Strategic Trust: The Making of a Nuclear Free Palau

From 1982 to 1996 award-winning filmmakers Mary Beth Brangan & James Heddle documented on film and video unfolding events in the fledgling island nation of Palau. When Palau's voters made it the first nation in history to adopt a nuclear free, green constitution, Washington's war planners saw it as 'the threat of a good example.' Palau became the poster child for the growing Nuclear Free Pacific movement and a cause celebre for the global nuclear free zone movement. The 10-year-long manipulation of the electoral process the U.S. then unleashed to force the rollback of Palau's nuclear ban became a text book case for subversion of the democratic process in developing countries...and at home. Their experiences covering this story made the filmmakers life-long advocates of election integrity.

This documentary chronicles the growing nuclear-free zone movement of the 1980s, in which cities and regions around the world voted to oppose nuclear weapons production and deployment. Through interviews, campaign footage, and examples from local initiatives, the film examines how grassroots activism transformed anti-nuclear sentiment into political action.

Covers the Compact of Free Association, hearings at the United Nations and the US Congress, US military interests, nuclear free zones, the IPSECO power plant scandal, and the suicide of Palauan President Lazarus Salii. Seen from the point of view of the Palauans' struggle for a democratic and fair solution to these political difficulties.