Introduction

Abstract

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign. Originating in discussions among arms control advocates and peace activists, the Freeze campaign emerged in Massachusetts and soon spread into small communities across the northeast. It offered a modest and easy-to-understand solution to the arms race: a bilateral halt (or freeze) between the United States and the Soviet Union on the testing, production, and deployment of nuclear weapons. This book offers the first full treatment of the campaign from its roots following the Vietnam War through its merger with the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE). It challenges traditional Cold War historiography while bridging the growing gap between the Freeze and the historiography of the Reagan administration. Although the Freeze appeared to lose politically in 1984, the book argues that the movement played an important role in shaping the peaceful outcome of the Cold War.