I also recommend Dorothy Day: A Radical Devotion, by Robert Coles (New York: Da Capo Press, 1987). Rosalie G. Riegle has compiled two fine volumes of oral history about American pacifism: Crossing the Line: Nonviolent Resisters Speak Out for Peace (Eugene, Oreg.: Cascade Books, 2013) and Doing Time for Peace: Resistance, Family, and Community (Nashville, Tenn.: Vanderbilt University Press, 2013). For a broader historical perspective, I suggest Dan McKanan’s Prophetic Encounters: Religion and the American Radical Tradition (Boston: Beacon Press, 2011).

My previous books have included extensive source notes. The text of this book contains all that I’d like to reveal about the threat of nuclear terrorism. Readers seeking additional information about it should look elsewhere.

Postscript

On 8 May 2015, the sabotage convictions of Michael Walli, Sister Megan Rice, and Gregory Boertje-Obed were overturned by a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Raymond Kethledge, the judge who wrote the opinion, was appointed to the court by President George W. Bush. ‘The defendants’ actions in this case had zero effect, at the time of their actions or any time afterwards, on the nation’s ability to wage war or defend against attack,’ the opinion said. Instead of proving that sabotage had been committed and America’s security endangered, the prosecutors had offered only ‘vague platitudes.’

One of the defense attorneys, William P. Quigley, was surprised by the ruling. This was the first time in thirty years that the sabotage conviction of a Plowshares activist had been overturned. Quigley thought the decision conveyed a strong message to federal judges: ‘Peaceful protest isn’t sabotage.’

A week later, in a highly unusual move, the court of appeals ordered that Walli, Sister Megan, and Boertje-Obed be released from prison immediately. The court thought it likely that they had already served more time than was warranted by the conviction for destroying government property. They walked free on 16 May 2015. And Sister Megan, no longer silenced by prison authorities, gave a series of television interviews.

As of this writing, the government has not yet decided whether to challenge the court’s ruling on the sabotage charge. The three Plowshares activists are still obligated to pay a $52,953 fine for the break-in at Y-12. But they have neither the means nor the intention of paying it.

Acknowledgements

I’m grateful to the following Plowshares activists for speaking to me about their life’s work: Michael Walli, Sister Megan Rice, Gregory Boertje-Obed, Liz McAllister, Sister Ardeth Platte, Sister Carol Gilbert, John LaForge, Father Steven Kelly, Father Carl Kabat, and Father William ‘Bix’ Bichsel. Father Bix passed away in February 2015, at the age of eighty-six – a few months after joining a protest on Jeju Island, in South Korea, against the construction of a new military base.