There’s been a request, showing up on mailing lists and some weblogs, for people to send a half cup of uncooked rice, along with a verse from the New Testament about feeding one’s enemies, to the White House in protest of the incipient war.
NB: Thanks to Adina for recommending the extra comma in the previous paragraph. I don’t think the New Testament advocated feeding one’s enemies to the White House.
The message goes on to quote a passage from a book by one David Albert, about how a similar protest kept Eisenhower from going nuclear during a fight over a couple of islands in the Taiwan Straits
A little research confirms that there was such a crisis. But the articles don’t mention the role of the protest. And the book by David Albert exists.
Still, I’m skeptical that these events occurred the way the activists describe them. The Federation of American Scientists, not known as a hotbed of Conservatism, reports that Eisenhower was against using nuclear weapons, while the Joint Chiefs and Secretary of State Dulles urged the President to use nukes on Peoples’ Liberation Army forces attempting to take the islands.
So, if you have a copy of David Albert’s People Power, can you check to see if it even mentions the rice protests?
Update: Snopes says the rice not nukes campaign did not occur, however it appears it was confused with a similar campaign to get the US to unconditionally supply wheat to China.
