In 1945, at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a new era in war making began with the dropping of the first two atomic bombs. The horror of this war and the new "super-weapon" led to the formation of the United Nations as well as peace groups around the world.

In 1957, Dr. Albert Schweitzer's "Call to Conscience" stirred public action about the dangers of nuclear radiation. After its publication in The Saturday Review, Editor Norman Cousins joined Clarence Pickett (of the American Friends Service Committee) to call an ad hoc meeting of activists willing to confront nuclear testing.

That meeting, in poet Lenore Marshall's New York apartment, led to the formation of SANE - The National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy. Its mission was "to develop public support for a boldly conceived and executed policy which will lead mankind away from war and toward peace and justice."

Beginning with the original New York Times ad opposing nuclear testing, persons such as Dr. Schweitzer, Eleanor Roosevelt, Norman Thomas, Dr. Benjamin Spock, Bertrand Russell, Pablo Cassals, Roger Baldwin, Paul Tillich and Erich Fromm helped SANE become an effective voice for nuclear disarmament. From the beginning, supporters like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott King, Harry Belafonte, Ruby Dee, and Ossie Davis connected SANE with civil and human rights movements across the nation.

SANE became involved in high profile issues like the U2 spy plane incident and the Berlin blockade. During the 1960s and '70s, SANE expande its mandate and mission. By 196, its mission included the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and the anti-Vietnam War movement. Dr. Benjamin Spock and Seymour Melman, as well as David Cortright, Marcus Raskin, Cora Weiss, Robert Schwartz, and William Sloan Coffin were all deeply involved in this movement. SANE's public education campaign linked Vietnam with nuclear spending.

In 1978, SANE led the successful fight against the MX mobile missile deployment, avoiding massive environmental damage in Utah and Nevada. New alliances with labor were formed through work with the International Association of Machinists, whose president, William Winpisinger, served as Board Co-Chair.

In the early 1980s, President Ronald Reagan's nuclear war-fighting policies reignited public outrage once again, and the Nuclear Weapons Freeze campaign was born. The Freeze was a grassroots-based confederation of groups with offices in St. Louis and Washington, D.C. Its 1982 ballot initiatives gave voice to public desire for nuclear sanity -- a voice that eventually attracted attention from Reagan, the great nuclear warrior himself. Throughout the 1980s, Freeze leaders worked tirelessly with SANE Director David Cortright to push for nuclear reductions.

In 1987, leadership from the two groups initiated negotiations for a merger, and SANE merged with the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign to become SANE/FREEZE. By 1993, the combined SANE/FREEZE had become Peace Action, a name that better reflected both our work for peace and our commitment to citizen empowerment.

PEACE ACTION broadened its disarmament mission to include nuclear abolition, elimination of the trade in conventional weapons at home and abroad, support for a peace economy that funds human rather than corporate and military needs, and advocacy for peacemaking in local communities as well as foreign conflicts.

PEACE ACTION OF WASHINGTON has historically been one of SANE/FREEZE and Peace Action's largest and most effective statewide chapters. We've passed nuclear-free zones and a statewide nuclear test ban resolution, sponsored an anti-gun violence initiative, supported successful candidates for office, lobbied legislators on countless key votes, opposed several wars (sigh), and developed a rapid-response e-mail alert system that informs citizens of measures being considered by our elected officials. We do street theatre, public education, direct and grass roots lobbying [links], and much more to create a better future. And we have fun in the process.