Sanford Gottlieb '46: "An American pacifist leader"

Concern over the nuclear arms race may very well be the issue of the decade in this country even worldwide. At Dartmouth, as in so many other places, newspaper articles, lectures, and discussions attest to a growing concern for the issue. And speakers on the subject Soviet ambassadors, former arms control negotiators, political analysts, and peace activists are traveling to Hanover at a rate of one per week.

One of these speakers, a tall, dark-haired man, seemed to know his way about the campus a little better than most. He was Sanford Gottlieb '46, who had come to speak about what he termed "the new peace movement in America," a political constituency he has played a large role in helping create.

Though the world has changed a great deal since he came to Dartmouth as part of the U.S. Navy's V-12 R.O.T.C. unit during World War II, "Sandy" Gottlieb, as he is known to his friends, has not lost his connection with the life and times of college students. He now serves as executive director of United Campuses to Prevent Nuclear War (UCAM), a two-year-old organization that helps college students educate their peers on the nuclear arms issue. The organization is an offshoot of the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), with which UCAM has sponsored the past two Veteran's Day Convocations on the Threat of Nuclear War.

"Our work at UCAM helps people feel empowered to do something," the peace activist said. I "don't think people understand the connections of our political process. People do have a role to play in arms issues."

Gottlieb started his academic career in his native New York, attending Brooklyn College and City College of New York before coming to Dartmouth. He completed his major in political science at the College on the Hill the year after the war ended. In 1947, he married Gladys Blumenthal, and the couple had three children. Eventually, Gottlieb continued his education at the University of Paris, where he received his doctorate in 1952.

"My concern about the issues of peace go back into my childhood, in the preatomic age," he recounted. His concerns about the arms build-ups of the fifties prompted him to aid in the rormation of the National Committee for a Satx- suclear Policy. In 1960, Gottlieb became political action director of that nuclear disarmament group and was eventually appointed its executive director, a position he held until 1977.

Throughout the sixties, Gottlieb traveled across the nation, speaking out for peace and for an end to the war in Vietnam. He coordinated the 1965 March on Washington for Peace rally, which brought 40,000 people to the nation's capital. Gottlieb's efforts attracted the attention of The New York Times, which featured him as a "Man in the News" at that time.

"I do believe in peace as the only rational sort of existence," he said. "And I think of it as a positive, concrete state of affairs which must be constructed deliberately and thoughtfully."

Gottlieb, as UCAM's director, has stressed the democratic elements of determining America's nuclear future. "We all have to realize that our commander-in-chief is elected, that the Senate ratifies the treaties, and that the Congress is a sounding board for citizen pressure," he explained. "Our foreign policy should be the product of citizen political pressure and should represent the political mood of the country."

By 1984, Gottlieb hopes that all the freeze movement's efforts will at least have resulted in the selection of activists to the presidential nominating conventions. Further, a few million voters committed to reversing the arms race could be the decisive factor in choosing the next President, he added.

Gottlieb, a nationally-syndicated radio commentator, noted that this movement includes people from all walks of life - doctors, lawyers, bishops, businesspeople, teachers, and ranchers - and represents mainstream America. The UCS-UCAM teach-ins that took place on over 500 campuses last year included more than 150,000 participants from the colleges and their surrounding communities.

The man described as "an American pacifist leader" by The New York Times said that he is especially gratified by the informational activities that have taken place arid are planned at Dartmouth. He said that his alma mater has made great strides in this consciousness-raising process, having participated in . both UCSUCAM teach-ins. The College with the active support of both the president and the trustees is sponsoring the first annual Ivy League Conference on Issues of Nuclear Arms, ahd this year's Senior Symposium also has the arms race as its focus.

"I can't claim the new peace movement is something we ourselves built," he said with a grin that belies a deeper intensity. "It was built by men named Reagan, Haig, and Weinberger with their talk of a 'winnable' nuclear war and their $1.6-trillion military build-up."

Gottlieb, as this issue goes to press, is planning a two-day rally in the nation's capital in support of a U.S. House nuclear freeze resolution. The resolution lost by two votes last August. Crediting citizen involvement in marches and in letter-writing campaigns with keeping the issue in the forefront of the American mind, Gottlieb predicted, "This time, I think we've got it."