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MAKE (SOME) NUKES HISTORY  
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Linda Pentz Gunter
March 11, 2024
Beyond Nuclear International
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_ Hollywood stars put their name to a good message, but it’s the
messengers who are problematic _

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A handful of Hollywood celebs, some highly recognizable including Jane
Fonda, Barbra Streisand, Lily Tomlin, Emma Thompson and Michael
Douglas, as well as musicians such as Jackson Brown and Graham Nash,
just signed their names to a letter
[[link removed]] published in the_ LA
Times_ urging that we “Make Nukes History”.

Hooray, right? Well, only half hooray.

The Hollywood letter was part of a quickly launched campaign to
coincide with the Oscar buzz around the successful feature
film, _Oppenheimer_, in order to leverage attention for the need to
abolish nuclear weapons. The _Make Nukes History_ campaign
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to raise public awareness about the civilization-ending risks posed by
today’s nuclear arsenals. It reminds us that
while _Oppenheimer_ is a history lesson, nuclear weapons are very
much still with us, but that we can put an end to what J. Robert
Oppenheimer started.

So far, all so good. Far too few of us are thinking about nuclear
weapons and the threat they pose, let alone doing something about
getting rid of them. It’s an important message that needs
reiterating.

Meanwhile, Oppenheimer duly swept seven Academy Awards on Sunday. We
waited hopefully for one of the winners to say something about the
effect of Oppenheimer’s bomb down the ages. It came only from
Cillian Murphy at the end of his Best Actor acceptance speech. “We
made a film about the man who created the atomic bomb and for better
or for worse we are all living in Oppenheimer’s world so I would
really like to dedicate this to the peacemakers, everywhere,” Murphy
said.

Ted Turner, founder of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, and Jane Fonda,
in 1992. The couple were married for ten years. (Photo: Alan
Light/Wikimedia Commons)

The _Make Nukes History_ message did not make it to the Oscar stage
and the _LA Times_ letter was surprisingly skimpy, failing to get at
the heart of the two key takeaways missed in the _Oppenheimer_ film:
the unwilling, unrecognized and still uncompensated victims of
Oppenheimer’s original Trinity bomb; and the on-going harm down
generations to all peoples whose lands were seized and used for atomic
tests.

The letter includes a quote from President John F. Kennedy, then
states:

“At a time of great uncertainty, even one nuclear weapon—on land,
in the sea, in the air, or in space—is too many. To protect our
families, our communities, and our world, we must demand that global
leaders work to make nuclear weapons history—and build a brighter
future.”

Demand indeed. Some of us have been doing this for decades. And we
have a treaty for that. But thank you for waking up.

But what does “build a brighter future” actually mean? That, it
turns out, is the slogan of the organization behind the orchestration
of the Hollywood letter and Oscar campaign — the Nuclear Threat
Initiative.

Make Nukes History is a campaign of the Nuclear Threat Initiative,
whose CEO, Ernest Moniz, (below center) will join the IAEA’s Rafael
Grossi (above left) in Brussels for their March 21st nuclear energy
extravaganza that aggressively promotes the means by which additional
countries could develop nuclear weapons. (Photo from NTI webinar)

Let’s first take a look at who actually signed the letter. With two
exceptions, all the signatories are white. There are no Native
Americans on there. No US Marshall Islanders. Almost none of the
Oppenheimer film cast and crew signed it.  The last four signatures
belong to the board of NTI.

NTI was the brainchild of Fonda’s ex, Ted Turner. NTI’s CEO is,
yes, Ernest Moniz, the former US Energy Secretary, who is at the
forefront of promoting nuclear power to anyone and everyone who wants
it. Turner is also a firm supporter of nuclear power (I know because I
tried to challenge him on it in person and was quickly deflected by a
very large gentleman in possession of an impressive set of muscles.)

Moniz is one of the chief architects behind the pro-nuclear
infiltration of the COP28 climate summit and its ridiculous “let’s
triple global nuclear power capacity by 2050” proclamation. He will
be in Brussels later this month, headlining the International Atomic
Energy Agency’s propaganda-fest, billed as the First Ever Nuclear
Energy Summit. So will Charles Oppenheimer, Robert Oppenheimer’s
grandson and another signatory to the _LA Times_ letter.

So here we have a slightly star-studded short-lived campaign to
proclaim an end to one kind of nuke, while behind the scenes the same
organization is working hard to promote the other kind of nuke, thus
ensuring that the door to nuclear weapons development stays firmly
open.

So sorry, no two thumbs up for this bit of Hollywood theatre.

_Linda Pentz Gunter is the international specialist at __Beyond
Nuclear _ [[link removed]]_and writes for and edits
Beyond Nuclear International. All opinions are her own._

* Oppenheimer
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* nuclear weapons
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* nuclear power
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* Hollywood
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