Nuclear Disarmament (1959-1987)
With the development of the nuclear bomb and the subsequent nuclear arms race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, came fears of a nuclear war.. As activists across the country worked to ensure a world safe from nuclear threat, Brandeis students too organized to pressure the U.S. government to engage in nuclear disarmament, or in other words, to stop further nuclear testing and to end the nuclear arms race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
This front page of The Justice from October 31, 1961 includes articles on actions taken by students and faculty to protest nuclear testing and the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Brandeis students’ activism in support of nuclear disarmament occurred throughout the Cold War, from the late-1950s to late-1980s. This issue must have hit particularly close to home for Brandeis students because of the U.S. Army Materials Technology Laboratory located in what is now Arsenal Yards in nearby Watertown. During the 1960s, the army engaged in nuclear reactor research activities at this lab. Because of the proximity of this nuclear reactor, Brandeis students might have seen a safe and comprehensive nuclear policy as essential for their well-being. This sentiment is particularly evident in a strike that Brandeis students and faculty held on November 1, 1961 to protest nuclear atmospheric testing, in which they marched to the army laboratory in Watertown where they met up with students from other colleges in the area to protest.
In their fight for nuclear disarmament, Brandeis students organized and engaged in a myriad of protests, local and nationwide, from awareness events to picket lines:
An announcement for Nuclear Awareness Week at Brandeis presented by SNAC (Students for Nuclear Arm Control), UCAM (United Campus to prevent nuclear war), and SPOKES (SPOKESpeople for the Prevention of Nuclear War) in collaboration with the Brandeis Democrats, Brandeis Chaplaincy, and The Justice to be held from April 5 to April 11, 1986.
This front page of The Justice includes an article, entitled "86 Arrested In Raytheon Protest," discussing Brandeis students' protest against Raytheon for its production of weapons and other technology for the U.S. military to be used in Vietnam.
This article discusses a nuclear convocation held at Brandeis about the threat of nuclear war.
Brandeis hosted a nuclear convocation on the “threat of nuclear war… part of a national education program designed to increase public awareness” on the issue. More than 500 students and faculty attended the event with four panelists speaking. This event led to the creation of the United Campuses to Prevent Nuclear War (UCAM), in which Brandeis had a chapter.
Thirteen students and faculty protesting the installation of the NASA funded Ashton Graybiel Research Laboratory at the lab's dedication and demonstrating against Charles Draper, a speaker at a symposium held in conjunction with the lab's dedication.
13 students and faculty protested the “installation of the NASA funded Ashton Graybiel Research Laboratory” in the Usdan courtyard and demonstrated against Charles Draper, who was the “speaker for a symposium held in conjunction w/ the dedication of the new lab.” These protestors were demonstrating against the precedent of using NASA-funded equipment, which could be used for defense purposes, as well as Draper’s ownership of a lab in Cambridge, MA that conducted military research for the Department of Defense.
In 1985, BOND sponsored a trip for 17 Brandeis students to Groton, CT to protest the launch of the United States’s 8th Trident submarine, the U.S.S. Nevada. A Trident submarine is a nuclear-powered submarine. The protestors organized a silent vigil to oppose the launch and encourage the U.S. to join the Soviet Union in a complete halt on nuclear testing.
Brandeis students participated in a walk to dramatize the amount of damage a nuclear war would cause and visibly express their opposition to the government’s nuclear policy so that officials would be made aware of their opinions. The protest consisted of three walks starting in Melrose, Quincy, and Waltham, which covered the radii of the area in which everything would be destroyed if a nuclear bomb were dropped on Boston.