ORGANIC FARMERS, GERMAN VINTNERS, AND THE ATOMIC MONSTER OF SEABROOK: A TRANS-ATLANTIC HISTORY OF SOCIAL ACTIVISM AND NUCLEAR POWER FROM NEW ENGLAND TO WEST GERMANY by DAVID C. SMITH Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Arlington in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON May 2015 Copyright © by David C. Smith 2015 All Rights Reserved ii Acknowledgements This project was possible thanks in part to the help and participation of Renny Cushing, Sam Lovejoy, Randy Kehler, Anna Gyorgy, Harvey Wasserman, Charles Light, and Green Mountain Post Films. I also want to thank Volkmar Vogt of the Social Movements Archive in Freiburg im Breisgau and the Archives and Special Collections staff at the University of New Hampshire. I would like to acknowledge Dr. Christopher C. Morris at the University of Texas at Arlington for his leadership and mentorship as the chair of my dissertation committee as well as Drs. Marvin Dulaney and Patryk Babiracki for their contributions. I also want to recognize Drs. Paul Rosier, Paul Steege, and Maghan Keita of Villanova University as well as Drs. Joshua Landis, James L. Goldsmith, and Roberta Magnusson of the University of Oklahoma for their previous tutelage and support. I want to say a very special thank you to my wife Jenny Tan Smith for her love, support, inspiration, and patience along this long journey. Without her by my side, I strongly doubt this project would have been possible. I also want to thank my dog Boomer for his companionship during many late night writing sessions. Lastly, I want to recognize my mother Colleen Hannington Smith and grandmother Pearl Hannington for their love and encouragement in support of my education. April 20, 2015 iii Abstract ORGANIC FARMERS, GERMAN VINTNERS, AND THE ATOMIC MONSTER OF SEABROOK: A TRANS-ATLANTIC HISTORY OF SOCIAL ACTIVISM AND NUCLEAR POWER FROM NEW ENGLAND TO WEST GERMANY DAVID C. SMITH, PH.D The University of Texas at Arlington, 2015 Supervising Professor: Christopher C. Morris This study focuses on citizen intervention, direct action, and antinuclear activism from West Germany to New England in the twentieth century. Samuel Lovejoy’s war against the nuke in Montague, the politicization of German vintners in Breisach, the site occupation in Wyhl, and the rise of the Clamshell Alliance in Seabrook provide the framework for a trans-Atlantic narrative on the development of the antinuclear movement in the Atlantic World during the 1970s. Using both oral histories and archival research on antinuclear protest in New England and the Rhine Valley in West Germany, what this paper ultimately demonstrates is that the model of direct action used by the nuclear opposition at Wyhl provided the inspiration behind the organization of the Clamshell Alliance in the fight against the atomic monster in Seabrook, New Hampshire. Along the way, the story explores how shared concerns over thermal pollution, low-level radiation, and the authoritative nuclear state politicized everyday people. iv Seemingly ordinary farmers, vintners, and fishermen rallied against nuclear power and joined what were essentially grassroots social movements in order to challenge the authority of the state. This project is significant because it questions traditional American and European historiography on environmental and social movements first by studying the relationship between nuclear technologies, political boundaries, and the traditional social order, and second by situating the antinuclear movement within a trans- Atlantic context. This study places two heretofore separate social and environmental histories into a single transnational narrative, and in the process, a new interpretation of the Cold War is presented based on nuclear power and social activism in the Atlantic World. Ultimately, the smaller story of the antinuclear movement from New England to West Germany is told on order to reframe and expand the larger story that becomes the Cold War. v Table of Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iii Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iv Chapter 1 The Antinuclear Movement in Cold War Perspective…………………………1 Historiography, Sources, and Methodology .................................................................... 2 Plot Summary ................................................................................................................ 11 Chapter 2 Atoms for Peace and the Origins of the Antinuclear Movement……………..18 The Bomb and Nuclear Beginnings .............................................................................. 21 The Cold War and Atoms for Peace .............................................................................. 26 The Ban the Bomb Movement ...................................................................................... 35 Concerned Scientists and the Safety of Nuclear Power ................................................ 44 Citizen Interventions and the Environment ................................................................... 48 Chapter 3 Lovejoy's War and the Nuke at Montague……………………………………55 The Nuke and a Hornet’s Nest ...................................................................................... 57 Lovejoy the Saboteur .................................................................................................... 63 Sam Lovejoy’s Arrest and the Local Reaction .............................................................. 73 Nuclear Power on Trial ................................................................................................. 79 Building a Movement .................................................................................................... 85 Chapter 4 Model Germany and the Birth of the Antinuclear Movement at Wyhl……………………………………………………………………………………...90 Model Germany and the Alienation of the Left ............................................................ 93 Wine, Loyalty, and The Radicalization of the Right ................................................... 100 vi A Black Coffin in Wyhl .............................................................................................. 108 Getting the Lead Out in Marckolsheim ....................................................................... 112 Watch on the Rhine ..................................................................................................... 115 Exporting Wyhl through Film ..................................................................................... 119 Chapter 5 Eminent Domain, Home Rule, and the Citizen Intervention at Seabrook………………………………………………………………………………..124 Citizen Intervention and the Institutionalization of Seabrook Station ........................ 128 Guy Chichester and The Radicalization of the Nuclear Opposition in Seabrook ....... 145 Chapter 6 The Clamshell Alliance and the Atomic Monster of Seabrook……………..158 The Founding of the Clamshell Alliance .................................................................... 161 The August Occupations ............................................................................................. 163 Mississippi of the North .............................................................................................. 169 The Battle of Seabrook ................................................................................................ 172 Chapter 7 Clams, Communists, and the Criminalization of the Antinuclear Movement………………………………………………………………………………178 The Rise of the Hard Clams ........................................................................................ 180 The Criminalization of the Nuclear Opposition in Germany ...................................... 184 The Clamshell Alliance Split Wide Open ................................................................... 189 The Legal Rally and an Opportunity Missed .............................................................. 199 Chapter 8 Three Mile Island, Vindication, and the Institutionalization of the Antinuclear Movement…………………………………………………………………207 “Flowers, No Helmets” and the Rebirth of the Left ................................................... 209 vii “When the Music Is Over, The Work Has to Begin” .................................................. 219 The Antinuclear Movement after Three Mile Island .................................................. 229 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………240 Biographical Information……………………………………………………………….250 viii Chapter 1 The Antinuclear Movement in Cold War Perspective From Atoms for Peace to Three Mile Island, the antinuclear movement in the Atlantic World during the 1970s was built through the collaboration of organic farmers, German vintners, and 1960s radicals from New England to West Germany. This story focuses on citizen intervention, direct action, and antinuclear activism from Samuel Lovejoy’s war against the nuke in Montague, Massachusetts, to the politicization of German vintners in Breisach, the site occupation at Wyhl, and to the rise of the Clamshell Alliance in Seabrook, New Hampshire, a trans-Atlantic narrative of the development of the antinuclear movement in the Atlantic World during the 1970s. Using both oral histories and archival research on antinuclear protest in New England and along the Rhine in West Germany, the argument