The Whatcom County Nuclear Arms Freeze (WCNAF) was a part of the national Nuclear Freeze Campaign. The seeds of this campaign were sown in 1979 with the circulation of Randall Forsberg's paper, "The Call to Halt the Nuclear Arms Race." The Nuclear Freeze Campaign held its first national conference at Georgetown University in Washington D.C., in 1981. The non-partisan campaign quickly spread to include all fifty states, and saw the emergence of county-level groups such as the WCNAF. Their 1983 by-laws record WCNAF's aim to be "the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons." The organization sought to achieve this aim through community education, outreach work, and political action. In addition to its concern with nuclear arms policies, the WCNAF focused on other aspects of global foreign policy, such as U.S. involvement in Nicaragua. Members coordinated peace marches, held vigils and pot-luck dinners, and presented films and educational slide shows. WCNAF was involved in the successful 1984 campaign to declare Whatcom County a Nuclear Free Zone, as well as the formation of a Peace Center in Bellingham. The Whatcom County Nuclear Arms Freeze disbanded in 1986.
The Whatcom County Nuclear Arms Freeze (WCNAF) records document a county wide campaign in Washington State against national nuclear arms proliferation from 1981 to 1986. The collection comprises administrative records, newsletters, project files, and also a small amount of reference material, ephemera and publicity records. Administrative records include memos and organizing strategies circulated by the campaign's national clearing house in St Louis, Missouri, as well as the state office in Seattle, membership and meeting records for the regional and local peace movement, and by-laws documenting the organizational structure and goals of the state campaign. Newsletters encompassing the years 1982-1986 provide a valuable overview of the objectives, activities, and accomplishments of the WCNAF. The collection also contains newsletters from other regional peace groups, including Sky Valley Peace Council, Skagit Citizens for Nuclear Disarmament, Thurston County Freeze, Snohomish County Freeze, Fraser Valley Peace Council, and University of British Columbia Students for Peace and Mutual Disarmament. Anti-nuclear activities and project files portion of the WCNAF records document some of the specific actions of the local and state nuclear freeze movement. These files include records regarding the 1984 decision to make Whatcom County a Nuclear Free Zone, information about Nakhodka, Bellingham's "paired city" in the USSR, and meeting minutes, newsletters, correspondence and other materials produced by the North Puget Sound Coalition for a Nuclear Freeze based in Freeland, Washington. National reference material includes newspaper clippings and articles regarding nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons policies. Ephemera and publicity files include peace movement buttons, publicity fliers and advertisements pertaining to WCNAF activities.
The Whatcom County Nuclear Arms Freeze records are organized in accordance with the following series:
The collection is open to the public.
Whatcom County Nuclear Arms Freeze records, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Western Libraries Archives & Special Collections, Western Washington University, Bellingham WA 98225-9123.
Initial donation by Alice Litton in 1999 with additional materials donated by Marie Hitchman in 2018 and Tim Baker in 2023.
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