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John B. OakesJohn B. Oakes
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Oakes:

Oh, I should say, very early on, yes. I guess the nuclear problem made me even more so, but I really do think the issue of environmental protection in the broadest sense is really, along with population control and along with nuclear control -- which of course as we've just said is part of the environmental thing -- are just about the most serious long-range problems affecting humanity; so I sure do think that a stand on environmental issues, if they include nuclear and population control -- I sort of consider this all one big major issue now -- would be quite enough to make me vote for or against a specific candidate.

And to bring it down to very practical politics, I've been a member of and a very small contributor to -- I mean, minuscule compared to what I would have liked to contribute -- to the one political organization that makes this the criterion, the League of Conservation Voters, which I was in on, almost from its beginning. I remember being at very early meetings of the LCV in Washington.

Q:

When did that begin?

Oakes:

It must have been -- it must be twenty-five years ago, I think in the '70s, I think.

Q:

We'll check it out.

Oakes:

I think twenty-five years ago, easily. I have been very much in favor of the non- partisan work the LCV has done right from the day it started. Would have been in the late '60s or early '70s, I think. I guess that's the best answer I can give.





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