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Bags of Rice Defeat Nuclear Weapons
In the mid-1950’s the pacifist group Fellowship of Reconciliation started a campaign directed at getting surplus grain sent to mainland China where there was large scale famine. Members and friends mailed thousands of little bags of rice to the White House with a tag that said “If thine enemy hunger, feed him” on one side and “send surplus grain to China” on the other.
By all accounts the campaign was an absolute failure. Not only was no food sent to China, the White House never even acknowledged the bags publicly.
What activists learned 10 years later was that the campaign played a significant role in preventing a nuclear war, and were discussed at no less than 3 high level meetings. At the time the US was considering US options in the conflict with China over the islands of Quemoy and Matsu. Twice the joint chiefs of staff recommended the use of nuclear weapons. Each time Eisenhower asked an aide how many little bags of rice had come in. When told they numbered in the tens of thousands along with letters and petitions, Eisenhower told the generals that with so many Americans expressing an interest in having the US feed the Chinese, he certainly wasn’t going to consider using nuclear weapons against them.
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