In 1957, former U.S. naval lieutenant commander Capt. Albert S. Bigelow – increasingly alarmed by the nuclear arms race and deeply moved by the experiences of Hiroshima bombing survivors – joined the nascent National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE), the precursor organization to Peace Action. At that time, the U.S. and U.S.S.R. were both conducting above-ground tests of large nuclear weapons, creating readily-detectable clouds of radioactive fallout that dispersed across the planet.
Public concern grew when radioactive contamination began to show up in common food sources, particularly dairy milk. Bigelow – seeing that dramatic, direct action would be required to draw attention to the dangers of U.S. nuclear testing and the arms race – joined with others to hatch a plan to sail a small craft into the test zone in the Marshall Islands, risking their own lives in an act of seafaring civil disobedience. In a letter to President Eisenhower, Bigelow wrote,
While the Golden Rule ultimately failed to halt the nuclear tests it had intended to disrupt, the mission succeeded in drawing global attention and political scrutiny to nuclear weapons testing and environmental degradation. In 1963, the U.S. joined the U.S.S.R. and the U.K. in signing the Limited Test Ban Treaty, and later, the Golden Rule’s voyage served as inspiration for the founding of Greenpeace.
Today, as humanity grapples with the twin existential threats of nuclear destruction and climate crisis, the Golden Rule serves as a powerful reminder of the potential of a small group of concerned citizens to change the course of history by bringing broader public awareness to the devastating costs of our national pursuit of military dominance.