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In
1962 Pauling protested in front of the White House. That evening,
he and his wife dined with President and Mrs. Kennedy. Mrs. Kennedy
shared this anecdote, "When Caroline saw you out there she
asked, 'What has Daddy done wrong now?'"
On
October 10th, 1963 President John F. Kennedy and representatives
from Great Britain and the Soviet Union signed the partial nuclear
test ban treaty that Ava Helen and Linus had championed. On that
same day, the Nobel Committee announced that Pauling had won the
Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.
In
the Nobel Presentation speech, Gunnar Jahn, chairman of the Nobel
Committee, presented Pauling with the award stating, "since
1946 (Linus Carl Pauling) has campaigned ceaselessly, not only
against the testing of nuclear weapons, not only against the spread
of these armaments, not only against their very use, but against
all warfare as means of solving international conflicts."
Life Magazine described Pauling's honor as a "Weird Insult
from Norway."
The Caltech Chemistry Department did not hold
a celebration for Pauling, but the Department of Biology did.
Pauling felt this department was more sympathetic because they
understood the damage done by fallout.
Pauling felt the university neither understood,
nor supported, his peace activism. He left Caltech. In 1963 he
joined the staff of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions;
this allowed him to divide his interests between chemistry and
world peace. |
