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.
 

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Sources:

• The Peaceact Homepage: History of SANE