Limited Test Ban Treaty (1963)

Treaty that prohibited the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, underwater, and in outer space. The treaty, formally known as the Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapons Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space, and Under Water, was signed in Moscow in July 1963, after six years of difficult negotiations and volatile U.S.–Soviet relations.

Concerns about the dangers of radioactive fallout had brought the first public demands for a nuclear test ban in the United States in 1954–55. As protests intensified, the government was pressured to respond. Although President Dwight D. Eisenhower had come to office with the desire to slow the pace of the nuclear arms race, he did not support a test ban until 1957. His [Page 433]concerns about weapons testing were twofold: the economic cost of the escalating arms race and the health dangers of radioactive fallout. As early as 1956, the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain had agreed that it was to their mutual benefit to ban atmospheric testing.

Test-ban negotiations among the three nations began in October 1958 in Geneva, Switzerland. In March of that year, the Soviets had initiated a moratorium on all nuclear-weapon testing. Although both the United States and the Soviet Union had tested weapons in 1957, the United States and Great Britain joined the moratorium.

The negotiations faltered on the issue of verification. The United States insisted that inspection procedures be instituted so that representatives of the participating nations could verify that the terms of the treaty were being upheld. The Soviet Union refused verification procedures, however, on the basis that inspections would encourage espionage. Although the negotiations continued, little progress was made.

In May 1960, the Soviet Union shot down an American U2 spy plane that was flying over Soviet territory, confirming its claim that it needed protection from U.S. espionage. As a result, the negotiations deteriorated further. Following the Berlin Wall crisis in August 1961, the hopes for a treaty diminished even more when the Soviet Union discontinued its moratorium and conducted nuclear tests in the atmosphere in September. Then, in January 1962, when the Soviets proposed a treaty without verification, the talks came to an impasse and did not reconvene at that time.

In the fall of 1961, President John F. Kennedy resumed U.S. underground testing of nuclear weapons, and in April 1962, atmospheric testing was resumed. However, the seriousness of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, which brought the United States and the Soviet Union close to nuclear war, changed the climate of the negotiations. Both nations were now more amenable to creating a treaty, although the Soviets still balked on the issue of verification.

In February 1963, the United States agreed to scale down its demands for verification, and in July the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain convened for talks in Moscow. Kennedy sent former U.S. ambassador Averell Harriman to the Soviet Union to speed the treaty to a conclusion.

When it became clear that agreement on a comprehensive, or total, test ban was not possible, negotiators moved toward a limited test ban that would enable each nation to conduct underground tests. On July 25, all parties agreed, and on August 5, 1963, the treaty was signed in Moscow. The United States Senate ratified the limited test ban treaty on September 24, 1963, and the provisions went into effect on October 19. Since then, more than 115 nations have signed the limited test ban agreement.

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