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:
“There is no luck in literary reputation. They who make up the final verdict upon every book are not the partial and noisy readers of the hour when it appears; but a court as of angels, a public not to be bribed, not to be entreated, and not to be overawed, decides upon every man’s title to fame. Only those books come down which deserve to last.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“You can’t be a Real Country unless you have A BEER and an airline—it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a BEER.”
—Frank Zappa (1940–1993)
“I am willing, for a money consideration, to test this physical strength, this nervous force, and muscular power with which I’ve been gifted, to show that they will bear a certain strain. If I break down, if my brain gives way under want of sleep, my heart ceases to respond to the calls made on my circulatory system, or the surcharged veins of my extremities burst—if, in short, I fall helpless, or it may be, dead on the track, then I lose my money.”
—Ada Anderson (1860–?)
“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)
“No treaty is ever an impediment to a cheat.”
—Sophocles (497–406/5 B.C.)