The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project is a university-chartered research center associated with the Department of History of The George Washington University |
National Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy Reacting to the Eisenhower
administration's heavy reliance on nuclear weapons
development and procurement, as well as to a general
anxiety about the destabilizing effects of the arms
race, the Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy was
founded in the New York apartment of Lenore Marshall
in 1957. Quickly attracting sponsorship by powerful
antinuclear voices from Hollywood to Washington, D.C.,
SANE sought to expand its grassroots appeal by forming
student chapters on college campuses and through advertisements
targeted at mass audiences. ER was an early supporter
of SANE, alongside other notable American liberals
like A. Philip Randolph and Walter Reuther. As a powerful
voice for disarmament and arms control, SANE initially
enjoyed cordial relations with the Kennedy and Johnson
White Houses until executive policies in Vietnam led
SANE to publicly break with the president in 1967.
All the while working for like-minded congressional
candidates, SANE endorsed Eugene McCarthy for the
presidency in 1968 and in 1973 led the successful
effort to secure passage of the War Powers Act. SANE
remained actively engaged in research and advocacy
on behalf of antinuclear policies throughout the military
buildup of the 1980s, revitalizing its ties to figures
in the entertainment industry, merging with fellow
antinuclear group FREEZE, and ultimately opposing
the Gulf War in the early 1990s. In 1993, the hybrid
SANE/FREEZE officially renamed itself Peace Action,
the name under which it operates to this day. Sources: |