Word: tocsins
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Where but at Harvard could a group call itself Tocsin? When spoken, the word carries a medicinal odor, rather than the intended echoes of a warning bell. Yet the group exists and, surprising for the "peace movement," its notes ring clear. Forged during the summer, it is preparing to sound the alarm about impending nuclear ruin...
Happily, this ill-considered proposal was omitted from the new (August 1) Committees of Correspondence statement. Instead, the approach is now "unilateral steps toward disarmament," a phrase which Tocsin heartily endorses...
...local peace movement has broken free of this dilemma, and redefined the alternatives as (1) remaining in the arms race and depending on the logic of deterrence, or (2) taking unilateral steps toward disarmament, an approach suggesting a resonance between U.S. gestures and resulting negotiations. Tocsin and the Committees of Correspondence now ask that we take risks for disarmament equal to those we now take with retaliation-threats...
...first suggestions for meaningful gestures, the Committees list a nuclear ban agreement (even if small yield explosions cannot be reliably detected), a rejection of civil defense efforts (which add to psychological tensions), and the conversion to constructive tasks of laboratories now working on chemical and biological weapons. Tocsin agrees, and goes one further, suggesting that the U.S. set up a test ban inspection system in this country and invite the Soviet to reciprocate...