The treaty initialed yesterday, therefore, is a limited treaty which permits continued underground testing and prohibits only those tests that we ourselves can police. This Nation now possesses a variety of techniques to detect the nuclear tests of other nations which are conducted in the air or under water, for such tests produce unmistakable signs which our modern instruments can pick up. A ban on nuclear tests, however, requires on-the-spot inspection only for underground tests. That plan, and many subsequent disarmament plans, large and small, have all been blocked by those opposed to international inspection.
For the first time, an agreement has been reached on bringing the forces of nuclear destruction under international control-a goal first sought in 1946 when Bernard Baruch presented a comprehensive control plan to the United Nations. Negotiations were concluded in Moscow on a treaty to ban all nuclear tests in the atmosphere, in outer space, and under water.
Yesterday a shaft of light cut into the darkness. But too often these meetings have produced only darkness, discord, or disillusion. Our representatives have met at the summit and at the brink they have met in Washington and in Moscow in Geneva and at the United Nations. In these years, the United States and the Soviet Union have frequently communicated suspicion and warnings to each other, but very rarely hope.
Each increase of tension has produced an increase of arms each increase of arms has produced an increase of tension. In an age when both sides have come to possess enough nuclear power to destroy the human race several times over, the world of communism and the world of free choice have been caught up in a vicious circle of conflicting ideology and interest. Since that time, all mankind has been struggling to escape from the darkening prospect of mass destruction on earth. Eighteen years ago the advent of nuclear weapons changed the course of the world as well as the war. I speak to you tonight in a spirit of hope.
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