You Are the Target
Datec. 1980
Dimensions22 1/2 x 17 in. (57.2 x 43.2 cm)
ClassificationsPoster
Credit LinePoster House Permanent Collection
Object numberPH.7871
DescriptionThe Sane Educational Fund of Pennsylvania was an offshoot of a larger peace organization that disbanded soon after the end of the Vietnam War. This smaller group refocused its efforts on nuclear disarmament. While the intended use of the neutron bomb was as a wartime defense mechanism, particularly targeting Soviet tanks, popular antinuclear campaigns, many of which were influenced by Soviet propaganda, highlighted the weapon as a domestic civilian threat. This sentiment had spread from Europe to the United States, and by 1978, polls indicated that 75 percent of the American population favored a comprehensive test-ban treaty on nuclear weapons. Although this poster encourages viewers to write to the president and Congress about the neutron bomb, eight religious protestors in nearby King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, entered a General Electric weapons plant and, following the biblical directive to “beat their swords into plowshares,” pummeled nuclear-missile cones into an unusable state. Subsequently known as the Plowshares Eight, they each received three-to-ten year prison sentences for their actions.
On View
Not on view
Semen Borisovich Raev
1984
