“I am embarrassed. We are all embarrassed. We Americans have guided our destinies so clumsily, with all the world watching, that we now must protect ourselves against our own government and our own industries.
“Not to do so would be suicide. We have discovered a brand-new method for committing suicide-family style, Reverend Jim Jones style, and by the millions. What is this method? To say nothing and do nothing about what some of our businessmen and military men are doing with the most unstable substances and the most persistent poisons to be found anywhere in the universe.
“The people who play with such chemicals are so dumb!
“They are also vicious. How vicious it is of them to tell us as little as possible about the hideousness of nuclear weapons and power plants!
“And, among the dumb and vicious people, who jeopardizes all life on earth with hearts so light? I suggest to you that it is those who will lie for the nuclear industries, or who will teach their executives how to lie convincingly - for a fee. I speak of certain lawyers and communicators, and all public relations experts. The so-called profession of public relations, an American invention, stands entirely disgraced today.
“The lies we have been fed about nuclear energy have be as cunningly handcrafted as the masterpieces of Benvenuto Cellini. They have been a damned sight better built, I must say, than the atomic energy plants themselves.
“I say to you that makers of such lies are filthy little monkeys. I hate them. The may think they are cute. They are not cute. They stink. If we let them, they will kill everything on this lovely blue-green planet with their rebuttals to what we say here today - with their vicious, stupid lies.”
Kurt Vonnegut
Anti-nuke rally Washington DC
May 6, 1979