War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Interview with Susan Dutson, 1987
Description:
Susan Dutson was publisher of the Millard County Chronicle Progress in Delta, Utah. In this interview, she describes her involvement in the public controversy over MX missile basing plans for Utah. The biggest problem she recalls about the project was the repeated lies told by the Air Force and others. While Gen. Guy Hecker was personally likeable, she found him to be "quite a salesman." Among her objections to the plan itself was that it would have closed off large portions of desert to the many local inhabitants who relied on the land and its resources for their living. She describes herself as deeply skeptical about the military's ability to manage such sophisticated technology, and says she was less frightened at the time over the potential dangers than angry at being considered "so insignificant." Overall, she found the two-year opposition effort exhausting and "devastating," but the lesson to be drawn was that "our rights still work."
