The Sayings of Caldicott

Anti-nukes adore Helen Caldicott. She travels the world to spread the message that nuclear energy is poisoning the planet. People who don't know anything about the subject celebrate her tireless efforts. Movie stars shower her with money.

On the other hand, Ms. Caldicott has had no training in epidemiology or health physics. She never has belonged to professional organizations devoted to these subjects and she never has published in a peer-reviewed journal.

The National Center for Public Policy Research assembled some of her more notable quotes, as follows:

"That's the argument Hitler probably used when he built the gas ovens -- jobs. " - Caldicott quoted in the Sacramento Bee, April 26, 1988, equating support for defense industry jobs with support for the Holocaust

"The support for that massacre (U.S. liberation of Kuwait) was skin-deep. People felt oppressed by their government was doing and the country was lost... That whole ordeal in the gulf was a practice round for nuclear war. It was obscene beyond belief." - Caldicott quoted by Dana Tims of the Oregonian, November 13, 1991

"Scientists who work for nuclear power or nuclear energy have sold their soul to the devil. They are either dumb, stupid, or highly compromised... Free enterprise really means rich people get richer. And they have the freedom to exploit and psychologically rape their fellow human beings in the process... Capitalism is destroying the earth. Cuba is a wonderful country. What Castro's done is superb." - Caldicott quoted by Dixy Lee Ray in her book Trashing the Planet (1990)

"As it is, life in America amounts to a corporate dictatorship." - Caldicott quoted by Dana Tims of the Oregonian , November 13, 1991

"At a Beverly Hills fund-raiser... nuclear arms opponent Helen Caldicott gave a controversial speech in which she likened Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to Jesus Christ and suggested the Department of Defense be renamed the 'Department of Annihilation.' " - Amy Chance of the Sacramento Bee, April 26, 1988

"Every time you turn on an electric light, you are making another brainless baby." - Caldicott quoted by environmentalist Theodore Roszak in the Oregonian, June 14, 1992

"[Caldicott] said that if principles crystalized during the Nuremberg Trials at the end of World War II were applied to allied prosecution of the Gulf War, hangings of the U.S. military brass would be in order." - Dana Tims quoted in the Oregonian, November 13, 1993, after conducting a telephone interview with Caldicott

Here's the scary part. Ms. Caldicott is a leading light, an intellectual paragon, among anti-nukes.