Campaigning for a nuclear-free world

Not many people could lay claim to helping stop the Cold War. But in the case of University of Adelaide graduate and anti-nuclear activist Dr Helen Caldicott, it's not without some justification.

Dr Helen Caldicott takes her Hippocratic Oath pretty seriously. Almost two decades on from the end of the Cold War and 36 years since she took up the anti-nuclear cause, she is still fighting the fight.

"I can't not do it," she says. "I'm a paediatrician and I took the Hippocratic Oath and potentially all the world's children are my patients. We are not attending to the risks that confront us every second of every day. I'm worried for my children and my grandchildren and I'm extremely concerned about the continuation of life on the planet."

Dr Caldicott graduated from the University of Adelaide in Medicine in 1961, doing her internship and residency at the then Adelaide Children's Hospital.

In 1976 she moved to the United States where she was Instructor in Paediatrics at Harvard Medical School and on the staff of the Children's Hospital Medical Center.

Her anti-nuclear campaigning started in 1971 when she played a major role in Australian opposition to French atmospheric nuclear testing in the Pacific. Her life's work since then has been dedicated to educating others about medical hazards of nuclear power and the potential threat of nuclear war.

In the US she co-founded Physicians for Social Responsibility and led the movement mobilising Americans to oppose the nuclear arms race.

"I, and others, started medical associations all over the world concerned about the threat of nuclear war. We recruited 23,000 doctors in America and tens of thousands in other countries," Dr Caldicott says.

The international umbrella group for these organisations, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985. Dr Caldicott also founded the Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament.

Over the years she has been awarded many prizes in recognition of her work - among them 19 honorary doctorates, the inaugural Australian Peace Prize in 2006 and the Lannan Foundation's Prize for Cultural Freedom.

She has addressed many influential conferences and audiences, but perhaps none more significant than an hour's meeting with President Ronald Reagan.

"At the time I thought I hadn't influenced him but, retrospectively, I believe I did," Dr Caldicott says. "He mentions me in his diaries. He started working with Gorbachev to bring the Cold War to an end. They formed a liaison and, over a weekend in Reykjavik, they almost agreed to eradicate nuclear weapons." The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty followed in 1987.

Dr Caldicott is Founder and President of the Washington-based organisation Nuclear Policy Research Institute, continuing with her public education campaign on the ongoing threat of nuclear war and the dangers of nuclear power.

"I have two more books I want to write - an update of If you love this planet (1992, W.W. Norton) and the last one is my opus really, Why men kill. If we don't stop killing, if we still think war is appropriate, this planet will not survive."■

STORY ROBYN MILLS