Thomas Merton's remembering of pacific ideals embedded within the history and formation of Roman Catholic ecclesiology took place amid the escalating risk of a nuclear arms race during the late atmospheric nuclear testing phase of the Cold War. This essay argues that Merton, as an American Catholic author, privileged a moral logic over a political and military logic. He feared that nuclear weapons would destroy whole societies if they were ever used. The immediate context of Merton's nuclear fear needs to be understood within the context of the Soviets exploding the largest thermonuclear bomb of the Cold War in its Arctic proving grounds in October 1961 and, in response to the Soviets, the U.S. resumed atmospheric testing in April 1962. It was precisely because of his perception of escalating tensions and the risk of war that Merton believed the Roman Catholic Church had a moral duty within international relations to act as a moderating voice, almost as the spiritual equivalent of the United Nations, by speaking out against an escalating arms race. The American public were not unaware of Merton’s covert pacifist writings during his lifetime. Excavating this hidden history for a new generation of scholars is the focus of my study of the pacifist writings of Thomas Merton. This essay focuses on audience reception which is still an under-studied dimension of studies on the life and writings of Merton. I will explain how Merton became associated with the Breakthrough to Peace publishing project, why this project mattered to him, and how the publication was received by critics. This essay will highlight how contemporaries viewed Merton’s ideas on peace and war during the dangerous year of 1962.