In June 1983 the Labour Party had suffered its worst electoral defeat since the end of World War I, and the party leader, the radical socialist Michael Foot, predictably was ousted. So far left had the party gone, however, that it promptly chose another radical Socialist to succeed him. High on Mr. Kinnock's agenda, as we learn in this high-energy exchange, were nuclear disarmament, withdrawal from NATO, and expulsion of U.S. military facilities from Britain. NK: "It might be possible for a large country, with expanses of desert or prairies or water, to be able to accommodate [nuclear attack] without the total annihilation of society ... but it isn't plausible in Europe, where we live cheek by jowl, one with another, and we know that the use of any nuclear weapon would lead to the obliteration of our whole society."