Talk:Poland and weapons of mass destruction

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is within the scope of the Military history WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see lists of open tasks and regional and topical task forces. To use this banner, please see the full instructions.

Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the quality scale.

Additional information and associated task forces:

	This article has been checked against the following criteria for B-Class status: Referencing and citation: not checked Coverage and accuracy: not checked Structure: not checked Grammar: not checked Supporting materials: not checked To fill out this checklist, please add the following to the template call: `<!-- B-Class-1. It is suitably referenced, and all major points have appropriate inline citations. -->` `\|B-Class-1=yes/no` `<!-- B-Class-2. It reasonably covers the topic, and does not contain obvious omissions or inaccuracies. -->` `\|B-Class-2=yes/no` `<!-- B-Class-3. It has a defined structure, including a lead section and one or more sections of content. -->` `\|B-Class-3=yes/no` `<!-- B-Class-4. It is free from major grammatical errors. -->` `\|B-Class-4=yes/no` `<!-- B-Class-5. It contains appropriate supporting materials, such as an infobox, images, or diagrams. -->` `\|B-Class-5=yes/no`
Associated task forces (nations and regions):
	Polish military history task force

[edit] There IS a source

Poland never had an active nuclear weapons program, and there are no sources to justify such an assertion. A recent article in Nonproliferation Review (see Hersman and Peters, Nonproliferation Review, Vol. 13, No. 3 "Nuclear U-Turns) listed 18 states that once had, but later abandoned nuclear weapons programs. These states constitute the "known universe" of verifiable NW programs Poland is not one of these. While the Soviets undoubtedly did station tactical nuclear weapons in Poland during the Cold War, this does not constitute a Polish arsenal. I'm going to change this article to reflect this until someone can come up with any citations, sources, or justifications for accusing Poland of having had a NW program.

I think I am the only one who can provide any information. Poland even now haves from 5 to 15 nuclear warheards. There, I say it, and I am a citizen of Poland.

~Dark Sturm II.

_________ So does Poland have them or not?

-G

They did. During the Cold War, they had Russian-controlled stockpiles, as well as a Russian-sponsored seperate nuclear program. Just like Kazahstan. You are right, it is confusing because the "Nuclear weapons" article mis-classified them. I'll fix it.

But why does the article say it was not officially a nuclear power. That's not correct. I'm getting rid of that too. Evan^{(Salad dressing is the milk of the infidel!)} 19:33, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

According to then-secret official documents of The Warsaw Pact published in April 2006 by Polish Ministry of Defense, Poland had 178 nuclear weapons during sixties and seventies, up to 250 nuclear weapons in the late eighties. According to the press notes they were meant as offensive only weapons that Warsaw Pact was to use in aggressive action against NATO countries as a first strike. Warsaw Pact's military doctrine stated that if war broke out nuclear weapons situated in Poland where to be deployed and launched before any succesful launch against Warsaw Pact from NATO. I'm posting here few of the press sources that states that. Unfortunatelly I don't have time to look for official documents, and I'm not sure if they are accessible to anyone but historians and journalists. Official documents were passed from Polish Ministry of National Defence to Institute of National Remembrance and access to archives here in Poland is limited.

Here are press notes from journalists that had access to those documents (in Polish only): http://fakty.interia.pl/fakty_dnia/news/prl-miala-bron-atomowa,738043 http://forum.gazeta.pl/forum/72,2.html?f=17007&w=56187539

This nuclear arsenal was under control of the soviets, however Poland during seventees HAD active and advanced nuclear programme. There are many articles that states Poland had active and advanced military nuclear research programme. Poland had three experimental nuclear reactors in Świerk near Warsaw, which were primarily research reactors, but were also meant to produce plutonium. One of the articles is here (Polish only): http://www.polityka.org.pl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=399&Itemid=38

[edit] No sources

This article has no english sources. I've not seen any reputable source suggest Poland had its own nuclear weapons. If Poland practiced delivering Soviet weapons, that would be like NATO nuclear weapons sharing where 7 NATO countries practiced delivering U.S. weapons. Rwendland 21:35, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

I've just done a search with Google & Google News and cannot find any english sources that back-up the claim that Poland had its own nuclear weapons. If a reputable source is not offered soon, I will revert these claims (Wikipedia:Verifiability). Rwendland 12:43, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

Actually according to lates informations there were 178 nuclear warheads in Poland. They were located in at least 3 bases in north-west Poland (Trzemeszno-Buszno, Brzeźnica Kolonia (google maps 53.429225,16.580257), Podborsko)

Bases were built about 1969-1970 and it is said that warheads were there for next 20 years.

Bases was under Soviet Union juristiction and with soviet personel

You can see some photos frome base in Brzeźnica Kolonia here Brzeźnica click on the base plan to see photos

And here from Buszno base

Here is an article from one of the biggest polish newspapers with few photos and scan of some official documents Dziennik

Unfortuantely sources are in Polish - u know it was not a big secret and everyone here knows about that nuke warheads from years but official confirmation was published today - hopefully some english sources will be available soon :)

btw sorry for poor english ;)

Tom :) --83.21.171.232 18:28, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

- - They were soviet warheads in soviet bases under the control of soviet soldiers. And Polish authorities probably didn't even know they were there. Mieciu K 00:34, 31 May 2007 (UTC)