 The publication provided a forum for dissent concerning the major issues of the period, particularly the civil defense - thermonuclear war fright and various cold war events, the cybernation issue in its early phases, and the growing focus on a war in Vietnam with the transition from the Kennedy to the Johnson administrations.Editorially it sought to be critical of dominant foreign and defense policy in the mold of its editorial board, while the principal editor, Roger Hagan, considered independent journalist I. F. Stone his role model.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.