May, Ground Zero national education week on nuclear war prompts thousands to sign nuclear freeze petitions. November, voters in 8 American states overwhelmingly pass referenda calling for a mutual and verifiable freeze on the testing, production and deployment of nuclear weapons. The Catholic bishops of the U.S. deliver a pastoral letter calling for a halt to the testing and production of nuclear weapons, and are joined by national Protestant and Jewish organizations in support of a nuclear freeze. Arms control groups begin to form U.S. Comprehensive Test Ban Coalition. By 1991, the Coalition includes over 75 national arms control, peace, faith, environmental, labor, and civic organizations.
Groups gather support for Congressional resolutions for a test ban.
1985-1987 U.S.S.R. observes unilateral test moratorium, partly in response to personal appeals to President Gorbachev from leaders of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. Reagan and Gorbachev meet in Reykjavik, Iceland and discuss nuclear disarmament but fail to reach agreement. Nearly 1000 people march from Los Angeles to Washington, DC in the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament. 1986-1993 Annual protests at the Nevada Test Site involving 3,000 to 9,000 people maintain public awareness of the continuation of nuclear testing and weapons development. In 1988 alone, over 14,000 people attend two nuclear testing protests at the test site with over 4,000 people arrested for non-violent civil disobedience.