Back then we were all nuclear 'activists' to some degree.
He became a hero when he became a free speech activist by creating and releasing PGP (and then facing retribution from the DoD and DoJ). Without that conviction we may not have any person to person encryption now.
FYI: even a few cypherpunks were unwilling to take those same risks. Most of us made our opinions clear by publishing our public key on the mailing list.