For over forty years Peace Action has successfully organized to end the nuclear threat, to create a more peaceful economy, and to support nonviolent resolutions to international conflicts. Peace Action originated in two accomplished disarmament and antiwar organizations that were founded during the Cold War and merged in 1987.
SANE
Dr. Spock was among SANE’s first spokespeople
The Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE) began in 1957. SANE’s founders, inspired by Dr. Albert Schweitzer’s “Call to Conscience” which stirred public action about the dangers of nuclear radiation, included Saturday Review editor Norman Cousins, American Friends Service Committee member Clarence Pickett, and poet Lenore Marshall, among others. The committee’s mission was to “develop public support for a boldly conceived and executed policy which will lead mankind away from war and toward peace and justice.”
SANE grew to be an effective national voice for nuclear disarmament. Spokespeople for SANE include: Dr. Albert Schweitzer, Eleanor Roosevelt, Norman Thomas, Dr. Benjamin Spock, Bertrand Russell, Pablo Casals, Roger Baldwin, Paul Tilich, and Erich Fromm.
From the beginning, SANE linked issues of peace and justice. Supporters like Dr. Martin Luther King, Coretta Scott King, Harry Belafonte, Ruby Dee, and Ossie Davis connected SANE with civil and human rights movements across the country. Historically, SANE also forged close alliances with labor organizations such as the International Association of Machinists.
SANE led a number of successful public education projects including hard-hitting advertising campaigns that brought nuclear disarmament issues to millions of Americans. SANE’s first major accomplishment was ratification of the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. SANE was also an early leader in the movement against the war in Vietnam. In 1978 SANE was at the head of a victory against MX mobile missile deployment, avoiding massive environmental damage in Utah and Nevada.
The Freeze
The Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign, initiated by Randall Forsberg’s call to “freeze and reverse the nuclear arms race,” was born in the early 1980s. The Freeze was a grassroots-based confederation of groups spanning the country. Freeze leaders included Randall Forsberg, Pam Solo, and Randy Kehler. Elected officials such as Rep. Patricia Schroeder and Sen. Ted Kennedy helped to lead the movement in Congress. The Freeze’s grassroots network pushed for nuclear reductions through ballot initiatives in towns and cities across the nation.
Peace Action
In 1987, Sane and the Freeze merged to form SANE/FREEZE. In 1993 the organization changed its name to Peace Action.
Peace Action has become the country’s largest grassroots peace network. Peace Action’s affiliate and chapter network organizes in local communities throughout the nation to educate the public and activate constituents in order to create more responsible US policies.
Peace Action’s efforts are currently focused on building a broad political base for a new US foreign policy. Read more about it by clicking the button below.
In addition, Peace Action has lead successful issue advocacy efforts in congressional districts throughout the nation as part of its Peace Voter Campaign. Peace Action’s 85,000 person membership has built victories on issues such as landmine legislation, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, a weapons trade Code of Conduct, and military budget cuts.
Time Line
The 1950s ......................................................
1957 The Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy is founded and launches its first ad in the New York Times.
1958 The USSR announces a unilateral halt to atmospheric nuclear tests and the US responds with a one year testing moratorium. The National Student Council for a SANE Nuclear Policy is organized.
1959 Steve Allen hosts founding meeting of Hollywood SANE. Members included Marlon Brando, Henry Fonda, Marilyn Monroe, Arthur Miller, Harry Belafonte and Ossie Davis.
The 1960s ......................................................
1960
SANE Rally in Madison Square Garden, NYC, attracts 20,000 to hear Eleanor Roosevelt, Norman Cousins, Norman Thomas, A. Philip Randolph, Walter Reuther, Harry Belafonte call for an end to the arms race
1961 SANE hosts an eight day, 109-mile march from McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey to UN Plaza. It is the largest of SANE’s April Peace Mobilizations, which are attended by more than 25,000 people. International sponsors of SANE (including Martin Buber, Pablo Casals, Bertrand Russell and Albert Schweitzer) petition President Kennedy to maintain a moratorium on testing in the atmosphere.
1962 Dr. Spock is recruited as a national sponsor; a “Dr. Spock is worried” ad appears in the New York Times, and is reprinted in 700 papers worldwide. Graphic Artists for SANE is organized, including Jules Feiffer, Ben Shahn, and Edward Sorel. SANE organizes a rally of over 10,000 on “Cuba Sunday” to express concern and outrage over the Cuban Missile Crisis. SANE works for the first time to elect congressional candidates “who come close to (SANE’s) reasoned position”
1963 Dentists for SANE launch ad campaign – “Your children’s teeth contain Strontium 90.” SANE’s Norman Cousins acts as an unofficial liaison between President Kennedy and Soviet Premier Khrushchev on test ban negotiations.
The Partial Test Ban Treaty is signed in Moscow on July 25; President Kennedy sends personal thanks to Mr. Cousins and SANE.
1964 President-elect Lyndon Johnson sends a personal greeting to SANE’s Seventh Annual Conference, delivered by the Deputy Director of the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency.
1965 The Vietnam War escalates: an early critic of armed intervention, SANE organizes an Emergency Rally on Vietnam which attracts 18,000 to Madison Square Garden, while a march on Washington in November draws 35,000. Vice-president Hubert Humphrey meets with SANE leaders Dr. Spock, Sanford Gottlieb and Homer Jack three days after march “to openly, responsibly, and frankly discuss their proposals” to end the war.
1966 Rev. William Sloane Coffin and Norman Thomas co-chair SANE’s “Voter’s Peace Pledge Campaign” to urge Congressional candidates to work for peace in Vietnam.
1967 Dr. Spock helps organize the Spring Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam. SANE becomes the first national organization to advocate removal of President Johnson from office and joins the “Dump Johnson” movement.
1968 SANE endorses Senator Eugene McCarthy for President. President Johnson announces he “would not seek, nor accept the nomination of (his) party for another term.”
1969 SANE produces ads attacking anti-ballistic missiles (ABM): “From the people who brought you Vietnam.” SANE national conference on ABMs in Washington features Nobel Prize winner George Wald, Yale psychiatrist Dr. Robert J. Lifton, and Rep. George Brown (D-CA). The SANE Board changes its policy on the war, and urges the US government to withdraw unilaterally from Vietnam. SANE helps to coordinate a November march on D.C.
The 1970s ......................................................
1971 SANE helps to organize an April war protest attended by an estimated 200,000 to 500,000 people.
1972 SANE criticizes the ABM Treaty and SALT agreements for ignoring offensive strategic weapons. Following Richard Nixon’s re-election, SANE advocates Congressional cut-off of funds for the Vietnam war.
1973
vVietnam War ends on April 30. SANE lobbies to have Congress end the bombing in Cambodia, and leads a successful effort to pass the War Powers Act. SANE takes on the military budget, and produces the “America Has a Tapeworm” ad.
1974 SANE alerts the public to the dangers of “limited” nuclear war plans and the connections between military spending and inflation.
1976 SANE’s NYC conference on “The Arms Race and the Economic Crisis” features Seymour Melman, Senator Dick Clark (IA), and George Rathjens. SANE’s Sanford Gottlieb testifies before the Democratic Platform Committee and wins an economic conversion plank in the party platform.
1977 SANE works with the National Campaign to Stop the B1 Bomber, helping achieve a 10 vote margin to suspend production and deployment of the weapon; also winning an amendment barring funds for the Neutron bomb.
SANE produces “The Race Nobody Wins,” narrated by Tony Randall.
1978 The Three Mile Island nuclear reactor suffers a partial meltdown.
1979 SANE builds a labor/peace alliance on reduced military spending and economic conversion with Machinists Union President William Winpinsinger. SANE lays the groundwork for a national STOP-MX Missile Campaign.
The 1980s ......................................................
1980
The first of many nuclear freeze resolutions are approved in Western Massachusetts. A referenda against MX missiles is approved in Nevada.
1981 President Reagan unveils plans for a record $200 billion military budget along with unprecedented cutbacks in social programs. SANE sponsors a major conference opposing the spread of Pershing II cruise missiles in Europe.
The Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign is founded in D.C. SANE wins the cancellation of plans for MX missiles in Utah and Nevada.
1982 The Kennedy-Hatfield freeze resolution is introduced in US Senate. One million gather in New York City on June 12 – the largest peace and disarmament march in US history. A sister rally draws 100,000 to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The SANE Political Action Committee is formed; 16 of 32 SANE supported candidates win.
More than 10 million voters approve freeze referenda in 8 states.
1983 The Nuclear Freeze resolution passes the US House of Representatives. SANE, working to link peace and civil rights, participates in 20th Anniversary Mobilization commemorating the historic civil rights march on Washington DC. Hollywood for SANE is revitalized, and publishes an ad in Variety magazine signed by over 250 celebrities including Jack Lemmon, Burt Lancaster, James Earl Jones, Sally Field, Jean Stapleton, Shirley MacLaine, Anne Bancroft and Ed Asner.
1984 SANE’s door canvass reaches over 250,000 households and recruits 10,000 new activists by early 1984; membership tops 100,000. President Reagan announces that Washington is ready for “mutual compromises” with Soviets to resume arms control negotiations. SANE’s weekly radio program, “Consider the Alternatives,” is on 140 stations. Despite a Reagan landslide, 106 of the 167 House and Senate candidates endorsed by SANE PAC go on to win. The MX missile program is killed.
1985 SANE and Freeze activists intensify participation in direct action protests at Nevada nuclear test site.
1986 The Chernobyl nuclear accident spreads radiation worldwide. Sane and the Freeze Campaign begin to merge. SANE/FREEZE opens an International Office in New York City. The US House of Representatives limits nuclear testing, Strategic Defense Initiative funding, and other weapons programs.
1987 The Reagan/Gorbachev summit marks the signing of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. SANE/FREEZE holds its founding Congress in Cleveland OH; Jesse Jackson’s speech draws more than 1,000. SANE/FREEZE joins the International Peace Bureau, a Nobel Peace Prize winning coalition for disarmament organizations.
1988 Massive radioactive contamination causes Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear weapons sites to close; SANE/FREEZE launches “Keep Them Shut!” campaign.
The 1990s ......................................................
1990 SANE/FREEZE helps lead an historic public resistance to US military buildup in the Persian Gulf.
1991 SANE/FREEZE coordinates anti-Gulf War marches in Washington, DC, helping to mobilize 500,000 protesters.
SANE/FREEZE launches a campaign against conventional arms with an international conference in New York City, co-sponsored by the Riverside Church Disarmament Program.
1993 SANE/FREEZE becomes Peace Action.
1994 Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) and Sen. Mark Hatfield (R-OR) introduce Peace Action crafted legislation – the Arms Trade Code of Conduct – to restrict US weapons sales to dictators and human rights abusers.
1995 Peace Action presses for completion of a test ban at the 25th anniversary review conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and leads a national dialogue over the 50th Anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.
1996 Peace Action wages Peace Voter ‘96, the organization’s largest nationally coordinated campaign since the mid-eighties; over one million Peace Voter Guides are distributed. President Clinton signs the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Peace Action joins human rights groups to stop major weapons sales to Indonesia and Turkey.
1997 The US Senate ratifies the Chemical Weapons Convention. Indonesia withdraws its request for US fighter jets due to “unwarranted criticism” of their human rights record. The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (of which Peace Action is a member) wins the Nobel Peace Prize. Peace Action celebrates its 40th Anniversary with gala events in Boston, New York and Washington DC; honorees and speakers include Rep. Donald V. Dellums, Sen. Tom Harkin, Judy Collins, Peter Yarrow, Randall Forsberg, Jane Alexander, William Sloane Coffin and Rep. Cynthia McKinney
1998 Peace Action expands its fledgling Student Peace Action Network to over 100 campuses across the nation. Peace Voter ‘98 reaches 4 million voters.
1999 Peace Action organizes against “cruise missile humanitarianism” by opposing the NATO bombing of Kosovo and helps to found the National Coalition for Peace and Justice, a body uniting most of the major peace groups in the country. Also in 1999, Peace Action commemorates the bombing of Nagasaki by staging the largest demonstration in the history of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The demonstration was led by Actor Martin Sheen.
The 2000s ......................................................
2000 Peace Voter 2000 mobilizes voters in 39 House and 10 Senate races to bring peace issues to the elections. Televison ads are run in 17 major media markets in 12 states and over 2 million voter guides are distributed throughout the country.
2001 The devastating terrorists attacks of September 11, 2001 shake the country. Peace Action responds to the war on terrorism and the bombing of Afghanistan with a call for Justice not War.
2002 Peace Action plays an important role in the movement against war on Iraq and participates in two national coalitions: Win Without War and United for Peace. Peace Acton affiliates around the country become local leaders for grassroots anti-war efforts and mobilize tens of thousands for national demonstrations against the war.
2003 Peace Action launches the Campaign for a New foreign Policy , a major initiatve to build grassroots support and congressional pressure for a US foreign policy based on human rights and democracy, nuclear disarmament and international cooperation.
Our greatest strength lies in our members and the hard work of our volunteers. Every individual member represents a larger population that wants to see a substantial change in our foreign policy. Informed constituents willing to invest in this work sends a powerful message that our elected officials can not ignore! In addition, our capabilities as a growing organization solely depend upon the amount of funding we have available. During this critical time in our history, it is essential that we stand up for our values, and demand a change. Please join Michigan Peace Action today, and help us shape a better future!
