Disarmament Movements in the United States
| DOI | 10.1177/002234338602300201 |
| Date | 01 June 1986 |
| Author | James Clotfelter |
| Published date | 01 June 1986 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Focus
On
Disarmament
Movements
in
the
United
States*
JAMES
CLOTFELTER
University
of
North
Carolina
at
Greensboro
1.
The
rise
of
disarmament
movements
In
1981-1983
large
disarmament
movements
arose
in
western
Europe
and
the
United
States.
In
western
Europe
they
directed
their
attention
primarily
to
NATO deploy-
ment
of
Pershing
Ils
and
cruise
missiles.
In
the
United
States
the
nuclear
freeze
move-
ment
sought
a
bilateral
agreement
to
halt
nuclear
weapons
buildups.
On
both
contin-
ents
the
Reagan
administration’s
rhetoric,
regularly
hostile
to
the
Soviet
Union
and
oc-
casionally
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
disar-
mament
issues.
Large
street
demonstrations
were
followed
by
intensive
lobbying
with
executive
and
legislative
leadership
over
de-
ployment
decisions
in
Europe
and
over
the
freeze
resolution
and
funding
for
new
weap-
ons
systems
in
the
United
States.
In
1983-
1985
the
NATO
deployment
proceeded
and
the
Reagan
administration
won
a
series
of
close
Congressional
freeze
and
funding
votes.
On
the
other
hand,
the
Reagan
ad-
ministration
altered
its
rhetoric
and
its
posi-
tion
on arms
control,
and
in
1985
was
in-
volved
with
the
Soviet
Union
in
several
lev-
els
of
arms
control
negotiations
and
in
a
summit
conference.
Disarmament
movements
of
the
1980s
are
the
latest
in
a
succession
of
peace
move-
ments
and
other
popular
movements
seek-
ing
reforms
within
democratic
societies.
In
the
United
States
the
parallel
drawn
most
frequently
is
between
the
current
disarma-
ment
movement
and
the
abolitionist
move-
ment
of
the
19th
century.
Abolitionist
groups
campaigned
against slavery
for
the
three
decades
prior
to
the
Civil
War
of
1861-
1865.
Subsequent
popular
movements
in-
cluded
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
effec-
tive
was
the
movement
in
the
early
1960s
against
atmospheric
testing
of
nuclear
weap-
ons
(Chatfield
1973;
DeBenedetti
1980;
Marchand
1972;
Wittner
1969).
The
American
disarmament
movement
now
faces
a
predicament
similar
to
the
one
that
faced
the
movement
in
1963
after
the
partial
test
ban
treaty
was
ratified.
In
1963
the
treaty
seemed
to
answer
the
pleas
of
mothers
afraid
of
contamination
of the
milk
their
children
would
drink.
Now,
as
then,
what
propelled
many
people
into
activism
-
in
the
1980s,
in
the
United
States,
concern
about
the
language
and
intentions
of
the
ad-
ministration
-
has,
at
least
temporarily,
lost
its
force.
2.
Why
disarmament
movements
fail
Excluding
movements
that
sought
to
take
control
of
the government
itself,
the
most
notable
successes
of
popular
movements
in
*
Several
of
these
points
were
first
made
in
the
author’s
1982
’Why
Peace
Movements
Fail’,
Christian
Cen-
iuqy,
vol.
99,
no.
24,
July
21-28,
pp.
790-792.
To continue reading
Request your trial