Dr. Helen Caldicott is a former Harvard University professor
of pediatrics who left medicine during the 1980s to campaign against
nuclear weapons and nuclear power. The Australian-born Caldicott
is the co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility, founder
of Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament (WAND), a leading member
of the Union of Concerned Scientists and author of Missile Envy,
a book that blamed the arms race on Western civilization's repressed
sexual urges.
Dr. Caldicott continues to be one of the media's favorite interview
sources on nuclear and environmental issues, despite the fact
that her positions and rhetoric are often irresponsible and extreme.
Following the war in the Persian Gulf, for example, Caldicott
suggested that hangings would be in order for U.S. military leaders.
Further, she has praised Cuban Dictator Fidel Castro and has likened
former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to Jesus Christ.
Selected Quotes by and about Helen Caldicott
"That's the argument Hitler probably used when he built the
gas ovens -- jobs. " - Caldicott quoted in the Sacramento
Bee, April 26, 1988, equating support for defense industry jobs
with support for the Holocaust
"The support for that massacre (U.S. liberation of Kuwait)
was skin-deep. People felt oppressed by their government was doing
and the country was lost... That whole ordeal in the gulf was
a practice round for nuclear war. It was obscene beyond belief."
- Caldicott quoted by Dana Tims of the Oregonian, November 13,
1991
"Scientists who work for nuclear power or nuclear energy
have sold their soul to the devil. They are either dumb, stupid,
or highly compromised... Free enterprise really means rich people
get richer. And they have the freedom to exploit and psychologically
rape their fellow human beings in the process... Capitalism is
destroying the earth. Cuba is a wonderful country. What Castro's
done is superb." - Caldicott quoted by Dixy Lee Ray in her
book Trashing the Planet (1990)
"As it is, life in America amounts to a corporate dictatorship."
- Caldicott quoted by Dana Tims of the Oregonian , November 13,
1991
"At a Beverly Hills fund-raiser... nuclear arms opponent
Helen Caldicott gave a controversial speech in which she likened
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to Jesus Christ and suggested
the Department of Defense be renamed the 'Department of Annihilation.'
" - Amy Chance of the Sacramento Bee, April 26, 1988
"Every time you turn on an electric light, you are making
another brainless baby." - Caldicott quoted by environmentalist
Theodore Roszak in the Oregonian, June 14, 1992
"[Caldicott] said that if principles crystalized during the
Nuremberg Trials at the end of World War II were applied to allied
prosecution of the Gulf War, hangings of the U.S. military brass
would be in order." - Dana Tims quoted in the Oregonian,
November 13, 1993, after conducting a telephone interview with
Caldicott
Version Date: August 20, 1993
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