Jan. 15, 1962 - Several thousand women from Eastern cities picketed the White House today to protest nuclear fallout. The pickets, soaked by heavy rain, were seen by President Kennedy from a White House window. He said later that he knew what they were trying to say to him. “I think these women are extremely earnest,” he said, “and that they are concerned, as we all are, at the possibility of nuclear war. They talked this morning to Mr. Adrian Fisher, deputy director of our Disarmament Agency. We stressed the effort we were going to put into the disarmament conference in March.” “I saw the ladies myself,” he continued. “I recognized why they were here. There was a great number of them. It was in the rain. I understood what they were attempting to say, and their message was received.” Mr. Kennedy said that the most disappointing event during his first year in office was failure to get an agreement on a nuclear test ban.
