Why Archive Now?
It’s been a generation since nuclear war was seriously being threatened. Forty years since the last detonation of an American nuclear bomb. And yet, today it could happen.
Nevada Test Site
Madness
We have forgotten what damage these weapons systems did to our collective mental health. “Duck and cover” terrorized a generation of children, who watched the adults running the show embrace strategies as “MAD” – Mutual Assured Destruction, or the “Madman Theory” – used by the Nixon administration to make Communist Bloc countries expect an irrational response from the US President if he were challenged.
Memories Fade
The other reason is that time is passing and memories fade. Getting people to think and write about what we did to stop the nuclear testing in Nevada and around the world could help efforts today to keep the detonations from happening again.
Dangerous Times Still
The main reason is that today we are still living in dangerous times. And history can repeat itself.
Going to the Test Site for the first time on February 5th, 1987 was transformational. It changed the path of my life. Four months later, I moved to Las Vegas and began organizing to stop nuclear weapons testing.
Stephanie Fraser, Publisher