Nuclear Disarmament Campaigns in North America and the Pacific in the 1980s

Peace campaigns in the 1980s shared a strong sense of solidarity in a common struggle against the threat of nuclear weapons and often drew on popular desire for national autonomy and on resistance to being dominated by the rivalry of the USA and the Soviet Union. Campaigning priorities were, however, different in various parts of the world. Whereas in Western Europe new nuclear missiles and the political and military division of Europe were the central issues, in the Pacific nuclear weapons tests and environmental damage from radiation prompted protests and aroused public opinion. Opposition to US nuclear bases and to superpower rivalry in the Pacific was also important, especially for countries with bases, but inevitably more contentious.