Negotiating with the Enemy: Kennedy and the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

Abstract

Many scholars have examined the test ban. Several books were written shortly after its adoption, but they lack much of the documentary evidence that is now available. In 1981 Glenn Seaborg published one of the best accounts. Because Kennedy appointed Seaborg the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission Seaborg is able to provide a first-hand description of the negotiations. Michael Beschloss touches on the test ban throughout The Crisis Years, published in 1991, but his book examines the whole period of international relations between Kennedy and Khrushchev without focusing on the test ban issue. Also, though he was able to draw upon many documents not available to previous authors, even more documents have been declassified with the end of the Cold War. The most recent study of the issue, by Kendrick Oliver in 1998, focuses on the role Great Britain and her Prime Minister, Macmillan, played in shaping American policy towards the test ban negotiations. This thesis offers a new perspective than the previous works done on the test ban negotiations. Instead of trying to give simply an historical account of the process, or an explanation of how the test ban negotiations fit in with all the other issues of the day, this thesis will attempt to look deeper at how actions by Khrushchev could drive Kennedy, in connection to the test ban issue, from optimism to despair and back again. Also, because more and more primary documents continue to be released, there is always something new to be said. Several documents have been declassified in only the last several years and were not available to any previous authors. [From Introduction]