The White Trains Transporting Armageddon and the Nuclear Disarmament Movement to Stop the Trains

The Machines of Nuclear Armageddon

During the Cold War, the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union raced to build as many nuclear weapons as they could. The nuclear arms race involved the construction of thousands of nuclear weapons. Several of these weapons could destroy most human life on the planet. The Trident missile was one the most powerful of these weapons.

The Trident missile was one of the most powerful weapons developed during the Cold War. Ballistic missiles in the Puget Sound, Ground Zero. Courtesy Ground Zero.

The Trident missile was an advanced nuclear weapon that a submarine could launch. The United States built hundreds of these missiles. One missile was a hundred times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima during World War II. But the U.S. military had a problem. The military had to find a way to transport these missiles from the factories that made these weapons to naval bases. There the military would load the missiles onto submarines.

The U.S. government directed the Department of Energy to transport the Trident missiles on trains. For decades, these trains transported the missiles from their factory in Pantex, Texas to naval bases across the country. One of these naval bases, called the Bangor Naval Base, was in Kitsap County, Washington state.

Schematics of trains carrying the Trident missiles. Ground Zero, 1988. Courtesy University of Washington, Special Collections.

Specially designed trains carried the Trident missiles. Ashes to Ashes Dust to Dust, Ground Zero, 1983. Courtesy University of Washington, Special Collections.

Since the 1970s, Washington residents protested against the Trident submarines at Banger Naval Base. Yet they did not realize that the trains that came into the base carried the Trident missiles to the submarines.

These trains were mysterious. The Department of Energy painted them white and they had few exterior markings. At first glance, no one would guess they held those very nuclear weapons the protestors fought against. They were, however, outfitted with turrets in which soldiers stood guard with rifles.

Armed guards would stand inside the cars. The Nuclear Train, Jim Douglass, 1982. Courtesy University of Washington, Special Collections.

One day in the late-1970s, Jim Douglass, a local resident and an anti-Trident protest organizer, noticed these mysterious trains arriving at the base on a scheduled basis.

Jim discovered that the trains came from the Trident missile factory in Pantex, Texas. He realized these trains transported the Trident missiles themselves. For the next several years, Jim Douglass, his wife Shelley Douglass, and their supporters organized hundreds of protests nationwide against the trains. They called these trains the “White Trains.”

Building a Movement: The Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action

Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action produced artwork and writings devoted to nuclear disarmament. Gound Zero Cover Art, Ground Zero, 1984. Courtesy University of Washington, Special Collections.

Ground Zero's location next to Bangor Naval Base served as an ideal location for White Train protesters. What is Ground Zero? Ground Zero, 1979. Courtesy University of Washington, Special Collections.

Ground Zero led an extensive campaign against the White Trains. They encouraged volunteers across the country to gather information on the White Train's whereabouts. What You Can Do in the Tracks Campaign, Ground Zero, 1984. Courtesy University of Washington, Special Collections.

In the late 1970s, the Douglasses created Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, a grassroots organization devoted to nuclear disarmament. With the help of Ground Zero, the Douglasses purchased land next to Bangor Naval Base. The house on the land served as a base for dozens of volunteers who organized protests against the Trident submarines and the White Trains.

Ground Zero regularly featured the White Trains in their publications. Not Whether But How We Stop the Train, Ground Zero, 1984. Courtesy University of Washington, Special Collections.

Ground Zero connected the White Trains to nuclear holocaust. An Invitation, Ground Zero. Courtesy University of Washington, Special Collections.

Ground Zero in Action

The Douglasses and Ground Zero not only organized protests on the railway tracks. They coordinated many volunteers throughout the country. These volunteers, who noted when the White Trains arrived and left their towns, reported back to Jim Douglass. They then use this information to estimate when the trains would arrive at Bangor Naval base and organized sit-ins on the tracks to meet the trains.

October '82 through January '83: SLC Sighting: Monday afternoon, Oct 11 [2 containers]. Portland sighting: Thursday morning, Oct 14 - 10:10 A.M. Bangor arrival: Friday afternoon, 1:11 P.M.

Color-coded routes show which member of Ground Zero was responsible for watching over which railway lines. Tracks Campaign, Jim Douglass, 1983. Courtesy University of Washington, Special Collections.

The White Train Trial

Over the course of Ground Zero's protests, local police arrested hundreds of protestors. They pressed trespassing, and even conspiracy charges, on over a dozen of them. This was not an easy time to be a White Train protestor. Many members of the public, law enforcement, and government officials opposed the protestors.

At the height of the Ground Zero protests, police arrested hundreds of protesters. 9 arrested near Bangor in protest against N-weapons train, The Seattle Times, 1984. Courtesy University of Washington, Special Collections.

Opposition towards the protesters was common during this period. Letters to the Editor, The Sun, 1986. Courtesy University of Washington, Special Collections.

Many people ridiculed these protestors as unpatriotic or naïve. But the protestors had some supporters too. One source of support came from Suzanne Smith, one of the jurors on a 1985 trial against 19 White Train protestors.

Ground Zero found some supporters as well. Juror on Board, The Seattle Times, 1985. Courtesy University of Washington, Special Collections.

Carol M Ostrom, a Seattle Times reporter, described Suzanne Smith’s experience as a juror:

“Before the trial, [Suzanne Smith] said, she was a conservative ‘squeaky-clean’ type with a ‘live and let live’ philosophy. But now, she feels a responsibility heavy on her shoulders. ‘I can’t just personally sit in my flower garden and not physically try to help others understand what I have discovered,’ she said. And what is that? ‘We should all become supporters of peace, I don’t mean the peace of Kitsap County, I mean the peace of the world.’ During the trial, she listened intently. She remembers one defendant, a lifelong Christian, saying she felt she was obeying a universal law, the law of God. And she remembers the Catholic priest saying that the role of a Christian was never meant to be easy.”

Suzanne Smith and the rest of the jury voted to acquit the 19 protestors. The movement celebrated this significant victory.

The White Trains became a powerful rallying symbol for the movement. Even the lead prosecutor of the trial, Dan Clem, warned that the protestors could use the trial to gain more supporters. It was likely someone in the government worried that a guilty verdict could legitimize the cause of Ground Zero.

Kitsap County's action regarding Bangor protesters puzzles U.S. attorney, The Progress, 1986. Courtesy University of Washington, Special Collections.

Nonviolent Civil Disobedience and Christian Love

The Douglasses embraced nonviolent civil disobedience and Christian love. Dorothy Day and other Catholic social justice activists inspired Jim while he received a Jesuit education at Santa Clara University. The Douglasses felt it was their duty as Christians to stop nuclear armament. For them, nuclear armament equaled genocide.

Christian social justice and nonviolent civil disobedience were the guiding principles in Ground Zero's message and action. Why We Prayed On the Tracks, Ground Zero, 1981. Courtesy University of Washington, Special Collections.

The End of the White Trains and the Future of the Nuclear Disarmament Movement

The Department of Energy stopped using the White Trains by 1987 and deployed armored trucks to transport the Trident weapons. The Department of Energy claimed that Ground Zero caused a national security risk by locating the trains and their routes. Ground Zero disbanded, but Jim and Shelley Douglass moved to Alabama where they continued to work in the racial justice movement.

The White Train Demonstrations, Aaron Miller, 1997. Courtesy University of Washington, Special Collections.

In a 1997 research project, Aaron Miller asked Jim Douglass if Ground Zero accomplished its goals. Although Jim admitted that Ground Zero did not end nuclear weapons, he claimed the movement still had a profound impact:

"The rise of Gorbachev rather than a hard-line Soviet leader would have been impossible without the U.S. and European disarmament movements. They helped create the climate which encouraged Soviet moderation. Together with the rise of nonviolent dissent within the Eastern powers, the nuclear disarmament movement of the [1970s] and [1980s] laid the groundwork for the end of the Cold War and the eventual breakup of the Soviet Union.

But this movement will have to be re-created as a multi-racial, justice-and-peace movement, founded on nonviolence, if it is to transform the U.S. and the world security system."

With the end of the Cold War in 1991 and, along with it, the specter of nuclear armageddon, Ground Zero disbanded and the Douglass's moved to Alabama to work in the U.S. racial justice movement. Yet with the rise in global tension over the past few years, Jim's words resonate now. How can people today, across racial and national lines, work to transform the world security system for justice and peace? The "White Trains" symbolized the urgency of armageddon to the Ground Zero protesters 40 years ago. What is our "White Train" symbol today?

Supporters come from across the country. Courtesy University of Washington, Special Collections.

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