SANE

SANE, also called The National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy was founded in 1957. The committee was initially concerned with the escalating nuclear arms race, although later it would become involved in issues such as the Vietnam anti-war movement.

Against nuclear testing and proliferation

On November 15, 1957, SANE published an ad in the New York Times under the banner "We Are Facing a Danger Unlike Any Danger That Has Ever Existed". Following this ad, SANE chapters began springing up around the country, with tens of thousands of members. Student chapters were organized and a Hollywood SANE sprung up with many celebrities.

One activity of the chapters was to raise money to publish newspaper ads. Another was to hold demonstrations and rallies. In May 1960, a SANE rally in Madison Square Garden, New York City was attended by 20,000 people. This rally was held on the eve of a planned summit between US president Dwight D. Eisenhower and USSR Premier Nikita Khrushchev (which was subsequently cancelled because of the U-2 incident).

Around the time of the rally, the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee began investigating communist influence in SANE and the nuclear test ban movement. Following this pressure, SANE leadership began purging communist-affiliated members of SANE, which caused some rifts in the group.

On April 14, 1963, an Easter Peace Walk was held in New York City in conjunction with a Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament march in England. Thousands attended the rally at UN Plaza, and SANE was one of the sponsors. The rally was in support of the Partial Test Ban Treaty. Several people carried signs protesting US involvement in Vietnam. David Dellinger and A. J. Muste spoke about Vietnam. SANE leaders, who did not want to get involved in Vietnam dove issues at the time took issue with the signs, and told Dellinger he was subsequently banned from speaking at SANE events.

On July 25, 1963, the Partial Test Ban Treaty was initialed, a major victory for SANE.

The Vietnam War

On July 10, 1964, a petition was delivered to the State Department that SANE had helped circulate calling for a neutralized North and South Vietnam. The petition had been signed by thousands of college professors, and was front page news on the New York Times the next day.

On August 07, 1964, the US Congress passed House Joint Resolution 1145 (dubbed the "Gulf of Tonkin resolution"), which increased US involvement in Vietnam. Shortly after LBJ's election in November of 1964, SANE, which was in Washington D.C. for its annual convention, marched in front of the White House calling for negotiation in Vietnam.

On February 19, 1965, SANE published an ad in the New York Times calling for a case-fire and negotiated settlement to the conflict in Vietnam. On April 10, 1965, SANE sponsored a march to the United Nations (UN) calling on a cease-fire in Vietnam that drew thousands of people.

On June 08, 1965, SANE held a rally at Madison Square Garden that was against the US involvement in Vietnam. The rally sponsored singers and speakers, including Republican Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon, one of only two members of the US Congress to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin resolution. The rally was followed by a march of thousands of people to the UN.

In September 1965, the Fifth Avenue Vietnam Peace Parade Committee was formed, with SANE being one of the participating groups.

On November 27, 1965, SANE sponsored a march in Washington DC against the Vietnam war that drew tens of thousands of people. SANE announced that only signs with authorized slogans would be allowed at the march. Speakers included SANE spokesperson Benjamin Spock, Coretta Scott King and Students for a Democratic Society president Carl Oglesby, who noted that this war had been set in motion by US liberals.

On March 26, 1966, SANE's New York chapter participated in a march of tens of thousands that was organized by the Fifth Avenue Vietnam Peace Parade Committee. The march was in conjunction with other marches around the world on March 25th and 26th, called the International Days of Protest. SANE's Chicago chapter refused to participate in the Chicago days of protest because it felt they were too militant. SANE's New York chapter had hesitated beforehand but was coaxed into participating.

In May 1966, SANE and Women Strike for Peace marched in Washington D.C. and pledged support for members of congress in the upcoming congressional elections who supported a cease-fire and negotiation in Vietnam.

On April 15, 1967, the Spring Mobilization to end the war in Vietnam held marches in New York and San Francisco. The New York march drew hundreds of thousands of people, the San Francisco march drew tens of thousands. The SANE national organization did not sponsor the mobilization because it was non-exclusionary. Nonetheless, some local SANE chapters participated in the mobilization. Shortly after the successful spring mobilization, a coalition called Negotiations Now arose, which SANE was a part of. Negotiations Now circulated a petition to stop the bombing of North Vietnam and negotiate.

As the Mobe's October March on the Pentagon neared, factional disputes within SANE became more heated. SANE's right wing began rebelling against what it saw as the left-moving direction of SANE, which included the non-exclusion issue, and SANE spokesperson Dr. Spock serving as a co-chairperson on the National Conference for New Politics. The Northern California chapter of SANE left over this issue, and 14 of SANE's 45 national directors threatened to resign if this direction continued. The fight ended with SANE not endorsing the March on the Pentagon but allowing local chapters to participate, Dr. Spock left SANE and was replaced by H. Stuart Hughes. In 1968, SANE endorsed peace candidate Eugene McCarthy for the Democratic presidential candidate.

In 1969, SANE changed its policy and called for withdrawal from Vietnam. SANE participated in the November 15, 1969 protest against the Vietnam war in Washington, DC, which was the largest protest against the Vietnam war. SANE also particpiated in a large anti-war protest in Washington, DC on April 24, 1971.

As agreed in the Paris Peace Accords, the US withdrew all troops stationed in Vietnam by April 1973. The US had begun a massive bombing of Cambodia in 1973 which SANE protested, a bombing which eventually was halted. SANE lobbied for a War Powers Resolution to bring the power to make war back to Congress from the president. The resolution was passed, over a presidential veto, on November 07, 1973.

No nukes

In 1980, a nuclear freeze resolution was passed in western Massachusetts. In 1981, the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign was founded. Throughout the 1980's, SANE fought the arms buildup in the United States, and worked with the nuclear freeze movement. In 1987, SANE merged with the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign and formed SANE/FREEZE.