What’s come to be know as the peace symbol, is still referred to in the UK as the CND logo, representing the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Recent articles about the origin of the graphic, on the occasion of its 50th birthday, have explained that the designer conceived of a circle to enclose the semaphore signal letters N and D.

Perhaps this has cleared up what some, including myself, thought they saw in the graphic. To those unfamiliar with the naval signal code, the CND symbol was explained as a C juxtaposed against a D, forming the circle and vertical divide, with a lower case n in the middle, thus CND. It turns out that the peace sign radiants, at the hour marks of 4, 6, 8, and 12, correspond to semaphore flag positions, but which? Examination of the signaling alphabet reveals an ambiguity. The same combination can be achieved with the letters A and V, or V and A since we don’t know which precedes the other. So too, G and K, K and G, D and N, and Nuclear and Disarmament.