![]() ![]() With a strong, public push from Kennedy, the U.S. Late on July 25, after just 12 days of talks, the negotiators concluded work on the Limited Test Ban Treaty. Joint Chiefs of Staff and from key senators, as well as the insistence of the Soviets on a less frequent inspection system for a comprehensive ban, the negotiators focused on achieving the limited test ban treaty. With growing resistance to the test ban concept from the U.S. negotiating team, led by veteran diplomat Averell Harriman, went to Moscow for talks on the limited test ban and, if possible, the long-sought comprehensive test ban. In a statement in July 1963, the Soviet leader, who had previously insisted on a comprehensive ban, accepted for the first time a ban on atmospheric testing, which did not require on-site inspections or monitoring stations. Kennedy’s address was published in full by the Soviet newspapers Izvestia and Pravda and welcomed by Khrushchev himself. The historical and documentary record suggests that Kennedy’s June 10 address had a profound effect on Khrushchev’s thinking on the test ban issue and about Kennedy. He announced that the United States “does not propose to conduct nuclear tests in the atmosphere so long as other states do not do so,” and he suggested that this declaration could be codified through a binding treaty. On June 10, Kennedy sought to break the impasse with a strategy for unilateral but reciprocated initiatives. and Soviet negotiators remained divided over the issue of on-site inspections and verification. In a March 21, 1963, interview, Kennedy said, “ersonally I am haunted by the feeling that by 1970, unless we are successful, there may be 10 nuclear powers instead of 4, and by 1975, 15 or 20.” ĭespite renewed efforts to negotiate a test ban in early 1963 and conciliatory offers from each side, U.S. Kennedy viewed the nuclear test ban treaty-ideally a comprehensive ban-as an essential first step toward U.S.-Soviet disarmament and a barrier against the spread of nuclear weapons. The speech offered a vision of hope and cautioned against defeatism.Īt its core, the speech offered a revised formula for achieving progress on restricting nuclear weapons testing, a goal that had eluded President Dwight Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Khrushchev for more than six years. Using simple, eloquent phrases, Kennedy praised the Soviet people for their achievements and explained the urgent necessity of pursuing a strategy for peace to avoid the horrific dangers of nuclear war, including renewed steps on nuclear arms control and a hotline for urgent communications between Moscow and Washington. It was prepared with his assistant Ted Sorenson, without the usual interagency review process. Kennedy’s June 10 address was courageous because it was conciliatory at a time of high tension and grave risks. I think we should give priority to questions relating to the proliferation of nuclear weapons…and to the great effort for a nuclear test ban.” Kennedy, writing back the same day, said that “perhaps now…we can make some real progress in this vital field. In a letter to Kennedy on October 28, 1962, as the crisis came to a close, Khrushchev wrote, “We should like to continue the exchange of views on the prohibition of atomic and thermonuclear weapons, on general disarmament and other problems relating to the relaxation of international tension.” Kennedy’s “Strategy of Peace” address delivered 50 years ago on June 10 on the campus of American University in Washington.Ĭoming just months after the 1962 Cuban missile crisis drove home the risks of an unbridled nuclear arms race and the dangers of a direct superpower conflict, the speech was intended to send an unambiguous signal to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev that the United States sought to “avert those confrontations which bring an adversary to a choice of either a humiliating defeat or nuclear war,” as Kennedy phrased it in the speech.ĭuring and after the Cuban missile crisis, Kennedy and Khrushchev exchanged letters expressing the need to “step back from the danger,” as Kennedy put it, by making progress on arms control. presidents have delivered dozens of addresses on international peace and security, but few have been as profound or consequential as John F. For a free sample of a feature article as our print and electronic subscribers receive it, check out this month's Looking Back: JFK's American University Speech Echoes Through Time by Daryl G. ![]()
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