Video: 'President Kennedy Signs Test Ban Treaty (1963)'
(Monday, October 7, 1963, 10:00 a.m. EDT; during the Cold War) — U.S. President John F. Kennedy formally ratified the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) today, calling it “a clear and honorable national commitment” to the cause of man’s survival.
Kennedy, in a ten-minute ceremony in the historic Treaty Room of the White House, said the agreement to ban all but underground nuclear tests was “great with promise” and marks a beginning that could lead to further East-West agreements.
“If this treaty fails,” Kennedy said, “it will not be our doing, and even If it fails, we shall not regret that we made this commitment.”
The president said the United States “can and must keep our vigilance” an obvious reference to his earlier promise that the nation would be in a position to quickly resume atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons should some other power violate the treaty.
Video: 'October 7, 1963 - President John F. Kennedy's Remarks at the Signing of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty'
With 16 government officials and members of Congress looking on, Kennedy used 17 fountain pens to sign four copies of the formal Instrument of ratification. As he did this, he declared: “As President of the United States and with the advice and consent of the Senate, I now sign the instruments of ratification of this treaty.”
The Senate consented to ratification of the treaty by a 80-19 vote on Sept. 24, 1963. Among those who witnessed the signing and later got fountain pen souvenir was Undersecretary of State AvereH Harriman, the representative at Moscow negotiations last summer which led to drafting of the treaty by the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union.
More than 100 other nations have added their signatures to the treaty.
Kennedy, reading a formal statement before ratifying the agreement, said that the first two decades of the age of nuclear energy “were full of fear.” He said that, because of the treaty, “today the fear is a little less and hope a little greater.”
Video: 'PTBT |Partial Test Ban Treaty|'
While emphasizing the limited nature of the treaty, Kennedy expressed hope that it would be the forerunner of other, broader agreements which, he said, may be more difficult to achieve.
Kennedy said the treaty, “great as it is with promise, can survive only if it has from others the determined support in letter and in spirit which I hereby pledge in behalf of the United States.”
Declaring that “this small step toward safety can be followed by others longer and less limited, if also harder in the taking,” Kennedy said. “With our courage and understanding enlarged by this achievement, let us press onward in quest of man’s essential desire for peace.”
The White House said the limited ban would go into effect Thursday, Oct. 10, 1963, when the three copies are placed in official depositories in Washington, London and Moscow..
