In early 1960, toward the end of the Eisenhower Republican administration, some American intellectuals, mostly academics or social service professionals, alarmed by the growing danger of nuclear war, began meeting to seek a solution and promote nuclear disarmament. It had become evident that America had no monopoly on nuclear bombs. Academy-based intellectuals had had little contact with policy makers and military officials in the Eisenhower years, and anyone proposing nuclear disarmament to that point had been accused of being Soviet agents or dupes. It was nearly impossible to get discussion of disarmament into America's consciousness, and the United States was so panicked about Soviet expansionism that all its policy responses to events in Europe, and of course Cuba, were belligerent.