WHO SET OFF THE NUCLEAR FREEZE?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-01208R000100150024-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 22, 2011
• Sequence Number: 24
• Publication Date: October 26, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/22 :CIA-RDP90-012088000100150024-1
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O i~I P t. G:~ .?~ .-..
T?-'E Ct-'RISTL',N SCI'?i~L ~:O?~?ITOR
26 October ~9sz
Who set off the nuclear freeze?
Joseph C. Harsch
Ronald Reagan is not the first United
States President to think that some sinister
foreign influence lies behind a popular move-
ment ruruung contrary to his purposes.
Mr. Reagan is contending now with a mas-
sive popular movement to "freeze the bomb." I
It has swept across the country. It has pushed
resolutions through many a state legislature ~
and scores of town halls. It is a vivid cause j
among the great Protestant .denominations. i
The Roman Catholic hierarchy in the US is
likely to give it decisive endorsement:
The movement is having an important po-
litical effect. White House advisers recognize
that the only way to defuse it is for the Presi-
dent to get into serious negotiations with t:be
Soviets over limitations on weapons. If it was
not politically imperative before, it is polio-
- cally imperative now that the President give
convincing evidence that he wants a SALT II,
or a START, agreement with the Soviets.
Besides, the President's opening position
must itself be convincing evidence of a sin- i
cere desire to arrive at a fair agreement.
Mr. Reagan's emotional reaction to all of
the above came out in a speech be made to
veterans' organizations in Columbus,
Ohio, on Oct. 4. He said that the movement -
w?as "`inspired by, .not the sincere, honest
people who want peace, but by some who
want the weakening of America and so are
manipulating honest and sincere people."
Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard
Nixon also contended with a highly emotional
popular movement which hurt them politi-
cally and interfered with their policies and
purposes. The "peace movement" began dur-
ing the Johnson administration. It plagued
the President. It was an important factor in
~,"~ him to decide to back out of the 1968
. presidential race.
Lyndon Johnson, like ?Mr. Reagan, sus-
pected foreign influence behind the move-
ment. He instructed both the FBI and the CIA i
to hunt for the_ foreign perpetrators of the
movement which was portraying hire as a
w?ar-makin8 rather than peace-loving man. ,
Richard Nixon felt the pressure of the
peace movement from the moment be en-
tered the White House. It never gave him any
peace. Like his predecessor he ordered both
the FBI and the CIA to find out who was be-
hind it. .
There were other factors behind. the politi-
cal dow-nfalt of Richard Nixon, but the peace
movement and his reaction to it were woven
all through the fabric. It was his frustration
over that movement and the pressure it was
putting on his politics which caused him to
order the "plumbers" operation for spying on
Americans. The di-scover}? that he had in fact
been using the investigative agencies of the
government to "spy" on Americans was one
of the major counts against him when matters
were moving toward impeachment in the
House of Representatives.
It is possible, even probable, that had'
there been no peace movement to harass Mr.
Nixon be wotild-not have done the things
which forced his resignation. Had he .ended
the Vietnam war by 1972 he might well have
served out his second term peacefully and
with general credit.
Both the FBI and the CIA did their utmost
to find some sinister foreign inspiration be-
hind the peace movement of the late 'bas and
early'7os. H something could have been found j
it seems likely that it would have been
unCOVeTed. - r
The essential fact about, the peace move-
ment which plagued Presidents Johnson and
Nixon is that it was caused by the nature of
the Vietnam war, not by sinister or foreign
influence.. .. . - - ~ .
The waz was unpopulaz for many reasons.
The arguments for massive US involvement
in .Vietnam were never persuasively ex-
plained to the American public. Compulsory
service in a remote jungle was unpopular.
and unacceptable, without effective explana-
tion. Television brought into the home not
only the daily face of waz vRth Americans be-
ing killed. It also showed My Lai and what
Americans did to others. Public opinion was
repelled and revolted. It wanted out.
T'be nature of the Vietnam waz induced a
mass peace movement. President Nixon
could have defused it had he extricated the US
from the war during his first term in office.
He failed to do so. That failure was a -large
part of his political undoing.
The "freeze the bomb" movement of today
dales from specific things done and said dur-
ing the first yeaz of the Reagan admiaistra-
tion: There was the "hard line" toward Mos- ,
cow, the arms buildup, the failure to pursue.
nuclear arms limitations, and, above all, talk
from high administration quarters of "fight-
ing alimited nuclear waz." -
The combination of those things frightened
not only the American people but the allies as
well. _ '
There are indeed "some who want the
weakening of America." Moscow cerkainly .
wishes it. But there a?as no need for Moscow
to manipulate "honest and sincere people."
T'he "honest and sincere" were frightened by
Reagan talk into the freeze movement, with
out any manipulation.
-,,,1 _ Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/22 :CIA-RDP90-012088000100150024-1