administrators in this period directs attention away from the interpersonal diplomacy of Churchill and Roosevelt towards a more nuanced understanding of the drivers of wartime nuclear diplomacy. The inter-connection of the various tiers of relationships within the allied nuclear programmes is emphasised and the importance of technical considerations in the overall construction of allied nuclear policy demonstrated. Canada’s significance in wartime nuclear diplomacy is also highlighted.