"He crawled out of the basement and thought hewas the last boy on earth. His entire city hadbeen blown away. He told me that unless we canreverse the arms race, this will inevitably happento America as well--that some American will comeout of his basement and find his city blown away."
Anti-Star Wars Activism
Taking the prediction to heart, Kaku has spentthe last year and a half helping to circulate ananti-Star Wars petition among scientists.Initiated in May of '85 by John Kogut, a physicsprofessor at the University of Illinois, thedocument comes, Kogut says, "in direct response tothe government's attempt to militarize science."
Two years ago, according to Kogut, the federalgovernment made a nationwide overture tophysicists at major universities to solicit helpon the Star Wars program. The petition, which nowbears the signatures of 6500 Americanscientists--including 15 Nobel Prizewinners--states that the signer will notparticipate in any Star Wars research.
Kaku, who has outspokenly maintained that StarWars cannot function as a defensive system butonly as a first-strike weapon, joined Kogut andformer Attorney-General Ramsey Clark late lastyear when the trio presented the petition to theUnited Nations.
The American response to the Star Wars boycotthas already surpassed the expectations of thecirculators, who have also obtained the signaturesof more than 500 British and 2000 Japanesescientists.
"We didn't realize we were tapping into amotherload of sentiment against the Star Warsprogram. So great is the unease that physicistsare readily signing up," Kaku says.
Kaku's post-college role of political activisthas often led him to take an anti-governmentstance, as he did at the "Peace, Jobs and Justice"rally held on Boston Common in November. "ThePentagon does not want to destroy Russia; it wantsto run Russia," the scientist told crowd of 2000."It wants to shut Russia up so we can invadeNicaragua," he said.
"The real gap of vulnerability is the gapbetween the ears of Ronald Reagan," Kaku saidthen. "If his lips move, you know he's lying.