A Historical Rundown

• 1792: Benjamin Banneker, noted African American scientist, surveyor, and editor and Benjamin RUSH, doctor, educator and signer of the Declaration of Independence suggested the blue print for an Office of Peace.

• 1935, 1937, and 1939: Senator Matthew Neely of West Virginia introduced bills calling for a Department of Peace.

• 1943: Senator Alexander Wiley of Wisconsin spoke on the Senate floor calling for the United  
States of America to be the first government on the world to have a Secretary of Peace.  

• 1945: Representative Louis Ludlow of Indiana introduced a bill that would establish a Department of Peace.

• 1947 Representative Everett Dirksen of Illinois introduced a bill for "A Peace Division in the State Department".

• 1955-1968: Eighty-five bills calling for a Department of Peace were introduced in the House or the Senate.

• 1969:: Senator Vance Hartke of Indiana and Representative Seymour Halpern of New York introduced legislation in the House of Representatives and the Senate to create a Department of Peace.

• 2001 and 2003: Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio introduced legislation in the House of Representatives to create a Department of Peace.

• September 2005: Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and Senator Mark Dayton of Minnesota introduced legislation in the House of Representatives and the Senate to create a Department of Peace and Nonviolence.

• February 2005: Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio introduced legislation in the House of Representatives to create a Department of Peace and Nonviolence. 

• February 2007:  Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, with over 60 co-sponsors, introduces H.R. 808 to create a Department of Peace and Nonviolence

• Right Now: Department of Peace grassroots activist groups exist in about 300 congressional districts in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam

The New York Times
February 7, 1969

WASHINGTON Feb 6 - President Nixon declared himself at his news conference to be strongly for peace but strongly against creating a federal department of peace. [Question 12 page 16]
 
The Presidents comments came as 16 Senators and 59 Representatives sponsored legislation in Congress call for such a department. A procession of entertainers including, Joanne Woodward, the actress, and her husband Paul Newman, the actor, attended ceremonies in a Senate hearing room that preceded the introduction of the bill.

Senator Vance Hartke, democrat from Indiana, said, "I have been told by people in high places in this administration that they are for the bill."

The President disagreed openly with those “people in high places. Noting that one of his study groups had recommended a department of peace, Mr. Nixon said:

"I consider the Department of State to be a department of peace. I consider the Department of Defense to be a department of peace, and I can assure you that at the White House Level in the National Security Council that is where we coordinate all of our efforts towards peace.

"I think that putting one department over here as a department of peace would tend to indicate that the other departments were engaged in other activities that were not interested in peace."