Roger C. Molander, Nuclear Protest Leader, Dies at 71

[bananas]

Source: New York Times

Roger C. Molander, who abandoned what he called the “priesthood” of cold warriors in the White House and the Pentagon to organize one of the nation’s largest and most colorful protests against nuclear arms, died on March 25 in Washington. He was 71.

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Mr. Molander drew from his expertise as a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering to become an influential arms control analyst in the Defense Department and on National Security Council in the Nixon, Ford and Carter administrations. He became frustrated with the slow pace of negotiations with the Russians on nuclear weapons issues, and even more upset with the matter-of-fact approach some colleagues took toward atomic war.

In April 1982, he told The New York Times about a meeting at the Pentagon that helped change his life.

“A Navy captain was saying that people here and in Europe were getting too upset about the consequences of nuclear war,” Mr. Molander recalled. “The captain added that people were talking as if nuclear war would be the end of the world when, in fact, only 500 million people would be killed.”

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Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/us/roger-c-molander-dies-at-71-stirred-nuclear-protests.html?_r=1