The Illusions They Carried: Nuclear War, Henry Dakin, and Bridging the Gap to Peace in the Cold War

Abstract In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the threat of nuclear war dominated foreign policy making in the Soviet Union and the United States. Consideration of a first strike nuclear attack moved from a secondary position among high-ranking government officials to a primary place of deliberation. This article argues that not everyone accepted the fear and suspicion that engulfed the two superpowers. Acting outside official administrative structures, Henry Saltonstall Dakin, a prominent San Francisco philanthropist, was one of these people. Operating behind the scenes, supporting innovators and risk-takers, and challenging the political status quo, Dakin was, in one of his associate’s words, “the patron of citizen diplomacy,” the person whose encouragement and financial support served to establish a vision of a common humanity during the darkest period of the Cold War.