The Nuclear Freeze Debate

From a local ballot initiative in Massachusetts, the nuclear weapons freeze movement has grown during the last three years into an important national issue. By 1983, Congress had been asked to consider more than two dozen freeze resolutions, and more than 25% of the voters in the U.S. had the opportunity to vote on state-wide and regional freeze initiatives. This book explores the issues behind the current debate over nuclear weapons and the freeze movement from a wide range of perspectives. The contributors assess the goals and implications of the freeze movement, examine its origins in religious and secular pacifism, explain the amendments to the original freeze proposal introduced in Congress, and discuss the reaction and policies of the Reagan administration. The nuclear freeze movement is placed in an international context with discussions of recent arms negotiations, European views of U.S. policies, and the possible effects of a freeze on NATO allies and on U.S. national security. The book includes a comprehensive annotated bibliography.

Foreword -- Preface -- Nuclear Weapons and U.S. National Security -- The Freeze in Congress -- Limited War, Unlimited Protest: The Anti-Nuclear Weapons Movement in Europe -- The Role of American Churches in the Nuclear Weapons Debate -- The Reagan Administration's Reaction to the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Movement -- Intellectual Currents in the American Public Effort for Peace1 -- Can a Nuclear Freeze Be Verified? -- The Nuclear Freeze and Soviet Perspectives on Nuclear War -- Socialist France and Nuclear Weapons -- Readings from the Nuclear Age: An Annotated Bibliography for the Bewildered Citizen