Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1180196
17 THE CAPITOL DOME of democracy must have been sources of inspiration to draw him back over two decades later. After spending years in his beloved California, Cranston returned to Cap- itol Hill as a United States senator representing California (fig. 1). Of the 24 years he served in the Senate (1969– 1993), he was elected as the Democratic whip for 14. His office initially was located in the Russell Senate Office Building and subsequently moved to the Hart Senate Office Building. As whip, he had the privilege of having an additional leadership office in the Capitol with a direct view of the Washington Monument. In 1984, he ran on a peace and jobs platform but was unsuccessful as a Dem- ocratic candidate for president. At his core, Cranston believed passionately that nuclear weapons were imprac- tical, unacceptably risky, and unworthy of civilization. Working tirelessly to abolish nuclear weapons globally until his death, he founded the Global Security Institute (GSI) in 1999. GSI continues Cranston's life-long mission to create a nuclear-free, just, humane, and peaceful planet for this and future generations. 2 A little-known and long-forgotten episode sparked Cranston's dedication to public service 80 years ago. As a 24-year-old foreign correspondent recently returned from Europe, he made a stunning discovery about Adolf Hitler's plans for Europe. He took immediate action to expose the full measure of Adolf Hitler's evil ideology laid out in Mein Kampf. In response, Hitler's American publisher filed a copyright infringement lawsuit. Ironically, the U.S. Copyright Office, where Cranston registered his application for copyright in 1939, was then housed in the Adams Building—where Cranston worked for the OFF during WWII (fig. 2). Fig. 2. This c. 1939 aerial photograph of Capitol Hill includes the two Library of Congress buildings then in existence. The domed Thomas Jefferson Building appears below the Capitol and its grounds. The John Adams Building, then known as the Annex, appears just below it; it housed the U.S. Copyright Office and, later, Archibald MacLeish's Office of Facts and Figures (OFF).