Chapter 15: Treaties

Question 1

What was the Moscow Test Ban Treaty?

Answer 1

Signed by the USA and USSR in August 1963, after several years of negotiations between the Kennedy and Krushchev administrations. Orginally proposed by thr Soviets in 1950s. Discussions were originally larger in scope but the only places they could agree on was the ways in which nuclear weapons tests would occur.

Question 2

What was the public reaction after the CMC?

Answer 2

Opposition in both the USA and the USSR, as the public did not want to be seen as weakening their stance against the other superpower. But other citizens did recognise the threat of nuclear war as a result of the crisis, and supported government efforts to limit any use of nuclear weapons.

Question 3

What was crucial in gaining US support for the Moscow Test Ban Treaty?

Answer 3

Kennedy’s speech at American University, and hosting the talks alowed Krushchev to show that the USSR was barganing from a position of strength.

Question 4

What was the Moscow Test Ban Treaty limited to?

Answer 4

It did not include underground tests. These were diffficult to detect, nd didfficult to differ from earthquakes and USA withdrew its insistence abou onsite inspections in order to monitor underground tests.

Question 5

What did the Moscow Test Ban Treaty prohibit?

Answer 5

Above-ground and underwater and outer space nuclear testing.

Question 6

Who did and didn’t sign the Moscow Test Ban Treaty

Answer 6

USA, USSR, and UK signed it, whilst France and China refused and France continued to test its nuclear weapons in the south Pacific well into the 1990s and China continued until 1996.

Question 7

What did the Moscow Test Ban Treaty demonstrate?

Answer 7

The signatories understood the dangers of nuclear technologies and were willing to limit their usage of nuclear weapons. First collective agreement to establish lmitations on the nuclear arms race, confirmed Britain, USA and USSR were committed to easing CW tensions, Nuclear War being a possibility was addressed, showed trust between powers accepting principle that on-site testing was not necessar. Step towards further agreements.

Question 8

What was the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty?

Answer 8

July 1968.

Question 9

What did the Kennedy administration continue with despite accepting a test ban on nuclear weapons?

Answer 9

Despite accepting a test ban on nuclear weapons, they Continued to produce Intercontintal Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) and Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs) to strengthen their defence system.

Question 10

What did the US overestimate?

Answer 10

The US overestimated the strength of Soviet nuclear threat in 1963 and even though reports showed this, the US military had committed to the construction of these weapons and carried out their construction.

Question 11

What was the state of the two powers nuclear weaponry by late 1960s?

Answer 11

The lack of equality between the two powers had ended, and the Soviets even gained supremacy in their defence system.

Question 12

What technology did the Soviet Union develop?

Answer 12

To intercept nuclear missiles and prevent them from reaching their target. These Anti-Ballistic missiles (ABMS) represented a major shift in the effectiveness of nuclear missiles as a deterrent to nuclear weapons use. If one side could destroy the nuclear ability o the other, then MAD was no longer effective.

Question 13

What did Robert McNamara persuade Johnson of early 1967?

Answer 13

To delay the development of an American ABM system prior to negotiations with the USSR over the expansion and deployment of their ABMS. The USSR were reluctant to include the ABM system in weapons negotiations but when the USA developed Multiple Independently Targetable Re-Entry Vechiles (MIRVs), the Soviets were brought to the bargaining tble. The USSR’s ABM systems were not designed to stop multiple warheads, so they lost their advantage.

Question 14

What was an issue of the nuclear arms race?

Answer 14

The practical issue of costs. The Nuclear arms race had become a prohibitively expensive process, and therefore, arms control was a viable option. Krushchev memoirs “the fewer people we have in the army, the more people we will have available for other, more productive kinds of work”

Question 15

What did China do October 1964?

Answer 15

Successfully tested a nuclear bomb and thereby entered the lite club of nuclear powers, alongside France, Britain, the USA and the USSR. The latter 3 worked to introduce a means of checking the spread of Nuclear weapons.

Question 16

What was the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)?

Answer 16

July 1968. In which all signatories agreed that they would not ‘transfer to any recipient nuclear weapons or other nuclear devices or control over such weapons’ nor would they ‘assist, encourage or induce any non-nuclear state to manufacture nuclear weapons’.

Question 17

What did the Non-Proliferation Treaty allow signatories?

Answer 17

To ‘develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes’ meaning that nuclear energy could continue to b used as a source for fuel.

Question 18

What was the overall effect of the Non-Proliferation Treaty July 1968?

Answer 18

Established the principle that non-nuclear states would never be able to establish nuclear weapon arsenals by forming alliances with those states that had nuclear weapons. It was seen as an evolving treaty and other countries were encouraged to sign the treaty. Terms meant that nuclear powers were agreeing they would not share their technology and non-nuclear states would not seek nuclear weapons technology.

Question 19

Who signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty July 1968?

Answer 19

Most countries in the UN became signatories between 1968 and 1970. For political reasons France and China did not sign until 1992, although they had already privately pledged o adhere to the terms of the treaty in 1968.

Question 20

What did the signing of the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) initiate?

Answer 20

Further discussions on arms limitations.

Question 21

What was the pressure to increase arms limitations after the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty)?

Answer 21

On both sides there were economic reasons for doing so, and in the USA there were social reasons as well. Furthermore, there was pressure from other countries to decrease nuclear weapons; it was clear that nuclear weapons could have a wider impact- the target of the attack would not be the only victim and a nuclear accident would not necessarily affect only the country here the accident took place.

Question 22

How did the issue of cost come in to the desire for arms limitations?

Answer 22

Possession of nuclear weapons was critical but if both sides could agree to limit production, it would be beneficial The wars they engaged in were primarily guerrilla wars, and nuclear weapons were useless. Relaxation of Cold War tensions would allow both the Americans and the Soviets to focus on domestic affairs, and the arms race was very expensive.

Question 23

Why were further discussions for arms limitations halted?

Answer 23

Due to Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia, and Johnson’s decision that he would not run for re-election in November 19968. The USSR needed to focus on its own sphere of influence and was hesitant to engage in what could be fruitless discussions if Johnson’s successor was uninterested in arms limitations.

Question 24

What happened upon Nixon’s introduction in 1969 and the resolution of the Prague Spring?

Answer 24

The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) began. For the Nixon administration, this was part of a foreign policy designed to improve the US international position. At the same time, the US began its policy of Vietnamisation and engagement with China. For Krushchev’s successor Brezhnev it was an opportunity to focus more on internal affairs. Although it took nearly four years, the SALT treaty was finally signed in 1972.