Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
The Limited Test Ban Treaty (LTBT) is a treaty prohibiting all test detonations of nuclear weapons except underground. It was developed both to slow the arms race (nuclear testing was, at the time, necessary for continued nuclear weapon advancements), and to stop the excessive release of nuclear fallout into the planet's atmosphere. It was signed and ratified by the governments of the Soviet Union and United Kingdom and the United States in 1963.
It is officially known as the treaty banning nuclear weapon tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water, but is often abbreviated as the Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT), Limited Test Ban Treaty (LTBT), or Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (NTBT) - although the latter also refers to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. It was signed by the governments of the Soviet Union (represented by Andrei Gromyko), the United Kingdom (represented by Lord Home) and the United States (represented by Dean Rusk), named the "Original Parties", at Moscow on August 5, 1963 before being opened for signature by other countries. It was ratified by the U.S. Senate on September 24, 1963 by a vote of 80 to 19. The treaty went into effect on October 10, 1963.
Read more about Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty: Background, Negotiations, Signatories
Famous quotes containing the words partial, nuclear, test, ban and/or treaty:
“America is hard to see.
Less partial witnesses than he
In book on book have testified
They could not see it from outside....”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Language is as real, as tangible, in our lives as streets, pipelines, telephone switchboards, microwaves, radioactivity, cloning laboratories, nuclear power stations.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“[17th-century] Puritans were the first modern parents. Like many of us, they looked on their treatment of children as a test of their own self-control. Their goal was not to simply to ensure the child’s duty to the family, but to help him or her make personal, individual commitments. They were the first authors to state that children must obey God rather than parents, in case of a clear conflict.”
—C. John Sommerville (20th century)
“It’s red hot, mate. I hate to think of this sort of book getting in the wrong hands. As soon as I’ve finished this, I shall recommend they ban it.”
—Tony Hancock (1924–1968)
“The hand that signed the treaty bred a fever,
And famine grew, and locusts came;
Great is the hand that holds dominion over
Man by a scribbled name.”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)