Marching on June Twelfth

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On June 12, 1982, the Nuclear Freeze Rally, the largest anti-nuclear rally in history, took place in Central Park when one million people gathered to protest the use of nuclear weapons. At the time, both the United States and Russia were building up their armed forces and developing nuclear weapons in the midst of the Cold War. Protesters felt that the use of any of the advanced nuclear weapons would be enough to wipe out the entire human race and demanded a freeze to all development of such weapons. At first President Ronald Reagan called the protest leaders communist sympathizers, but the protest was ultimately successful when he later made negotiations with Russia, removed the weapons from parts of Europe, and reduced the size of America's nuclear arsenals.

Daley, Tad. (2012, June 12). Thirty Years Ago Today, at the Nuclear Freeze Rally in Central Park, We Saved Ourselves From Ourselves. Huffington Post. Retrieved from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tad-daley/nuclear-war-protest_b_1588344.html