ABSTRACT
SANE had played an important historic role in halting atmospheric nuclear testing and was an early opponent of the Vietnam War, but the organization had not been active in recent years. Organizational development efforts depend upon the existence of a convincing, coherent political program. SANE and other existing peace groups supported the Freeze and in some cases helped to build the campaign, in my case by serving on the initial Nuclear Freeze Strategy Committee. As the Nuclear Freeze campaign took off, SANE launched a large-scale program of membership recruitment and organizational development. Nuclear freeze groups were popping up all over the country and in some cases were forming regional and state campaigns, but no effort was being made to harness this political energy into sustained membership growth and organizational clout. The gargantuan nuclear missile system, proposed by the Carter administration, was projected to be the largest weapons program in history.
