Nuclear Ambush; The Test-Ban Trap
Chicago, IL: Henry Regnery Company, 1963. Presumed First Paperback Edition, First printing. Trade paperback. xxvii, [1], 612 pages. Some cover wear. Chronology. Maps. Tabular data. Appendices. Notes Index. Introduction by Willard F. Libby. Name in ink on front cover. The author, a noted diplomatic journalist, concludes that it is impossible to check out a single suspicious seismic event inside the Soviet Union within the time limits necessary for American national security. Willard Frank Libby (December 17, 1908 – September 8, 1980) was an American physical chemist noted for his role in the 1949 development of radiocarbon dating, a process which revolutionized archaeology and palaeontology. For his contributions to the team that developed this process, Libby was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1960. During World War II he worked in the Manhattan Project's Substitute Alloy Materials (SAM) Laboratories at Columbia University, developing the gaseous diffusion process for uranium enrichment. After the war, Libby accepted professorship at the University of Chicago's Institute for Nuclear Studies, where he developed the technique for dating organic compounds using carbon-14. In 1950, he became a member of the General Advisory Committee (GAC) of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). He was appointed a commissioner in 1954, becoming its sole scientist. He sided with Edward Teller on pursuing a crash program to develop the hydrogen bomb, participated in the Atoms for Peace program, and defended the administration's atmospheric nuclear testing. In 1962, he became the Director of the University of California statewide Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP). This book traces the step-by-step development of the nuclear test-ban idea until the United States, without a firm treaty, was obliged to interrupt its nuclear weapons development for thirty-four months, in the absence of any assurance that the Soviet Union would follow suit. When the Soviets suddenly resumed tests in September, 1961, it became clear that they had made impressive gains during the United States abstention. There were many forces at work to get a teat ban--accentuated by human fears of war and fallout--and they were able to paralyze the United States' nuclear weapons development for almost three years. During the years since the American test suspension the test-ban controversy had become an even more pressing nation issue, and the author, in his final chapters, places the then current policy debate in sharp focus. The Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) is the abbreviated name of the 1963 Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and Under Water, which prohibited all test detonations of nuclear weapons except for those conducted underground. It is also abbreviated as the Limited Test Ban Treaty (LTBT) and Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (NTBT), though the latter may also refer to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), which succeeded the PTBT for ratifying parties. Negotiations initially focused on a comprehensive ban, but that was abandoned because of technical questions surrounding the detection of underground tests and Soviet concerns over the intrusiveness of proposed verification methods. The impetus for the test ban was provided by rising public anxiety over the magnitude of nuclear tests, particularly tests of new thermonuclear weapons (hydrogen bombs), and the resulting nuclear fallout. A test ban was also seen as a means of slowing nuclear proliferation and the nuclear arms race. Though the PTBT did not halt proliferation or the arms race, its enactment did coincide with a substantial decline in the concentration of radioactive particles in the atmosphere. The PTBT was signed by the governments of the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States in Moscow on 5 August 1963 before it was opened for signature by other countries. The treaty formally went into effect on 10 October 1963. Since then, 123 other states have become party to the treaty. Ten states have signed but not ratified the treaty. Condition: Good.
Keywords: Nuclear Weapons, Cold War, Nuclear Test Ban, Fallout, Radiation, Soviet Union, Cold War, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Weapons Testing, Decoupling, Disarmament, Hardtack Test Series, On-site Inspection, Seismic Monitoring
[Book #5163]
Price: $50.00