South Africa's Secret Nuclear Weapons
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- Опубликовано: 2 июн 2024
- During the Cold War, South Africa actually possessed nuclear weapons. However, they had to be a bit secretive to acquire them and test them.
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00:00 - Intro
02:26 - South Africa Before Going Nuclear
04:55 - Sharing Data
09:14 - Building a Small Arsenal
11:11 - Destroying the Arsenal
Music Used:
"Decisions" by Kevin MacLeod
found at www.incompetech.com
Sources:
- Albright, David; Gay, Corey (November-December 1997). "Proliferation: A flash from the past". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 53: 15-17.
- Burns, John F. “French Company to Build South African Atom Plant.” The New York Times, May 30, 1976.
- Keller, Bill. "South Africa Says It Built 6 Atom Bombs." The New York Times, March 25, 1993.
- McGreal, Chris. "Brothers in arms - Israel's secret pact with Pretoria." - The Guardian, UK, February 7, 2006.
- Pabian, Frank V. “South Africa’s Nuclear Weapon Program: Lessons for U.S. Nonproliferation Policy.” The Nonproliferation Review 3, no. 1 (1995): 1-19.
- “South African Nuclear History.” The Wilson Center Digital Archive. digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.or....
During apartheid, my grandfather used to work at a company called Barlows and would get contracts from the SADF to develop their radar technology and radios. He would regularly go on trips to Israel. He often used to tell my uncles about how accurate missiles had gotten. There is no doubt in my mind that both Israel and South Africa cooperated in nuclear tests.
Old south africa and Israel seem to have more in common lol
Documented evidence please
@@Eric-kn4yn What specifically?
The nuclear tests, there was barely any documented evidence back then doubt I there is any now.
Barlows the company rebranded to Barloworld after the collapse of apartheid. It still exists but they don't get any defence contracts. They have a website with their history on it.
The radios my grandfather designed were the A53, A55, B56, B57 and the A72. All contracted under Barlows.
They are covered on the South African defence website, DefenceWeb under the title South African tactical radios.
After the sanctions, my grandfather was cut from the company and later ended up selling the old house and most of the stuff he had. My uncle still has one of his old radios though.
Sorry for not being able to provide links for the two websites but youtube keeps on auto deleting my comments.
@@icrushchildrensdreams4556why add the LOL????
Israelies were instrumental in ending apartheid.
Do one about Israel’s “secret” nukes
The Mossad wants to know your location
I would also prefer not to
worse kept secret ever, but by design
We have textile factory, what are you talking about 😅
Does he want mossad coming in his house with silenced 22lr pistols ?
I remember that even Argentina tried to start a nuclear program.
They had a ballistic missile program too!
Argentina and Brazil were in a nuclear arms race like the one between India and Pakistan. They got pretty far before reaching an agreement for both sides to stop and sign the nuclear non proliferation treaty to avoid spreading nukes. The research is done tho, so if you ever look at a map or list of “nuclear capable countries” you’ll notice Brazil and Argentina are often listed as countries that could have nukes within a year or two if they ever decided to go for it.
Sweden did as well. They ended up scrapping in the 1960s, it partially due to cost, but also because a secret agreement was worked out with the US that in exchange for Sweden not building nukes, the country would be covered under the US Nuclear Umbrella, despite not being a NATO member (at the time),
Perón Perón
Que grande sos
Mi general
Ahre
Omg, sadly, the only people they would probably end up nuking would be the IMF!
9:49 This is very important. Southern Africa is very much a forgotten theatre of Cold War I. Also, there is a theory that the South African government didn't decide to scrap it's nukes out of altruistic/end of Cold War reasons, but rather the end of Apartheid was imminent and the white leadership did not trust nukes in the hands of Black Africans. I don't have an opinion on this question, but it is very true that SA is the only state to build and completely dismantle a nuclear arsenal, a so far unrepeated feat.
It's likely that dismantling their nuclear program was one of the Apartheid government's last big middle fingers to its black populace... I wouldn't put it past them.
Do you really want to hand nukes to those people?
It was a combination of the usual racism plus the somewhat understandable concern of being a minority in a country that can't be invaded (just ask the Uyghurs and Palestinians).
@@Peichen01 well "those people" have yet to nuke anyone or cause wars of global scale, so i don't see the issue.
@@dreadhead5719Not for the lack of trying - just how many civil and regular wars Sub-Saharan African countries went through after less than a century of independence? Do you actually believe that not a single one of all the sides would use a nuke given the chance? Its not like there wasn't an ocassional genocide/ethnic cleansing, which are quite common, considering how little time theese people had to themselves. The only reason African conflicts never became global is that there is no power in Africa capable of starting one, they never even overcome their regional rivals, forget about becoming a threat to succesfull medium-tier powers like Australia or North African states. Just because black people never were succesfull in colonizing anyone but other black people don't assume they don't want to
Interesting fact, during the cold war there was almost a "nuclear axis" between the three orphans of international politics of Israel, Soth Africa and Taiwan. All three of these countries are isolated on the international stage and worked together for nuclear weapons. However in Taiwan's first attempts for nukes in the 70s, the CIA noticed the anomalies and the US government gave pressure to force Taiwan to stop their nuclear program as well as a promise to never developing nuclear weapons since their positions is a lot more dangerous than Israel and South Africa with the possibility of triggering a nuclear war with China. However they broke this promise again in the late 80s and restarted the program, with estimates of completion with in one or two year before a scientist who was secretly a CIA agent leaked the info and the US once again forced Taiwan to cease all nuclear research.
One day. Never stop believing Taiwan 🇹🇼.
Yet we allowed the ccp to walk away with suitcase nukes..
South Africa and Afghanistan are the only two countries to defeat the USSR and her proxies on the battlefield.
That really pisses the yanks off who lost in Korea and Vietnam.
@@Phansikhongolzais this bait.
@@rexthewolf3149almost certainly, Poland and Estonia also defeated them so that comment is incorrect
Having a nuclear weapon is not such a big deal these days, my uncle recently started a nuclear weapons program as a hobby he even let me hold some cobalt-60
sorry wut
HOL' UP
Ayo
I mean you're right. The information to make them is pretty widely available. They just cost too much to make and maintain.
@@fullmetaltheoristit's not the know how it's the fissile material not exactly the stuff one can produce or procure in any quantity on the sly
8:14 fun fact: one of those spies was Edward Teller.
Hi Sam! חג שמח
OK but where was Penn in all this
Many people don't know this but Saudi Arabia is also suspected in having nukes as Saudi royal family supported Pakistani nuclear program financially and its believed that they have agreement on dual ownership of that nuclear arsenal
They do not have nukes. They are currently trying to get a light green from the US to build civil nuclear reactors (of course from there, the way to a bomb is short).
Issue is the fact that Saudi Arabia is aggressively trying to get nuclear reactors
I'd belive it
.
The Saudi government is pretty evil/trash/idk the word..... not good
.
We invaded the wrong country twice due to back door deals, politics, money, oil, etc
@@UmbraHandIt’s harder to build a nuclear a reactor than a low-yield nuclear bomb though.
@@Carl-Gauss Issue being? One is legal and allows you to get nukes easily. You need nuclear reactors to breed plutonium which is the ideal component for a fission bomb or a thermonuclear one.
Really makes you think about how many other nuclear-capable countries there could've been in the other countries of southern Africa. The world would be a lot more different if that were the case
imagine nuclear rhodesia
1:07 🇴🇲 Oman was a nuclear power? Should it be blue or was it mistaken for Pakistan?
@@hawkishOwl2020, in 1968, Oman was part of the British Empire, so it's labeled red as a part of Britain.
@occam7382 I thought that, then wiki said something about autonomous, independent, mutual association with the British... whatever.
@@hawkishOwl2020, it's confusing as hell, I know.
Judging by the current state of South Africa, I'm sure glad they got rid of their nukes.
They were only dismantled because we knew we could not trust them in the hands of the new leadership.
5:36 Holy Sh France can build entire nuclear PLANETS since the the 70's 🤯🤯😰😰😨😨🫣😮😮😅
I didn't catch that!! Nice catch!!
Hilarious
.
France is the true nuke superpower lol
Atoms for Peace program was also beginning of the Romanian nuclear program, known as the "Danube Program" which lasted from 1981 to 1989. Unfortunately, little is known about this program because a lot of information is still classified.
Spain also had a nuclear program and was close to achieving a bomb, but the person in charge (Carrero Blanco) was killed by ETA (Basque separatist terrorists) and Franco died two years after that, and the program was dismantled
Respect to the first Spanish astronaut 💥🚗👨🚀 🫡🇪🇸
That's not how that happened, Carrero blanco was not in charge of it (It was Agustin Muñoz) and it ended in the 80's because of American pressure
Well you made me look that up. I have very rusty Spanish history. I was surprised Franco was still in power at that time. I think I assumed he went by the way side after WW2 like Mussolini. But no. I guess not getting into unwinnable wars helps maintain your power.
Some in the South African Apartheid regime were convinced an ANC victory would lead to the country becoming a Soviet satellite. They were very paranoid even for the era.
As a South African who's also a socialist I've ought to say that I hate what my ancestors have done, hell, even my close family members use the word "Kaffir" alot. (the k-word is used for demonstrative purposes, it is a slur used during die Apartheid)
Of course a South Africa under the mandela's anc would have become satillite state of the USSR.
That's the very reason we went to war with the USSR.
So we defeated the USSR in Angola which assisted in the collapse of the USSR and the end of the Cold War. Which in turn forced the West to put pressure on us to unban the anc and sacp.
So in effect we were the architects of our own downfall.
We had to surrender the country we built to the invading black man from west Africa.
@@Phansikhongolza Do you need a hug? The old classic of racist with a chip on their shoulder.
@@mrmr446 Shows how ignorant and misinformed you are.
@@Woistwahrheitthat’s why people don’t respect you
Yo i like this diversification in channel content. Amazing video :D
And that video about South African policy would be interesting
That's one of the reasons I love this channel: history topics I had no idea about
A well balanced, well researched and concisely presented video Very interesting.
👍Thanks for video. Very interesting.
I CLICKED SO HARD!
This is a great topic!
There was a fear in the later years and especially after 1991 that potentially there could be foreign US lead intervention in South Africa, especially if the army decided to save apartheid and overthrow De Klerk
And there was a fear of civil war breaking out in SA with the AWB and Bantustan governments resisting the end of apartheid.
The US opposing apartheid?
@@065Tim yes, especially by the 80’s when South Africa was developing nukes. If White South Africa was still around with apartheid today the USA would probably consider it it’s greatest adversary
Spain also had a secret nuclear program that went really far along sir the developement process
@2:46 could it possible to say it was a different state ? 🤔
Only kidding 😉 great video. Liked. Keep it up !
Thank you for this video about my country, you covered the topic well. Your pronounciation was off but there's no reason to hold that against you considering your nationality and main audience. Well done.
I would love to see a video about Sweden's secret nuclear program.
Its only reason for not coming to fruition was one vote in parliament. And the program continuing decades even after the parliament voted no.
They had all the necessary parts for a bomb, only waiting for the green light for its assembly. As well as Sweden, at one time, was producing enough plutonium for 60 nukes a year.
To me, sweden is a small country with a small population, extremely cold weather. But sweden are a rich modern, highly advance country. Simply amazing.
Good video. By the way, you accidentally typed "planet" instead of "plant" at 5:31.
There are many countries that shouldn't be armed with nuclear weapons, South Africa would definitely be one of them.
It's simple: my side gets them your side doesn't!
Despite internal unrest, South Africa is still the most free and one of the most stable African countries, even with such rife corruption, nuclear arms would never be deployed.
None should be armed with nuclear weapons
@@mildlydispleased3221 I mean, "one of the most stable African countries" is not a high standard.
@@mildlydispleased3221 I will destroy my government, the ANC shall perish and be replaced by a party of free ideals
Now South Africa can’t even run a coal power station.😂
5:35 France over here helping South Africa build a Death Star (before Star Wars was even a thing)
My dad´s family is from South Africa, the British side of it, and so yeah, that would definitely be a topic of interest to me.
That makes me curious about something: what did British South Africans think of Apartheid? Did they just accept it, or was there some opposition to it on their end?
As mentioned in Tom Lehrer's Who's Next? - "South Africa wants two, that's right/one bomb for the black and one for the white"
I always found that lyric a bit awkward - we talk “the blacks” and “the whites”- in the plural. I think Lehrer could have written “South Africa wants two - relax!/ there’ll be one for the whites and one for the blacks”
A remake of an older, much shorter video, now with absolutely zero Toto references? I'm sold.
Great topic, and well researched. The Vela incident in particular is still debated today. Israel's alleged involvement is also not a surprise.
A very accurate account of the program. FW de Klerk, I think, saw himself as the Gorbachev of South Africa. Gorbachev set in motion the events which would change the world, so indirectly he was responsible for SA abandoning nuclear weapons.
De Klerk was a collaborator with terrorists. He has the blood of millions of White and black South Africans on his hands
How true it is I don't know but many years ago there was talk that Israel swapped nuclear assistance to S.A. in exchange for their knowledge of chemical and biological weapons.
Nice
It is not clear if Spain, through its proyect “Islero” (nuclear arms development program), manage to produce working bombs or not. What is known, is that between 4 to 8 prototypes were built but never tested (it is classified if nuclear material was incorporated or not). Also, in 1982, Spain finally renounced to have nuclear arms and destroyed the prototypes. So maybe South Africa was not the only country to destroy its own nuclear weapons.
Omg youtube, it really is south africa's secret nuke! 😵💫
Why ist there a blue dot in the middle of the US on the map? (At 1:16)
The US, USSR, and UK are nuclear powers that also ratified the NPT, which is indicated by the blue dots.
I got recommended a Tigerstar video?!
I tried to make a drinking challenge for my self by taking a little drink of my beer every time he said "nuclear". I have just drunk 1 liter of beer
south africa gaming
Nowadays south Africa can't even manage power stations, imagine if they had nuclear weapons.
Hey I’m the thousand person to like this video. Never had that happen before it’s asinine but kinda cool
Should never have given them up. Like with Ukraine, who had nukes, and probably wouldn't have been invaded by Russia if they kept them.
Ukraine nukes under russian command and control buffoon
@5:48 'nuclear power planet' heh.
What consequences for reneging on NPT
I find it suspicious that no one has talked about being at the alleged test. Not one person has come forwards to say they were there yet hundred must have been involved!
It's not surprising that apartheid South Africa and apartheid Israel were allies
oh bother.
It's so funny that fellow Americans don't know about the attack on the USS liberty
.
We didn't really like Israel till the 70s/80s
Which is ironic, because the far-right NP had its share of anti-semites, and some South African Jews were involved in the fight against apartheid
“Apartheid” Israel...
Do you need to be reminded on how Palestine treats Jews? Because it’s significantly worse than how Israel treats Arabs.
Lol of course you people would bring up Israel you people wonder why they hate you and don’t respect you
Episodes like this helps us all realize the world's a little bit more scarier than we think 🤔.
0:35 why does this map look this way? Why is there a blue spot in the middle of the US? Why are Omam and the UAE still part of the UK?
Why do I think they’ve got a few in deep storage still?
what happened to tigray war, the war ended long ago with no video
As a Dutch person, i wonder if your pronounciation of Frederik Willem de Klerk is just wrong, or if my assumption that it would be pronounced very similairly to how it would be pronounced in Dutch is wrong
Regardless, this is a good video, i didn't know South Africa had nuclear weapons before
Nope he pronounced it 'to the best of his abilities' in afrikaans. Afrikaans pronunciation differs quite dramatically from its dutch roots after about 2 hundred years of separation from the dutch mainland.
[edit: Tiger tried his best to pronounce the afrikaans version of the name but struggled to get it right and apparently now both the afrikaans and dutch people are mad that it is not perfect in either language, give the guy some credit for trying.]
@paulbester1571 I disagree. That's not how I or anyone else I know would pronounce F.W. de Klerk. I don't know how the dutch would pronounce it, but his pronunciation of Frederik Willem sounds almost like German to me whilst his pronunciation of de Klerk sounds English
@@ananonynoussauce7616 bro the dude is an American. Of course the pronunciation is not perfect but he tried his best. And i will say again that his pronunciation for his name was correct for Afrikaans, not dutch, which is the entire reason for this thread in the first place.
@@paulbester1571 well yeah, I don't care that he got it wrong, it's a hard name and I didn't expect him too. Glad he tried at least. But that is still definitely not right for Afrikaans. That's what the thread was about, does Afrikaans pronounce it like that, I don't agree that it does.
Dis snaaks dat ons altwee Afrikaners is en dit verskillend hoor, wonder hoekom. Dalk het ons altwee verskillende Afrikaanse aksente. Maar vir my klink dit heeltemal verkeerd vir Afrikaans.
Nee hy sê dit nie heeltemal reg nie en jy kan hoor dit is n computer stem. Die Willem gedeelte klink meer Duits en sal graag die nederlandse spraak wil hoor.
Brazil came up a design of a 30 kiloton nuclear device before opening everything up for the IAEA.
interesting
Within 23 hours!
Gotta boost boost boost
They should have used that energy from their weaponry to provide electricity to rural homes!
Why the blue dot in the middle of the US? Sioux or Dakota nations?
I was wondering the same thing.
The US, USSR, and UK all ratified the NPT while also being nuclear powers. That's what the blue dots are meant to indicate.
"It was called Safari 1"
Because HippoZebraElephantGiraffeRhinoAfrica!!1!111 was already taken
Ukraine has thought us never to give up your Nuclear stock.
South africa
peaceful purposes only....like this death ray i just built.
2:00 spelling mistake in second line
5:39 another one. Second line.
For all we know there could be plenty of other countries carrying nukes of their own.
I think we’re pretty certain the only secret nuclear powers have been SA and Israel
Building nukes isn't easy, which means it require a lot of effort, a lot of people, and a lot of resources, all of which must be kept secret. You can't keep something of that scale completely secret, so we are actually pretty confident on which countries almost certainly do not have weapons, which ones have taken steps in that direction, and which countries have weapons. Also if a country goes as far as to test a weapon, a nuclear explosion is basically impossible to hide so then we are pretty sure at that point.
👍
I can't believe you got this wrong, clearly it was big boss and the development of........ METAL GEAR!
We miss our nukes
İ fr realised Tiger star changed his name to I
well, if im honest id be as, if not even a bit more, worried if it was todays and not 70s South Africa which successfully acquired nuclear weaponry.
the track record of post-apartheid South Africa and they politicians when it comes to social stability, inequality, corruption, even human rights and democracy( e.g. mainstream politicians from parties in government openly supporting and calling for murder of ppl of certain ethical group) isnt all that stellar and IMO in certain aspects just as bad, if not even worse if its even possible, than the one of the regime that preceded them.
The difference is, these politicians are calling for murder while the old regime actually murdered people.
A shame what happened to south africa
must be broken by now
The map shoulded show Namibia as part of South Africa at the time...
What if Hong kong has a nuke
And they had electricity back before 94
Thank God South Africa got rid of their nukes once Apartheid ended, can't imagine how bad current South Africa would be at keeping those safe.
I mean, Apartheid South Africa having them wouldn't exactly be better.
Apartheid SA is at least a country, current SA is a tribal federation
@@Peichen01, you know, I've noticed you really don't like modern South Africa. I mean, South Africa is a complete mess, true, but you really seem to hate them, for some reason.
@@occam7382 He's just a racist who doesn't like dark skinned people. Just ignore him.
@@Peichen01 No, a Tribal Federation would be more trustworthy with nukes than modern South Africa imo. At least there would be strong ties of honor between tribesmen in that case.
Well, they weren't very good nuclear weapons, at least. Gun type, as I recall. Besides which, how the hell did everyone learn about a _cold_ test site?? Something like that, should have been all but invisible. Majorly incompetent. Vela island incident has fascinated me since I first read about it, years ago. who done it?
The fact that the first five nuclear weapon countries happen to also be the five permanent members of the UN Security Council I'm guessing is no coincidence.
Eh... it's weird. Although it should be noted that the People's Republic of China was not in the UN when it developed nuclear weapons. In 1964, the Republic of China was still the one on the Security Council.
I am glad Canada has no weapons of this kind because of Quebec and Trudescu. I don't want such an unstable questionable regime with a mentally unstable ruler having control of such weapons. That's the only reason.
If A possible Anglosphere between US, UK, Australia, Canada and South Africa, some of the Commonwealth cou tries, and possibly Israel could be established, they would some good stuff.
Lmao no. I don't want my taxes going to attempting to stabilise South Africa, or the rest of the commonwealth in africa, or the Jewish colonisation of Palestine
South Africa wants two, that's right:
One for the black and one for the white."
Tom Lehrer - Who's Next?
Hmm, rare case of the US and the Soviets cooperating to stop another country from getting the bomb.
Common case of racism.
Wasn't there also a plan to stop China from developing the bomb, or did I imagine that?
@@mildlydispleased3221lmao neither the soviets nor America supported apartheid.
@@mappingshaman5280 They both supported the prevention of the incoming black government from acquiring nuclear weapons.
@mildlydispleased3221 they would have supported the prevention of ANY government that is not them acquiring nuclear weapons. They didn't want apartheid south Africa getting them either
16,845th viewer of this video!
And electricity
Commenting 4 algorithm
SA is actually the only nation to start and then end their own nuclear program
>nuclear power planet
Madagascar shood have a nuke
You'll be conquered by the SOUTH AFRICAN military!!! The federation will be born!
South Africa wants two, that's right:
One for the black and one for the white!
Who's next?
ons vir jou suid afrika
Ukraine never built a nuclear arsenal
let alone voluntarily dismantled it
I expected better Tigerstar.
Whatifalthist I know that is your voice. Lol
South Africa’s nukes would’ve almost certainly ended up “missing” if the ANC government was given responsibility over them.
Jacob Zuma would've sold them to extend his palace.
They'd have probably exploded by mistake if the current government possessed them.
Lost in the fire pool.@@mildlydispleased3221
mepoiut
"THAT south Africa"... you mean the good south africa.
Pronounced APART-Hate.
South Africa getting nukes led to a very *rare* and serious *rebuke* of Israel from GOP Republican Senator Bob Dole on the *actual* Senate floor! 😳
Don't give up your nukes ~ Ukraine
2:33 yeah apartheid ending was a great thing for South Africa. Look at it today.
😅
Preventing the spread of nuclear weapons literally has nothing to do with 'keeping them out of the hands of *_irrational_* dictators," and everything to do with the West wanting to maintain its monopower and mono-world order