The Environmental Debate, Third Edition

The Heyday of the Environmental Movement, 1960–1979 123

Document 102: John F. Kennedy on the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (1963)

During the early years of the cold war, the race between the United States and the Soviet Union to develop

and build up their nuclear arsenals resulted in numerous nuclear weapons tests. From the start there was

concern about the effects of radiation from nuclear testing, but it was not until 1959, when the relative

nuclear position of the United States seemed sufficiently strong, that President Dwight Eisenhower

proposed a treaty to limit nuclear testing. Four years of negotiations were required before President John

F. Kennedy was able to transmit the treaty to the Senate. The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963, among the

United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom, banned nuclear testing in the atmosphere, in

outer space, and in water.

Concern about radioactive fallout from nuclear weapons testing was a driving force behind the development

of the environmental movement, providing the impetus for the formation of such organizations as the Union

of Concerned Scientists and Green-peace.

This treaty advances, though it does not
assure, world peace; and it will inhibit, though it
does not prohibit, the nuclear arms race.

• While it does not prohibit the United
  States and the Soviet Union from engag-
  ing in all nuclear tests, it will radically
  limit the testing in which both nations
  would otherwise engage.


• While it will not halt the production or
  reduce the existing stockpiles of nuclear
  weapons, it is a first step toward limiting
  the nuclear arms race.


• While it will not end the threat of nu-
  clear war or outlaw the use of nuclear
  weapons, it can reduce world tensions,
  open a way to further agreements and
  thereby help to ease the threat of war.
  
  
  • While it cannot wholly prevent the spread
    of nuclear arms to nations not now pos-
    sessing them, it prohibits assistance to
    testing in these environments by others;
    it will be signed by many other potential
    testers; and it is thus an important open-
    ing wedge in our effort to “get the genie
    back in the bottle.”
    ...The treaty will curb the pollution of our
    atmosphere. While it does not assure the world
    that it will be forever free from the fears and
    dangers of radioactive fallout from atmos-
    pheric tests, it will greatly reduce the numbers
    and dangers of such tests.
  
  
  
  

Source: “Special Message to the Senate on the Nuclear Test

Ban Treaty. August 8, 1963,” in Public Papers of the Presidents

of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1963 (Washington,

D.C:. Government Printing Office, 1964, pp. 622-23.