Disarmament Movements in the United States

Abstract

ment sought a bilateral agreement to halt nuclear weapons buildups. On both continents the Reagan administration's rhetoric, regularly hostile to the Soviet Union and occasionally suggesting that nuclear wars could be fought and won, contributed to popular anxiety. These movements, like other popular movements, had inadequate funding and largely volunteer leadership. They had to create or revive organizations capable of sustaining public interest in complex disarmament issues. Large street demonstrations were followed by intensive lobbying with executive and legislative leadership over deployment decisions in Europe and over the freeze resolution and funding for new weapons systems in the United States. In 19831985 the NATO deployment proceeded and the Reagan administration won a series of close Congressional freeze and funding votes. On the other hand, the Reagan administration altered its rhetoric and its position on arms control, and in 1985 was involved with the Soviet Union in several levels of arms control negotiations and in a summit conference. Disarmament movements of the 1980s are the latest in a succession of peace movements and other popular movements seeking reforms within democratic societies. In the United States the parallel drawn most frequently is between the current disarmament movement and the abolitionist movement of the 19th century. Abolitionist groups campaigned against slavery for the three decades prior to the Civil War of 18611865. Subsequent popular movements included the women's suffrage movement and the Prohibitionist (anti-liquor) movement of the early 20th century. Recent popular movements have focused on civil rights for black Americans, opposition of the Vietnam war, consumer and environmental issues, women's rights, and the opposition to changes in social policies associated with the anti-abortion and Fundamentalist Christian movements. Several of these, for example the civil rights movement in 1955-1965, had enormous impact on public policy. Of the American peace movements, the most effective was the movement in the early 1960s against atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons (Chatfield 1973; DeBenedetti 1980; Marchand 1972; Wittner 1969). The American disarmament movement