Nation: What’s in a Symbol

American Opinion magazine, published by John Birch Society Founder Robert Welch, compared the familiar peace symbol to an anti-Christian “broken cross” carried by the Moors when they invaded Spain in the 8th century. A recent national Republican newsletter noted an ominous similarity to a symbol used by the Nazis in World War II; some experts say it was a letter in an ancient Nordic alphabet. Any resemblance, however, is probably coincidental. The peace design was devised in Britain for the first Ban-the-Bomb Aldermaston march in 1958. The lines inside the circle stand for “nuclear disarmament.” They are a stylized combination of the semaphore signal for N (flags in an upsidedown V) and D (flags held vertically, one above the signaler’s head and the other at his feet).

Now the peace hieroglyphic is ubiquitous. It has appeared hanging around the necks of G.I.s in Viet Nam; on a fast-selling line of women’s dresses; fashioned into belt buckles, cuff links, rings and tie clasps. Lately, two firms have tried separately to register the symbol as a commercial trademark (the U.S. Patent Office has ruled that out). An Alexandria, Va., firm is now marketing a clip-on typewriter key bearing the symbol. One prospective customer is Sally Sanders, a reporter for the Redding, Conn., Pilot. She plans to type it at the end of her copy instead of the traditional “30.”