Coalition for Peace through Security

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The Coalition for Peace Through Security (CPS) was a campaigning group founded in September 1981 and active in the UK throughout the early and mid-1980s. It strongly opposed unilateral nuclear disarmament and withdrawal from NATO as advocated by CND, supporting instead the replacement of Polaris by Trident and the deployment of NATO cruise missiles after the Soviet Union began deploying its SS20 missiles in 1977.

Amongst its activities were the commissioning of a series of Gallup polls showing levels of support for and opposition to British possession of nuclear weapons; the mounting of counter-demonstrations and stunts to undermine those organised by the CND; the provision of speakers at public meetings and debates; and the highlighting of what it considered to be the left-wing affiliations of leading CND figures. The CPS also directed attention to links with other bodies, such as the World Peace Council (WPC), the World Federation of Scientific Workers (WFSW) and the Soviet Peace Committee (SPC), which Western governments had frequently denounced as propaganda groups funded and controlled by the Soviet Union.

The tactics of the CPS attracted criticism from the anti-nuclear movement. Bruce Kent alleged in his autobiography that the CPS placed a spy, Francis Holihan, in CND. The CPS and Mr Holihan parted company before the end of 1982. A draft CPS leaflet, but not its printed version, also linked Bruce Kent, then General Secretary of CND, to the IRA. The CPS also attracted criticism for refusing to reveal its sources of funding whilst alleging that, as well as the Communist Party of Great Britain, the WPC and other organisations involved with the peace movement were funded by the Soviet Union.^[1] The basis of the CPS case was set out in detail in a book published towards the end of the campaign.^[2]

With the decline in anti-nuclear agitation from 1985, and the Zero Option agreement in the 1987 INF Treaty to scrap both cruise and SS20 missiles, the organisers of the CPS pursued other political objectives. Tony Kerpel MBE became Chief of Staff to Conservative Party Chairman Kenneth Baker; Edward Leigh and Dr Julian Lewis both became Conservative MPs for Gainsborough and New Forest East respectively.