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Vietnam Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam

Revelations of how the Vietnam Moratorium may have prevented the use of nuclear weapons

https://www.strategicdemands.com/doomsday-machine/

StratDem Editor:

As one of the initial organizers of the Vietnam Moratorium Committee in Washington DC, and as an old friend of Daniel Ellsberg from those days, his story has special relevance to me.

Dan Ellsberg's 2017 book, Doomsday Machine, came to me with a personal inscription and note from Dan and reminder of the role of the Moratorium ...

Excerpt from Doomsday Machine:

Daniel Ellsberg: Nixon Almost Took Vietnam War Nuclear In November 1969

“Nuclear targets were picked.”

Ellsberg speculated that the plans would have gone ahead in November 1969.

Instead, a huge demonstration on Oct. 15, 1969, the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam, combined a general strike with nationwide protests and teach-ins.

About 2 million people came out to protest across the country, even “little towns that had never protested before,” Ellsberg recalled.

“Without the Moratorium, there would have been an escalation, possibly the use of nuclear weapons in November 1969.”

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Steve Schmidt, GreenPolicy360 Founder and Strategic Demands Editor: The peace movement actions in October/November 1969 that grew from our student-led start into the largest anti-war protests in the nation's history were further revealed as impactful in Dan Ellsberg's 2017 book, "The Doomsday Machine".

Although many know of Dan Ellsberg from his role in releasing the history of the Vietnam War, the story that became known as the "Pentagon Papers", his role as a U.S. nuclear war planner is much less known. I knew Dan and I've worked with Roger Morris, formerly of the National Security Council and an aide to Henry Kissinger. The story of how close we came to nuclear war needs to be told again, and remembered. It is a warning of how a president, any U.S. president, sane or not, can order 'first use' of nuclear weapons.

Stop and think, with a light now focused on a room in the White House in 1969. One of the singular figures is the US president, Richard Nixon, the other is the president's foreign policy adviser, Henry Kissinger. They are considering giving an executive order, a commander-in-chief is close to ordering the launch of nuclear war.

The president then, as is the case now, has "Singular Authority" to 'pull the trigger' and go nuclear.

Rational humanity came much too near the brink of nuclear cataclysm in those moments in 1969 as Nixon-Kissinger threatened the "4th rate power" of North Vietnam The world was spared though as outside the White House a people's movement rose -- and dissuaded the president and his aide. The Vietnam Moratorium turned out to be more powerful, much more powerful than was realized back then.

Today, as we review what has been revealed in subsequent years by insiders -- men with names like Morris, Lake, Halperin, Ellsberg -- we must realize it is time to exert further controls on out-of-control nuclear launch power. The 'singular authority' of the US president to launch nuclear armageddon needs to be seen for what it is and re-thought. A new vision of nuclear sanity needs to be delivered by today's generation to protect future life. The potential for nuclear weapons accident, miscalculation, mistake, or purposeful intentional use has been a recurring threat, a threat that needs to be ended.

The Nixon nuclear episode reported here, of a president sending a "signal", a "savage, brutal blow" came too close to reality. God-like good fortune and anti-war Moratorium events, marches, and opposition by the American people prevented the nuclear fire resulting from a singular decision by an American president. Another time looking ahead, a politically powerful peace movement may not be organized in time.

How do we know a future president will not order nukes to be launched?

Read the series of pieces via Strategic Demands: