'Guns to butter' for a Better Future

There are many ideas towards a plan for world peace and development. See 'More' below.

I summarized two proposals posted in March 2021 which I believe are fresh, feasible and authentic regarding converting 'guns to butter' for a better future.

1.  Close all USA military bases

The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft (QI), has been brave enough to tell the world that some 750 US military bases around the world appear to have little or no usefulness in keeping the country safe and prosperous. 

In a one-hour webinar 'Taps for America's Empire of Bases?', QI president Andrew Bacevich moderated David Vine, Christine Ahn, and John Glaser.

These 3 experts agreed:

• There are NO exaggerated threats to the USA from the Middle East and elsewhere.
• The greatest threat to peace is the military-industrial complex.
• All bases abroad should be closed and the troops sent home. Open Letter to President Biden, March 4, 2021.
• Funding for peace diplomacy and domestic infrastructure (health care, transportation, education, clean water, housing, etc.) should be greatly increased.

The Quincy Institute is a new US 'think tank' founded in December 2019. It is 'the most truthful and daring of the dozens of these entities that exist in the Washington DC area', according to Sharon Tennison, Founder and Director of Center for Citizen Initiatives, in a March 11th letter to its members.

2.  Putin's 'open system'

Matthew Ehret, Senior Fellow at the American University in Moscow and editor-in-chief of the Canadian Patriot Review explains global 'win-win cooperation' for the future in 'Putin's Vision for an Anti-Fascist/ Open System Future and You' (The Canadian Patriot, March 10, 2021).

Ehret reports that President Putin speaks about an 'open system' of international behaviour that would avoid wars and instead would focus on cooperative efforts of multi world nations for joint security and development, such as the following:

• Space diplomacy among Russia, USA, and China. Increase working together to explore space.
• Asteroid defense. Implement a proposal by the Chief of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin, nick named the 'Strategic Defense of Earth'. by aiming US President Reagan's 'Star Wars' Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) away from targets on earth to aim for incoming meteors and asteroids.
• Arctic and Far East Development. By further expanding the 'Silk Road' on rails as proposed 150 years ago, but from South America, north across the Bering Strait, to Europe. Ships are now crossing the thawed Arctic Circle. Development of new cities, mining, transport corridors and energy benefits all nations connected.
• 'Guns to butter' in an 'open system' world. If all nations cooperate to divert military spending to social needs, poverty can end and global warming stopped.

Ehret concludes: 'If Russia, America, China and other nations of the UN Security Council and BRICS were to apply their best minds to solving these problems rather than fall into a new arms race, then not only would either country benefit immensely, but so too would humanity more broadly.' Agreed! Let's hope it becomes a reality.

This means that we all need to look inward and have the moral courage to make this happen. Peace starts with us. Yes, 'Guns to butter' for a better future!

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More

Peace Quest, Rideau Institute, World Federalists. Webinar: 'Peace Prospects in the Biden Era (Thursday, April 1, 2021, 6:30 PM ET). — Free webinar on Zoom. Featuring Douglas Roche.

Canadian Foreign Policy Institute and World Beyond War Canada. Free webinar on Zoom: 'Why Canada Should Leave NATO'. Saturday, April 3, 2021, 3 PM ET. — Free webinar on Zoom.

New Hampshire Peace Action. 'Peace & Justice Conversations:Is Russia truly our enemy? Should we risk nuclear war?' April 12, 2021, 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm ET. — Free webinar on Zoom.

Escobar, Pepe. Welcome to shocked & awed 21st century geopolitics. In Information Clearing House, March 23, 2021.

Fry, Stephen. The Terrifying $1.2 Trillion Plan That Could Kill 90% of Humanity, March 16, 2021. YouTube, 11.16 minutes.

O’Connor, Taylor. 10 Global Peacebuilding Networks. In Transcend Media Service, March 15, 2021. [We can add to this list many others, such as: Center for Global Nonkilling, World Beyond War, Project Ploughshares, Center for Citizen Initiatives, Coalition to Oppose Arms Trade, Voice of Women for Peace, and PeaceQuest. For alternative news sources see Honest World News.]

Zuesse, Eric. Why It’s Especially Necessary to End NATO Now. In Modern Diplomacy, March 15, 2021.

Benjamin, Medea and Nicolas J.S. Davies. Biden’s Foreign Policy — Ten Problems, One Solution. In The Progressive, March 13, 2021.

Healy, Hazel. 10 Steps to World Peace. In New Internationalist, September 18, 2018.

Glaser, John. 'Withdrawing from Overseas Bases: Why a Forward ‐ Deployed Military Posture Is Unnecessary, Outdated, and Dangerous'. Cato Institute, Policy Analysis No. 816, July 18, 2017.

United Nations. Dept. of Economic and Social Affairs. Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Adopted September 25, 2015. Preamble: This Agenda is a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity. It also seeks to strengthen universal peace in larger freedom….The 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets which we are announcing today demonstrate the scale and ambition of this new universal Agenda….'

World Beyond War.org. A global movement to end all wars.

Center for Global Nonkilling. Promoting change toward the measurable goal of a killing-free world.

Updates

Sahiounie,  Steven.  US-NATO provocation in Ukraine to stop Russian pipeline.  The Duran, April 7, 2021.

Paul, Ron. Why Is the Biden Administration Pushing Ukraine to Attack Russia? OpEdNews Op Eds, April 5, 2021. 

Lavelle, Peter, CrossTalk, RT, April 2021. The End of Ukraine? YouTube, 25 minutes. — Lavelle hosts three panelists: Mary Dejevsky,  Independent columnist, London; Earl Rasmussen, Executive Vice-President, The Eurasia Centre, Washington, DC; and Gabriel Gavin, journalist, policy consultant, Moscow, Russia.

Baldwin, Natylie. The Situation in the Donbass, In Natylie's Place: Understanding Russia, April 3, 2021. — The situation in the Ukraine is extremely dangerous. Heavily armed Ukrainian soldiers with USA weapons are threatening the Russian Republic, as Russian soldiers stand by ready to respond if attacked.

Tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Tōrō nagashi — floating paper lanterns — began August 6, 1947. It was copied from the traditional August Buddhist Obon festival as a consolation to the souls of the millions of Japanese citizens who perished during World War II. 

Photo by Brent Patterson.

Due to my caution about CoVid-19 at my age, I chose to not attend this year’s annual 1945 A-bombing of Japan Memorial, hosted in Ottawa by the Society of Friends. I only missed 2 since 2009. About 60 people attended.

Photo by Brent Patterson.

This year the event was held at a pond along the Rideau Canal Western Pathway, a few meters east of Queen Elizabeth Parkway, at Third Ave, a few meters north of the new Flora Footbridge that crosses the Rideau Canal. (Google map) 

The proposed footbridge with labels added and red arrow pointing to location of
the Tōrō nagashi ceremony (Image from: Support Flora Footbridge, Facebook) 

It has been 75 years since the atomic bomb was dropped by the USA on Hiroshima, followed three days later with another one on Nagasaki, resulting in over 200,000 instant deaths and many more injured and dying.

In Special coverage: Hiroshima & Nagasaki at 75, The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, warns us that we are all living in a ‘particularly dangerous period of our nuclear age’. Civilization is at stake. Time left in January 2020 : 100 seconds to midnight.

Though there are many fine books and articles for this 75th year milestone, I don’t find convincing evidence for preventing nuclear war. Concerned citizens and world leaders need to stand up and prevent a world holocaust that would take us back to the Stone Age. These are just 6 items online that reflect my thinking:

Robert Freeman. 75 Years On: Reflections and Preflections on Hiroshima. Common Dreams, August 7, 2020. — ‘We cannot change what happened, neither the heinous military nor the tragic moral stains that indelibly mark its occurrence. But we can transcend it, rise above it, by naming it, acknowledging it, repudiating it, and committing ourselves to a greater expression of the people and society we imagine and hope ourselves to be. It is the only option for a sane, safe, and civilized future.’

PBS. 75 years after Hiroshima, should the U.S. president have the authority to launch a nuclear attack?, (USA Public television), August 5, 2020. — No U.S. President should have absolute authority to initiate a nuclear attack. Too many were mentally impaired while in office. William Parry, former Secretary of State, concluded: ‘Ronald Reagan and Gorbachev said it best, which is, a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.’

Helen Caldicott. The Lessons We Haven’t Learned. The Progressive, August 3, 2020. — ‘... make friends with ... all nations and reinvest the trillions of dollars spent on war, killing, and death, saving the ... world with renewable energy including solar, wind, and geothermal, and planting trillions of trees. ... free medical care for all U.S. citizens, along with free education, housing for the homeless, and care for those with mental illness.’

Gary G. Kohls, MD. Why Americans Believe That Bombing Hiroshima Was Necessary. LewRockwell, August 1, 2015. — The American government was ‘... fully aware of Japan’s search for ways to honorably surrender months before Truman gave the fateful order to incinerate Hiroshima. Japan was working on peace negotiations through its ambassador in Moscow as early as April of 1945, with surrender feelers from Japan occurring as far back as 1944. ... all of Japan’s military and diplomatic messages were being intercepted. On July 13, 1945, Foreign Minister Togo wrote: “Unconditional surrender ... is the only obstacle to peace.” …(BUT) … ‘profiteers … Wall Street, the Pentagon, the weapons industries and their lapdogs in Congress … (did) … what is profitable or advantageous for our over-privileged, over-consumptive, toxic and unsustainable American way of life, …’

Amy Goodman and David Goodman. Atomic Bombing at 75: Hiroshima Cover-up -- How Timesman Won a Pulitzer While on War Dept. Payroll. Consortium News, August 4, 2020. Enhanced from: Hiroshima Cover-up: How the War Department's Timesman Won a Pulitzer, Common Dreams, August 10, 2004 — By boldly disobeying US military orders and censors, Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett was the first western reporter to get to Hiroshima, 30 days after the bomb, and have an uncensored eye-witness report published about an ‘atomic plague’. Burchett was extensively bullied by US agents. To negate the story, the US War Department used their hired propagandist, William L. Laurence, the Pulitzer Prize-winning science reporter for The New York Times, to deny massive deaths from radiation. ‘“Atomic Bill” Laurence revered atomic weapons.’ In 2003 the Times discussed removing a 1932 Pulitzer awarded to their Moscow bureau chief (1922–1936) Walter Duranty, but did not. This prompted the authors to recommend that Laurence’s prize be ‘stripped’.

Setsuko Thurlow. Hiroshima survivor, anti-bomb activist, and 2017 Nobel Prize winner living in Toronto, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, on June 22, 2020, urging him to ‘acknowledge Canada’s involvement in and contributions to the two atomic bombings and issue a statement of regret on behalf of the Canadian Government for the immense deaths and suffering caused by the atom bombs that utterly destroyed two Japanese cities.’ She also urged him to sign the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

My Conclusion

Prevention. Prevention. Prevention of nuclear war is the key to world survival. Atomic wars must never be fought. Hiroshima and Nagasaki warn us of the danger if we do not act urgently and sensibly to prohibit atomic weapons development and wars.

I was 13 years old in 1945. I got the censored news on radio and newsreels at cinema. Let’s give hope to our children and grandchildren and everyone else that atomic wars must never take place, and that wars be banned as criminal behaviour.

I want an international War Prohibition Treaty! — like the 1920 League of Nations, the 1928 General Treaty for Renunciation of War as an Instrument of National Policy,  the 1933 Anti-war Treaty of Non-aggression and Conciliation, and the 2017 United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Every country should have a well-funded Department of Peace and a nonkilling foreign and domestic policy.

See all my reports since 2009: 1945 A-bombing of Japan Memorials.

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A Quaker Summary of Fighting

Book review.

• Are you worried about increasing hate crimes?
• Does it feel like our world is becoming more divided?
• Do you care about peace?

In 2017 the Peace Program Coordinator and Communications Coordinator for the Canadian Friends Service Committee (Quakers) proposed to answer these questions scientifically by conducting a peace literature review and bibliography. He originally planned to compile a 50-page report to summarize:

• What does science reveal about achieving interpersonal peace, avoiding conflict and hatred?
• Do we really need to fight?

The short project continued for 2 years, and grew to 327 pages. To include as much as possible into the book, the font size was reduced, yet much had to be omitted. Perhaps a second volume will be published to compile the rest of their research.

Matthew Legge. Are We Done Fighting? Building Understanding in a World of Hate and Division (New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, BC, 2019): 327 pp. Copyright by Canadian Friends Service Committee (CFSC, Facebook).

• Are We Done Fighting Video Trailer, YouTube (1:16 min.)
• Are We Done Fighting? : Building understanding in a world of hate and division, Psychology Today — Matthew Legge elaborates on 8 topics, posted from April 26 to October 7, 2019.
• Preview and Search in Google Books.

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I read the book with much interest and then attended a book launch by the author on October 23th, 2019 at the Friends’ Meeting House, Ottawa, Ontario. Some 30 people attended. A question-answer period followed.

The event was audio recorded by Ken ‘Kensky’ Billings, and posted for you on pCloud, linked from his Digileak Canada website:

• Lecture (63 min.),
• Q & A, discussion (23 min.).
• And I took 24 photos.

Matthew Legge (pronounced: ‘Le-ZHAY’) has been on a book tour across Canada, speaking on radio, at universities, bookstores, and Friends Meeting Houses; and teaching a few workshops. See schedule at bottom of AreWeDoneFighting.com. This is his first presentation fully recorded and posted online.


My Review

This book is a 2-year cooperative effort of many people: the author Matthew Legge — an anthropology graduate from the University of Toronto — and his staff at the Quaker Centre in Toronto.

Matthew emailed to me:

‘The book has about 750 end notes that made it into the final copy. I can't say how many hundreds of books and studies I read, many hundreds did not make it into the book. I didn't do 100% of the research myself. 2 other staff and volunteers did parts and sent me things.’

The book is mostly a literature review of many sources related to avoiding violence — 'Evidence and techniques you can use right now'. The research team examined publications in psychology, anthropology and sociology of peace, mostly focusing on cultural ‘interpersonal peace issues’, not inter-government politics.

The author presents many tips for avoiding personal conflict and misunderstandings in daily living, but little about preventing WW3. The intent was to examine what is known about ‘hate and division’ in society. A very challenging aspect of war prevention!

In 24 short chapters, each ending with helpful tips, the author attempts to reach people with different educational, political, religious and cultural backgrounds. The result is a comprehensive text with many insights into the fundamental issues of hate and division, without a guarantee of what will work or not work. Although very useful as an academic study, in my opinion it fails to be a practical guide to action.


Positives

Gems I found especially useful and noteworthy:

1. Equality is a useful ingredient in respecting people and countries. Trying to be overly superior to others will not lead us to a peaceful world. We need to acknowledge that we are all part of one world community and need to work together to survive.
2. The understanding of ‘power over’ and ‘power-from-within’ are useful concepts in avoiding exploitation and violence (pages 23-24). Working together for a ‘win-win’ outcome would also help. 
3. ‘....The peace virus can demand patience and perseverance, and the way we live it out makes a difference to the results we get’ (page 49). Peace virus is transmitted to children through modelling (page 126). Parents and teachers, please take note and be a model for living.
4. The ‘creative power of silence’ can be used to begin a meeting (page 44), as is done effectively in many Quaker meetings. This is mindfulness at work.
5. Among the communication skills, try communication instead of changing someone’s beliefs by shooting down our opponent (page. 56). Recognize, acknowledge, and even respect other views. Work together on common ground issues such as climate change, disarmament, etc.
6. Emotions are contagious — treat them with care (p. 84). We can all be manipulated towards goodness or violence. Psychologists tell us that our interdependence and malleability shapes what we think and do. Beware of psychological warfare (page 79).
7. Effective communication involves shared values of rapport building, careful listening and observing, and seeking truths (page 94). Take note of body language. Use humour when appropriate, but avoid humiliation (page 90).
8. War ‘is not natural’ (page 124), but is a learned behaviour. It follows that we can learn to create a peaceful world.
9. There is a problem today with mainstream media where the bias is towards sensationalism, such as the bomb. How about seeking good news stories?
10. Establishing Ministries of Peace around the world is ‘an intriguing idea for improving the capacity and will to engage in prevention’ (page 228).

Negatives

The 327 pages of fine print, of which 52 pages are end-notes and index with even finer print makes it very difficult to read.

Though over 1,000 books and articles are listed, many important items for peacemaking familiar to me were not listed. It appears that the author and his team did not look at my website and blog which are full of valuable aides for peacemaking. I suggest adding these 7 missing items/topics.

1. The Center for Citizen Initiatives in California has escorted groups of “citizen diplomats” (mostly Americans) to Russia since 1984 to engage in personal dialog. President Sharon Tennison has visited Russia for 35 years and rejects the war propaganda. “Misunderstandings, fallacious accusations, flare ups and demonizing ... we see the need and possibility for changing this situation. When real people in large numbers get involved, amazing things begin to happen. Join us!” Next trip: June 2020.
2. In June 1895 my ancestors burnt their guns as a public resolve to get rid of wars. The war / peace issue is very much part of the Doukhobor movement, and I continue to be part of that movement to create a world without wars. Since the 1950s, I have been working steadily on a study of Spirit Wrestlers / Doukhobors with connections to the wider peace movement. A dozen books have been published and countless articles are in print and many more are steadily being produced in my Spirit-Wrestlers website and blog.
3. 'A Study of Russian Organizations in the Greater Vancouver Area', 1963, my MA thesis in anthropology and sociology. During the first Cold War, I attended the University of British Columbia and studied the issues of what brings people together and what splits them apart. I found that both hot and cold wars split societies apart and cause undue suffering to humanity. If   we are to achieve a sustainable nonkilling society, this means we urgently need to get rid of the ‘scourge of war’ and make war a crime against humanity!
4. ‘Opening Doors For Survival: A Handbook on Soviet-West Initiatives’, 1986. I produced this practical manuscript which was expanded and published in very limited numbers in 1991 by Peace Train Foundation in Ottawa, Canada as Discovering Soviet-West Cooperation. A Handbook on Soviet-West Bridge-Building Initiatives. The insights into peace-making are as valid today as they were in the 1980s.
5. 'Doukhobor — Quaker Connections : Talk with Young Friends in Ottawa', December 6, 2009 Presentation Outline, Comments (updated 2019). Includes useful suggestions of what young Friends can do to make a contribution to society. The article also includes the story of effective peace manifestations  in Western Canada in the 1960s involving Doukhobors, Quakers, Mennonites, Fellowship of Reconciliation, and other groups. 
6. Dr. Glenn D. Paige’s book Nonkilling Global Political Science, (2002), advanced the thesis that it is possible for humans to stop killing each other. The thesis supports the conclusion of the World Report on Violence and Health (Geneva, 2002) that human violence is a ‘preventable disease’. In November 2007, Dr. Page organized the First Global Nonkilling Leadership Forum, Hawaii, at which I presented my paper: ‘Tolstoy and the Doukhobors’. Wisdom people from around the world united to create a Nonkilling Society. The forum launched the Centre for Global Nonkilling ‘to promote change for a killing-free society’. While killing is deeply entrenched in world culture, it is not universal. Nonkilling is a new paradigm for a brave new world. The wider peace community should take note.
7. 150 Canadian Stories for Peace — An Anthology, 2017. One of my contributions here was 'Opening Doors for Survival during the Cold War' (pages 101-102). In 1984-1985 I held 17 living room discussions on East-West bridge-building. My article concludes: ’With fake news in today’s Cold War world, are we not repeating again the dangerous lies about our northern Russian neighbours and others? When will we ever learn?’

Contact the author Matthew Legge at Canadian Friends Service Committee (CFSC, Quakers), 60 Lowther Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M5R 1C7, Canada. Phone: 416-920-5213 Web: quakerservice.ca. Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @CFSCQuakers. Get a free chapter of CFSC's book at: AreWeDoneFighting.com


More reviews

• Keira Mann. ‘CFSC launches Are We Done Fighting?’, Quaker Concern, vol. 45, no. 2, Spring 2019: pages 1, 3.
• Linda Taffs. ‘Are We Done Fighting? Building Understanding in a World of Hate and Division’. Transcend Media Service, 17 June 2019.
• Matthew Legge. ‘Working for Peace in a Violent World’. When the need for large-scale solutions is so dire, it can be challenging to focus on individual actions. Yes Magazine, 15 July 2019.
• Are We Done Fighting? Toronto based author Matthew Legge is coming to Kamloops, Kamloops Coffee Talk, November 1, 2019 — Quotations and announcement.

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Murray McCheyne Thomson (1922–2019)

Tribute to ‘a renaissance man of peace’

It is sad to hear about the passing at the age of 96 of our dear Friend (Quaker) Murray McCheyne Thomson on May 2nd, 2019, in Ottawa, Ontario.

He was born in China, raised by parents who where Christian missionaries, came to Canada as a child, grew, joined the Society of Friends, and persistently advocated for world peace to the end of his life. I really admired him, as did many here.

I last saw him on March 30, 2019 at the 'Say No to NATO' demonstration in downtown Ottawa during a blizzardy snowy cold day. He came out on his walker. I took pictures of Murray and briefly talked about the Big Issues of society — of disarmament and peace.

We have had a long relationship with Murray over the years. I first met him in Saskatchewan in the early1950s when Murray worked as an adult educator. We met again in the 1970s at the Grindstone Island Peace Education Centre, where Murray was one of the founders. (See his paper below.)

Despite protesting the Canadian military, Murray was decorated as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2001, and the Pearson Medal of Peace in 1990 from the United Nations Association of Canada. He is renowned for co-founding 7 peace organizations from 1976 to 2012.

In 1982 Murray was one of the signatories with me to a UN appeal at the International Doukhobor Intergroup Symposium, Castlegar, BC, sent to the Second Special Session on Disarmament of the United Nations.

In October 2008 we published Murray’s proposal that the traditional Canadian peace groups — Doukhobors, Mennonites and Quakers — unite to stimulate an anti-NATO initiative, to promote a world without wars.

Murray indeed will be missed. He played the violin, had a great connection to people, with lots of enthusiasm and authority as well as humour. He was a renaissance man of peace — and he and his deeds need to be remembered so as to help us save our civilization from the scourge of wars.

I believe we all need to follow his example — stand up and be counted in searching and working for world peace and social justice. With the Doomsday Clock of Scientists at one minute to midnight, the need to speak out today is very urgent!

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Update — On Oct 23, 2019, a Celebration of Life gathering for Murray was held at the First Unitarian Church, Ottawa. I posted 63 photos. Around 200 people turned out including many peace activists, such as Ernie Regehr, Earl Turcotte, Brent Patterson, Ken Kensky Billings, Nick Aplin, Budd Hall, Edward Gertler, Dennis Gruending, Eric J. Schiller, Matt Legge, Jean Christie, Gordon Breedyk, Evelyn Voigt, Fergus Watt, Randy Weekes, Susan McMaster, Colin Stuart, Debbie Grisdale, Mary Girard, Judith Brown, and Sybil Grace. The program included a Memorial Meeting, Reception, and an evening gathering at a Westboro Pub. The Memorial brought forth many praises to the late Murray Thomson — a 'living legend' who was intellectually committed to peaceful social change in creating a world without wars.

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By and about Murray

Murray Thomson, Wikipedia

Murray Thomson, Ottawa Quakers active in peace work (a selection), Quakers.org.

Fonds RC0129 - Murray Thomson fonds, 1941-2011 (Creation), Archives and Collections, McMaster University Library, Hamilton, Ontario.

Murray Thomson. ‘The Relevance of our Testimonies to Peace’, Symposium Proceedings: International Doukhobor Intergroup Symposium. Castlegar, British Columbia, Canada, June 25-28, 1982. Pages 58-59. Koozma J. Tarasoff (Coordinator and Editor).

Murray Thomson. The Grindstone Era: Looking Back, Looking Ahead, The Canadian Quaker History Journal, No. 66, 2001, pages 12-15. — Paper given at the 2001 Annual Meeting of the CFHA

Murray Thomson. Minutes to midnight : Why more than 800 Order of Canada recipients call for nuclear disarmament (PDF). Ottawa, ON. 2005.

Murray Thomson. ‘Toward a Culture of Peace’, Press Release from the Religious Society of Friends: 30 August 2006 — Announcement for the Gardner Lecture at the Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends, Winnipeg, Manitoba, given by Murray: 'Toward a Culture of Peace: Can We Afford to Pay the Price?'

Koozma J. Tarasoff. Ottawa Peace Festival Provides Hope for an Ailing World : 1st Ottawa Peace Festival 2007 Review. October 3, 2007.

Murray Thomson. Traditional Peace Groups Explore Withdrawal from NATO. October 24, 2008, Spirit Wrestlers website.

Koozma J. Tarasoff. Peacemaker Murray Thomson at 90, plus 108 photographs, 55 showing Murray. December 10, 2012. Spirit Wrestlers website.

‘Age is More : Murray Thompson’ (3.5 min video), The Revera and Reel Youth Age is More Film Project. Youtube, July 3, 2014.

Walk with Us, (poster) Ottawa Peace Festival 2015.

Nuclear war still threatens world, experts say; disarmament only solution, CBC News, May 17, 2016 — Murray Thomson has over 800 Order of Canada winners supporting disarmament in new book.

Peace activist says it's time to speak up about nuclear disarmament, BC Almanac, Episode 300249841 (22:39 min. audio), CBC Radio, May 16, 2016 — Can Canada help lead the world to nuclear disarmament? An Order of Canada winner says yes — but the people need to speak up, and the politicians need to listen.

Murray Thomson (#151): 150+ Canadians who contributed to peace. Peace Quest, July 2, 2017.

Koozma J. Tarasoff. ‘Music Against War’ versus CANSEC — May 30, 2018, plus 96 photos, 2 showing Murray. June 4, 2018. Spirit Wrestlers website.

Koozma J. Tarasoff. No to NATO and War — Yes to Peace and Progress, plus 40 photos, 6 showing Murray, taken in Ottawa. March 3, 2019, updated March 30, 2019. Spirit Wrestlers blog.

Dennis Gruending. 'Peace activist Murray Thomson dies at 96'. May 5, 2019.

Murray Thomson, co-founder Project Ploughshares, 1922-2019 : requiescal in pace, Project Ploughshares, May 6, 2019.

Cresky, Jim. Murray Thomson: from RCAF pilot to pacifist, The Hill Times, May. 8, 2019

On the loss of Murray Thomson …a fine fellow with a great sense of humour, PeaceQuest, May 17, 2019. — Links to 5 more articles.

World Beyond War Conference 2018

Toronto, Ontario September 21 - 22, 2018.

Brief report from Greta Zarro, Organizing Director of World Beyond War:

• #NoWar2018 was a huge success.
• More than 200 attended.
• See the conference on our video channel — youtube.com/worldbeyondwar
• The theme of replacing war with the rule of law was well explored by activists and experts who formed new alliances, strategic plans for future work on education, closing bases, and divestment, and developed possible ideas for creative actions.
• Our small budget and 3 half-time staff impressed several who thought we were a large well funded organization. Please donate.
• Patricia Kambitsch of Playthink did some amazing illustrations to capture the vibe of the conference plenaries. See her work and more in our Facebook photo album.
• Website updates will be posted as time permits.

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Koozma J. Tarasoff’s Comments

On June 24 2018, I posted: Suggestions for 'World Beyond War' Conference in Toronto Sept. 21 - 22, 2018.

After watching the conference video Highlights of #NoWar2018, here are some of my quick impressions, questions and answers:

• How can we persuade the world powers to get rid of nuclear weapons? Today the stockpile of nuclear weapons is 14,575. They are a serious threat to our civilization. Making money from killing is evil!
• Canadian military heads are not too interested in peace because they look to the USA as a favourite country with their many dangerous toys of war. (William Geimer).
• Canada’s Foreign Affairs Dept. claims it needs ‘hard power’ instead of peacekeeping resulting in increasing the military budget to $22 billion, the highest ever. Only 173 Canadian soldiers are in peacekeeping today. And we have Canadian soldiers in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland provoking Russia. (Tamara Lorincz).
• Many or most soldiers returning home from the field suffer Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. War is evil. Let’s stop it and begin the process of living as civilized homo sapiens.
• We are facing nuclear war, dying oceans, decaying cities, water shortage, growth inequality, etc., all adding to a breakdown of civil society. We need peace urgently so that we can work together to deal with the looming ecological global crisis. (Kent Shifferd).
• We need to find alternatives to war with compulsory international mechanisms for nonviolent dispute resolution. (James Ranney).
• Departments and other infrastructures for peace to promote legal frameworks for conflict resolution by peaceful means at home and abroad. (Saul Arbess).
• Misinformation technologies are challenging the role of diplomacy in society. We need to persuade FaceBook to be accountable for its actions. (Branka Marijan).
• The United Nations charter states that war is illegal, ‘with exceptions’. But the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact had no exceptions; it was an international agreement in which signator states promised not to use war ‘to resolve disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they might be, which may arise among them’. (David Swanson).
• Humans have the ability to choose not to go to war. We can, for example, create Departments of Peace in our governments. Where there is a will, there is a way. (Karen Johnson).
• Americans have over 1.3 million military personnel in about 5,000 bases around the world requiring a $610 billion budget to service them. Yet only 5% of this budget ($30 billion) could solve starvation in our world. Where is our wisdom?
• Peace education should apply to all levels in our education system, beginning with Grade one. Peace is everybody's business. (Rose).
• There is a nationalist myth that Canada is a peaceful country that does not believe in wars. Advancing empire support and businesses abroad contradict this myth. (Yves Engler).
• Colonial domination of indigenous peoples was an act of genocide and war. (Azeezah Kanji).
• Mass movements win, while fringe movements don’t. We need to mobilize minorities for national consensus by resisting wars and building peace. (Kevin Zeese).

Issues for the World Peace Forum

Plans are in full swing to hold the 12th World Peace Forum in Toronto, Canada April 19 -22, 2018, organized by the Schengen Peace Foundation.



This year the program is "Leadership for Peace" — conflict resolution, connecting peacemakers to women, stability and peace, and finding common global values.

I will not be able to attend the Toronto Peace Forum. So I emailed to my peace network, some of whom are attending, a set of issues that I believe would make the Peace Forum more dynamic and relevant:

• A paradigm shift from a war economy and culture to one based on nonkilling peace.
• Support the United Nations to get rid of 'the scourge of war' and confirming that life is a human right and that nonkilling is the way of the future.
• Disarmament is the road for getting rid of weapons of mass destruction and beginning a new era of normalizing civilized life.
• Propaganda. Recognizing that wars have been started by misinformation. Because the media and the politicians have an important role in preventing wars, how do we encourage them to be professionally responsible?
• Education. Bringing up children of goodwill requires good schools, full health coverage, housing, transportation, and a healthy environment; and continuing education for everyone.
• Respect our neighbours including nations, via bridge-building, diplomacy, international laws, and Departments of Peace. Avoid regime change,  military bases abroad. Get to know the stranger.

Several people replied by email.
Also see comments at bottom.

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From Steve Staples:

Thanks Koozma. First I had heard about it.
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From Gord Breedyk:

Thanks Koozma, I will look for opportunities to make those points. We aren’t sure what the “Forum” will be like, never having attended before. However, we felt we couldn’t pass it up, since it is so close There are four of us from Civilian Peace Service attending.
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From Bill Bheneja:

Thank you Koozma for pointing these excellent peace themes so succinctly.

Saul and I attended one of the earliest Peace Forums in Vancouver in 2006, one of the many workshops/seminars there was on Department of Peace; it was in connection with Second Global Summit of Departments of Peace conference being held in Victoria, we had several high level speakers including US Congressman Denis Kuccinich and Dot Maver.
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From Peter Stockdale:

I agree.
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From Murray Thomson:

Very good, Koozma, Champion of Nonkilling (I hate the word but love its meaning)! Stay nonkillingableforever.

Reply from Bill Bhaneja:

Thank you, Murray. It was great to be out with the like- minded. 100 years ago, people hated the word Nonviolence, except a few like Tolstoy and Gandhi. 100 years from now when we become sick of deliberately taking human lives, Nonkilling will be the word. That sounds so high minded!

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As I post this article on April 4th, I am reminded that 50 years ago Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on this day in the USA by a lone gunman. Because King made a radical indictment of US empire, militarism, capitalism and racism, the main stream media demonized him. Here are King's words of wisdom which organizers of the World Peace Forum need to take to heart by speaking truth to power:

'We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. . . . When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.' — the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., April 4, 1967.

King's legacy is a moral reminder to all of us that we must persevere against the forces of evil not just with words but with deeds for nonkilling peace — or face human extinction. The 12th World Peace Forum is an opportunity to address this challenge. The question is: Will the participants dare to do so?

Disarmament Education Online

Educating ourselves and our youth about the huge advantages of peace compared to war is of utmost importance.

I am impressed with and recommend new resources and guides provided online by the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, particularly the aids for Disarmament Education: Resources for Learning.

A short video on UN Web TV shows 3 boys performing a rap song (4.5 minutes) they wrote which was inspired by their disarmament lessons. The boys' creativity is appreciated when contrasted to youth playing war video games.

One item that caught my attention is the new book: Action for Disarmament: 10 Things You Can Do, by United Nations Department of Public Information, 2014. The book shows many ways people can engage in learning, and creatively use the materials provided online.

Stay informed Start a club Create an event Sign up Facilitate a discussion Express yourself Host a film showing Voice your concern Plan a presentation Reach out

The book summarizes the history and modern uses of weapons: guns, bombs, nuclear and biological weapons. For example, at the height of the Cold War there were 60,000 nuclear warheads, today they are 17,000.

On page 17 is a picture titled: 'Weapons being burnt during the official launch of the "Disarmament, Demobilization, Rehabilitation and Reintegration" process in Burundi." Burundi is a land-locked republic in Southeast Africa.

This photo reminds me of my ancestors, the Spirit Wrestlers / Doukhobors, who on midnight of June 28-29, 1895 burnt their guns in Tsarist Russia in regions of the Southern Caucasus. 7000 participated in this first international recognized mass protest against militarism and wars.

Peace — The Exhibition, Ottawa

I had the pleasure of attending the official opening of Peace — The Exhibition at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, Canada on May 30, 2013. The 12-part Exhibition continues until January 5, 2014, and is the first such exhibit at this Museum.

Just imagine, a Peace Exhibition in a Museum of War? That may seem to be an impossibility given that we are living in a society that tends to worship militarism and war as a given, and supports the notion 'My country right or wrong, but my country.'

The present Canadian Government, headed by Stephen Harper and his Conservatives, is striving to assert its macho powers with the purchase of F-35 super planes (costing billions of dollars) and ships with a capacity to kill rather than to work on more peaceful needs such as exploration, rescue, ice breaking, etc. If we are to survive as a human species, peace must be acknowledged as a possibility including the end of war.

Thanks to the imagination and work of Curator and Museum Historian Amber Lloydlangston and her team, this exhibit is taking place in Canada.

I met Dr. Lloydlangston (left) years ago when she was looking for old peace pictures to illustrate a small section in the Museum on peace activities during the Cold War. I was glad that the Museum chose several of my images which they still use in their permanent exhibits. We later met in October 2006 in Winnipeg, Manitoba when we both attended the Mennonite meeting on War and the Conscientious Objector.

The current Exhibition is not the one that most peace activists would mount if they had such an opportunity. Here are some ideas and exhibits they would include:

• They would include many stories of legitimate activism for building a world without war, such as lobbying against murderous state-sponsored explosives (atomic bombs, land mines) chemical, biological and radiological warfare; and killing drones.
• We need a comparative chart that shows the casualties of war vs. the cost of normal human life with free health care and education, adequate housing, clean water and other friendly infrastructure, culture, and innovative job training for a peaceful world.
• Rupert Smith, the former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, in his book, The Utility  of Force: The Art of War in the Modern World (2007), concludes that industrialized warfare is no longer a doable option as the conflicts become timeless and fought among the people. To meet such new challenges of conflicts in the 21st Century, we need new kinds of institutions and policy structures with capacities for war and violence prevention. We need a win-win solution.
• We must find a way to avert the costs of the military and cyber-contractor government-industrial complexes. For example, the development of alternative energy is needed to minimize the use of fossil fuels esp. the profit from oil (which has been one of the recent major causes of wars).
• Questioning the right of the state to wage war is a legitimate issue. Who is responsible for this crime against humanity?
• Questioning the right of any state to occupy other states with their foreign military bases? Is it not appalling that the USA has over 1000 bases around the world?
• What about the right of states to establish and maintain deadly missiles as shields against another state? A valid issue indeed, to prevent another human wasteful Cold War.
• The establishment of Departments of Peace around the world as part of the parliamentary system in each country could be a step in creating the new architecture of peace so urgently needed today to support a culture of peace and assertive nonviolence in Canada and abroad.
• Lessons from the pioneers of peace-making beginning with Lev N. Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and others should be part of our educational curriculum across the country.
• The Center for Global Nonkilling in Hawaii provides a new way of studying war and peace. Today, under the leadership of Glenn D. Paige, the Center presents a unique way of looking at this issue with innovative research, global education and training, as well as a monitoring program measuring progress forward towards a killing-free world.
• Domestic violence including gun control is an issue.
• The power of cooperation, collaboration, and reconciliation are useful as preventative tools in sane human behaviour.
• A history of the peace movement through the centuries ought to be taught in schools beginning at the high school level.
• The role of United Nations in peacemaking should be part of every school curriculum.
• The power of influence in waging peace in society is a challenging theme as a counterbalance to those who are addicted to waging war.

All that said, we must give credit to the Canadian War Museum for mounting a Peace Exhibition. This may be a small step for humankind on planet earth, but nevertheless, it is a step in the right direction.

My friend and colleague Dr. Ian Prattis, a retired professor of anthropology and religion, a poet and environmental activist, attended the Exhibition opening, and on June 14th, posted the following review of this event on his Pine Gate Sangha website where he is the resident Zen teacher.

Peace — The Exhibition by Ian Prattis

It is a long and winding road that led to the peace exhibition at the Canadian War Museum, which will run to January 5, 2014. The initial conversation opened a decade ago with Physicians for Global Survival, the Quakers — supported by Friends for Peace — pitching to the museum director the idea of Canadian soldiers going to war to enable peace for their families. The conversation continued with the Canadian Department of Peace group taking a lead role. They found support in a historian who liked the basic idea. The curator of “Peace — The Exhibition” is Dr. Amber Lloydlangston and she and her team did a terrific job putting it together with very diverse themes.

The exhibition is impressive and extensive with many surprises. A clock from the destruction of Hiroshima, a blue beret from the first UN peacekeeping mission, a World War I Victoria Cross medal awarded to a Canadian stretcher bearer to mention only a few.

There is a station where you can make your own Peace Buttons — a great attraction for kids. Also an art gallery of peace with a tour to see how art reflects the themes of the exhibit. A highlight for me was the attention paid to the Great Peace Law of the Iroquois Confederacy. How it came about and how it is relevant to the present day negotiation between aboriginal peoples and Canadian Institutions. Treaty 7 provides an elaborate case study.

The debate is opened up about Canada’s role as a peace keeping nation with a chart showing different options and outcomes. The mantle that Canada has worn since Lester Pearson’s days has been diminished since Mr. Harper became Prime Minister of Canada. Do we want a change? That is the question raised in a very challenging way. War is not sanitized, neither is the protest movement nor the peace keeping role. We see how Canadians throughout their history have negotiated, organized and intervened for peace. Interactive stations about Haiti, Afghanistan, the Sudan and more, plus play stations for children to grasp the issues are there to encourage them to think and reflect what they want to see in a future Canada.

I hope teachers make this exhibit a "must see" locale for school trips. The Peace Exhibition is very well put together.... Peace is a vital part of the story of Canada and it is still evolving and diverse. I encourage everyone to pay a visit — and take children. A Peace Button awaits them!

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Koozma's Concluding Remarks

Eleven years ago Ian Prattis looked around the Ottawa community and saw a need for promoting the voices of sanity and peace. Out of this assessment he gave birth to the remarkable Friends of Peace Day when each year at the end of September becomes a major focal point of peace, planetary care and social justice.

This year, at the 7th Annual Ottawa Peace Festival, the highlight will be the Friends for Peace Day on Saturday September 28, 2013 to be held at the Ottawa City Hall. See reviews of the past six Peace Festivals, which have been coordinated by the Canadian Dept. of Peace Initiative, and at which Ian has held the remarkable Friends of Peace Days.

For the 2013 Annual Peace Awards, Ian and his directors have unanimously chosen two candidates: Dr. Amber Lloydlangston, an acknowledgment of 'the magnificent Peace Exhibition'; and Douglas Cardinal, the legendary architect of the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Prior recipients have included Jack Layton, Marion Dewar, Grandfather Commanda, and others.

I plan to go back to the Exhibition before it closes in January 2014. Why? Because I want to have a better look at the 12 exhibit stories that attracted some 600 people on opening day. Peace is indeed a complex process requiring the attention of young and old to ensure there is hope in the world. Let us recall that the Charter of the United Nations Preamble in December 1945 began with the firm resolve 'to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind.'

That suicidal miltaristic 'scourge' continues today. As responsible world citizens, it is time to stop that racket — the slavery of our times! We must acknowledge and persist that wars will stop! That waging war is the transgression of the human right to life! That peace is better than war! That nonkilling, cooperation, compassion and love have a future!

Hopefully, the Peace Exhibition at the Canadian War Museum will raise enough questions to begin the public discussion of making this hope become a reality. I embrace that hope. That is why, as a peace activist, I have been active for over 55 years. Let's get on with it, my friends. Peace is the way!

Exhibit book

Amber Lloydlangston and Kathryn Lyons. Peace — The Exhibition. Ottawa, Ontario: Canadian War Museum, 2013. 112 pages, 52 images. $10.

War — The Slavery of Our Times

In his 1900 essay, The Slavery of Our Times, Lev N. Tolstoy argued that killing people is murder and therefore war is contrary to Christian teachings (and one can add, to any warring religion).

He explained how: "Laws are rules, made by people who govern by means of organised violence,..." The army is an instrument of murder which kings, emperors, presidents and prime ministers have institutionalized.

He concluded that war is as useless, brutish, murder and harmful madness to society as slavery. The alternative is  love, non-killing, and a fair economy for all.

It has been over a century since Tolstoy penned that profound essay (below), yet we daily hear the drums of war with the propaganda of 'neutralizing' the enemy, the development of robot planes (drones) to better kill, and for surveillance and control of human populations.

Our 'military industrial complex' (which the late President Dwight Eisenhower in 1961 called as the greatest threat to our society) continues to devour the daily bread of ordinary citizens around the world, as it seeks to develop more and more weapons of mass destruction.

Surely guns kill whether they are rifles or atomic bombs!  Let's stop murdering people for some spurious patriot cause or more precisely for some economic gain.  Shame on us! War is certainly not healthy for children and other living things.

• Where is our concern for humanity?
• For the beautiful environment?
• For creating a better United Nations?
• For developing Departments of Peace in our respective countries?

Where is our sanity?
Have we gone mad as a human race?

Brothers and Sisters around the world, let's outlaw war just as we have earlier done with human slavery. The time is now! This is a time for cooperation, a time for using science for human goodness and beauty, a time for common sense. Let's get on with it, my friends! Let's turn to a new path of sanity, justice and respect for all. Are we not members of one human family?

I invite you to read Tolstoy's The Slavery of Our Times

• Archive.org — 8 formats
• Wiki Books
• Google Books
• MS-Word Document
• LibriVox audio book
• iTunes, audio book by LibriVox
• Russian — Рабство нашего времени

Cold War Still Threatens Our World

This October 28, 2012, marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Cold War mentality since the 1950s perpetuates mass hysteria which allowed for nuclear weapons to threaten our civilization. We became slaves of our politicians, the media and the military industrial complex. Today we ought to stand up and make our voices known that nuclear weapons ought to be banned.


Entrance sign.

On July 11, 2012, I visited the Diefenbunker, Canada's Cold War Museum, located at the north edge of the town of Carp, Ontario, a 45-minute drive west from downtown Ottawa.

I went to see Russians perform in the program Beyond the Bomb: Music of the Cold War. I spent three-hours exploring its exhibits on four underground levels and hearing dozens of brief performances of music composed during the Cold War or that was inspired by the period.


Viktor Herbiet on sax in tunnel entrance

Performers included the Moscow String Quartet (introduced by a Canadian general who was a Cold War warrior during the hysteria), the Maple Leaf Brass Band, sax player Victor Herbiet, guitarist Daniel Bolshoy and others. Festival director Julian Armour wrote that the combination of music and venue was intended to give those who attend a sense of the period and its music. See my 87 photos: Cold War Exhibit at Diefenbunker

Indeed. the venue gave me a vivid sense of how mass population can be herded like sheep to give up their civil rights and potentially their lives for some self-serving patriotic goal of preserving our kind — all in the name of freedom, democracy, and the moral right of the military industrial complex to kill for profit and power.


Construction of this four-level underground Cold War complex at Carp in 1960.

Here's some facts I gathered:

• In 1958, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker announced in Canada's Parliament that '...development of a decentralized federal system of emergency government with central, regional and zonal elements would proceed' (Hansard, Aug 21, 1958).
• The basic principle was to protect and support key government services in case of massive nuclear attack on North America. Over the next decade up to 50 protective shelters were built across Canada. The Carp facility was the 'flagship', as it was expected to resist a blast of 5 million tons of TNT exploding at about a mile away, compared to all the others which were only designed for fallout; it was to provide shelter for 535 key people for up to 30 days. No provision was made for family members.
• The Carp facility cost $20 million (not including the special electronic telecommunications installed in 1962-63). Comprised of four levels underground, the walls of the building range from 2.5 feet to over 4 feet thick made of concrete with reinforced steel. Over 1,000 workers were employed on the site.
• The government ceased its responsibilities in the bunker in the fall of 1992 and the Department of Defence decommissioned the Carp site in December 1994. About this time, local community people purchased the facility for under $300,000 and begin operating it as a museum, largely using volunteer help. In June 1998, the bunker and some of the land surrounding it was declared a National Historic Site by Heritage Canada.
• The 20 million citizens of Canada were encouraged to build their own bunkers at an estimated cost of $4,000 in today's currency, but only about 2,000 were built. It was too much of an outlandish idea for the masses. People were more optimistic than their political leaders.
• See my 87 photos: Cold War Exhibit at Diefenbunker, and 17 photos posted by another person who also attended: Beyond the Bomb: Music of the Cold War.

When this bunker was being built in 1961, the Americans failed their attempt to invade Cuba in the Bay of Pigs fiasco. Shortly after, on October 22, 1962, the missile crisis between the Soviets and Americans pushed the world to the brink of an all-out nuclear conflict.

Only to the credit of the Cold War superpower leaders, US President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev, as well as the United Nations, the world was saved.

Sergei Krushchev, the son of Nikita Krushchev, explained how all this happened when he watched the crisis unfold at his father's side.. He spoke to Jim Brown of CBC Radio (October 19, 2012) from Brown University where he is Visiting Professor. Sergei pointed out that his father had no choice but to send nuclear missiles to Cuba. Because the USA was planning to invade Cuba, the USSR needed to protect Cuba.

Both leaders understood that their goal was to avoid a nuclear conflict because this would lead to the end of the world. To do this, they did not wish to allow the military to be part of their agenda. They both figured out a way to create a win-win outcome.

The end of this video clip (at time 1:26) shows Sergei Krushchev explaining that both the USA and the USSR were mirror images of the 'evil empire'. See: Cuban Missile Crisis - Three Men Go To War, PBS TV, October 23, 2012.

In the end, luckily all of us were winners.

Today, fifty years after the missile crisis, the Cold War mentality continues. We need to remember that many of the old missiles are still in their silos ready to be launched. The end of the world could come to an end if we don't take steps to get rid of these weapons of mass destruction once and for all. The Physicians for Global Survival underline this in their mission statement. Let's get on with it!

Atomic weapons are weapons of mass destruction. They do not distinguish good from bad people. We are all equally subject to be killed by its devilish powers. For this Fiftieth Anniversary let's rededicate our efforts to ban these weapons from the face of the earth. In fact, let's make wars a crime against humanity! Consider our culture of peace mantra as creating a 'nonkilling society' and one of our goals as building Departments of Peace in every country.

More about "Beyond the Bomb: Music of the Cold War"

• My 87 photos: Cold War Exhibit at Diefenbunker
• Review by Diana: View from the Diefenbunker
• Victor Herbiet Diefenbunker Video