JFK SIGNS LIMITED NUCLEAR TEST BAN TREATY AT WHITE HOUSE
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) President John F. Kennedy signed the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in the Treaty Room at the White House on October 7, 1963. The treaty would ultimately be signed by 71 nations.
President Kennedy said...
"Today the fear is a little less and the hope a little more."
The LNTBT banned all nuclear testing except underground. It had been agreed to in Moscow on July 25, 1963 after 12 days of negotiations. President Kennedy and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev sought to reduce tensions in the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
John F. Kennedy believed the successful negotiation of the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty to be his greatest accomplishment as President of the United States.
JFK+50 NOTE
The National Archives says that in accepting the treaty, "the nuclear powers accepted as a common goal 'an end to the contamination of man's environment by radioactive substances.'"
SOURCES
"JFK Signs Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty," JFK+50, October 7, 2011, www.jfk50.blogspot.com/
"Nuclear Test Ban Treaty," John Fitzgerald Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, www.jfklibrary.org/
"Test Ban Treaty (1963)," National Archives, www.archives.gov/
