User:Austinmclean7/sandbox

Political Impact
Despite the proliferation of nuclear weapons being an international issue, initial efforts to advance the movement focused on alerting and educating at a local level. Activists secured signatures on freeze petitions and placed freeze referenda on local ballots nationwide. "Think globally, act locally" served as a motto of the campaign. After obtaining various peace groups' endorsements, a freeze resolution was first placed on the November 1980 election ballot in towns of western Massachusetts. With the leadership of Randy Kehler, Frances Crowe, and other local activists, the resolution passed in 59 out of the 62 towns. The freeze campaign contributed to Democrats adding twenty-six seats during the 1982 midterm elections. Later in March 1982, 88 percent of the 180 Vermont town meetings voted to support a bilateral nuclear weapons freeze between the United States and the Soviet Union. In the same month, a plan to introduce a freeze resolution in Congress was announced by United States' Democratic Senators Edward Kennedy and Mark Hatfield. On June 12, 1982, the largest peace rally in United States' history to date was held concurrently with the Second United Nations Special Session on Disarmament with approximately one million participants. Results from public opinion polls taken in 1982 and 1983 were virtually identical showing an average of 72 percent support and 20 percent opposition to the nuclear weapons freeze campaign. Many major United States religious bodies and hundreds of national organizations endorsed the campaign.

1984 United States Presidential Election
Prior to the 1984 election, the Democratic strategy was to ensure the party and the Democratic nominee endorsed the nuclear weapons freeze campaign to gain support from freeze advocates. Even though she declined, Democratic candidate Reverend Jesse Jackson went as far as asking Randall Forsberg to serve as an official adviser. All Democratic candidates excluding Ruben Askew publicly supported the campaign. Democratic candidate Walter Mondale won the bid for the Democratic nominee. Incumbent President Ronald Reagan's administration was initially a staunch opponent to the movement. According to Reagan's administration, the campaign was a danger to national security and was initiated by "foreign agents". Reagan's extreme military and nuclear policies were often used by Democrats as a rallying point. In 1982, the administration tried to prevent freeze referenda at state and local levels. They succeeded in defeating a freeze resolution in the Senate in 1983. The Reagan administration failed to defeat a resolution that passed the House of Representatives in 1983, but succeeded in weakening the resolution with various amendments. Despite these initial efforts to defeat the campaign, Reagan later began publicly declaring his opposition to nuclear war and began to reevaluate his nuclear policies. In an attempt to decrease public fear of a nuclear war, Reagan launched his Strategic Defense Initiative. Reagan's administration disapproved of his switch of rhetoric and his Strategic Defense Initiative, however Reagan remained persistent. Because of Reagan's switch of rhetoric and Walter Mondale's lack of distinction in policy, Reagan eventually went on to win reelection in a landslide.

Global Politics
Collaboration between transnational organizations was a necessity in order for the nuclear weapons freeze campaign to be successful. When Randall Forsberg officially launched the campaign, an International Task Force was formed to serve as representation of the campaign outside the United States. The International Task Force first focused on lobbying the freeze resolution to the United Nations. Two resolutions went before the United Nation's General Assembly, the closest resolution to the United States was sponsored by Mexico and Sweden. Calling for a multilateral freeze, the second resolution was sponsored by India. Despite opposition by the United States, both resolutions were passed by the United Nation's General Assembly by significant margins. Results from the vote showed the majority of the world supported a moratorium on the proliferation of nuclear weapons. The United Nations vote contributed to the mounting political pressure on the United States and Soviet Union to halt the nuclear arms race. Despite the initial success at the global level, the International Task Force was disbanded to focus on advancing the movement at a local level. Abandoning the initial success at the global level proved to be a missed opportunity to advance the movement and influence global policy.