Cooperation

• • Attitudes of Khrushchev and Kennedy
  • Hot - line
  • Moscow Test Ban Treaty
  • Nuclear non - proliferation treaty
  • Cut back in materials for nuclear weapons
• JFK change in thinking

  • MAD better then nuclear weapons
  • Environmental damage nuclear weapons caused
  • Discussions with other powers
  • Objective: Rather than win a nuclear war, avoid one
  • Net evaluation subcommittee report - severe damages and casualties (93 million) US and USSR combined
• Khrushchev change in thinking

  • Present CMC (Cuban Missile Crisis) as a triumph
  • Sino - Soviet split Soviet Union feel more vulnerable
  • Keen to move away from Brinkmanship
  • Less of a shift in 'peaceful coexistence'
  • Discussions of limiting spread of nuclear weapons
• Washington Moscow hotline = System that allows direct communication between leaders of US and Russia.

  Also known as red telephone. Linked White House via the National military command center with the Kremlin during cold war
• Washington Moscow Hotline

  • Nixon and Brezhnev during the India and Pakistan war 1971
  • Aimed to ensure any misjudgements/misunderstandings resolved ASAP
  • Used by LBJ in six days war 1967
  • Agreed in Geneva on 20th June 1963
  • Direct telegraph link between White House and Kremlin
  • 12 hours to receive, decode and translate 1st message
  • Wasn't clear which president was communicating with who
• Moscow test ban treaty

  • 1963 Partial Test Ban treaty prohibits nuclear weapons tests or any other nuclear explosion in the atmosphere, outer space and underwater
  • Not banning tests underground
  • Treaty signed at Moscow on 5th August 1963 and signed by UK, US and USSR
  • Not singed by France or China
• Moscow Test Ban treaty (Partial Test Ban treaty)

  • China was preparing for its first nuclear explosion when the treaty was signed
  • Alleged a US representative who was at Moscow Treaty signing said one of the primary purposes of the treaty was to prevent China from acquiring a nuclear capability
• Moscow Test ban treaty (Partial Test ban treaty)

  • Cuba helped shift both public and political opinion
  • From an uncompromising to cooperative stance (JFK 'Peace' speech 1963
  • Originally proposed by the Soviets in 1950s
  • Despite initial delays and public criticism
  • While it banned tests above ground, underwater and outer space
  • Not ban underground tests and France and China didn't sign
• Moscow Test ban treaty (Partial test ban treaty)

  • First collective agreement to place some sort limit on arms race
  • New commitment to easing tensions
  • Slow down development
  • Dropping 'on site inspections' new air of trust
  • Multi lateral arms agreement
• Moscow Test Ban treaty, August 1963

  • Citizens who recognised the threat of nuclear war as a result of the crisis and supported government efforts to limit any use of nuclear weapons
  • August 1963, Kennedy's speech at American University was critical in gaining US support
  • Agreement was partial, or limited because it did not include underground test
  • Difficult to detect and difficult to differ from earthquakes
  • Above ground, underwater and outer space nuclear testing was prohibited
• Moscow test ban treaty, August 1963

  • External monitoring of nuclear tests made viable by 1963
  • USA and USSR had its own sophisticated satelite reconnaissance systems
  • Other agreements that were signed by multiple countries to show an international commitment to limiting and possession of nuclear weapons
• Nuclear Non - Proliferation treaty, July 1968

  • Evolving arms race with US SLBMs and USSR's ABMs
  • Challenged concept of MAD
  • 1992 France and China sign up
  • Before US deployed down ABMs McNamara suggested negotiation with USSR
  • Initial reluctance, USA's development of MIRV
  • Brings the USSR to the table as ABM couldn't tackle multiple warheads
• Nuclear Non - Proliferation Treaty, July 1968

  • Cost of arms race escalating
  • France and China get the bomb
  • Aims is don't help other get nukes
  • Nuclear technology can be used for peaceful purposes
• Nuclear Non - Proliferation Treaty, July 1968

  • Kennedy administration, despite accepting a test ban on nuclear weapons, continued to produce Intercontinential Ballistic Missile (SLBMs) to strengthen their defence system
  • USA had overestimated the strength of the Soviet nuclear threat
  • Lack of parity or equality between the US and Soviet nuclear strength ended and Soviets gained supremacy in their defence system
• Nuclear Non - Proliferation Treaty, July 1968

  • Soviet union developed technology to intercept nuclear missiles and prevent them from reaching their target
  • Anti - Ballistic Missiles (ABMs) represented a major shift in the effectiveness of nuclear missiles as a deterrent to nuclear weapons use
  • 1967, McNamara persuaded Johnson to delay development of an American ABM system prior to negotiations
  • USSR over the expansion and deployment of ABMs
  • USSR reluctant to include ABM system in weapons negotiations
• Nuclear Non - Proliferation Treaty, July 1968

  • USA developed Multiple Independently Targetable Re - entry vehicles (MIRVs)
  • Soviet were brought up to the bargaining table
  • USSR's ABM systems were not designed to stop multiple warheads, so they lost their advantage
  • Issues of cost and arms control was a viable option
  • Oct 1964, People's Republic of China successfully tested a nuclear bomb and thereby entered the elite club of nuclear powers
  • France, Britain, USA and USSR
• Nuclear Non - Proliferation treaty, July 1968

  • Finalised in July 1968 the Nuclear Non - Proliferation treaty
  • Transfer to any recipient nuclear weapons or other nuclear devices or control over such weapons
  • Allowed signatories to develop, research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes
  • Nuclear energy could continue to be used as a source of fuel
• Nuclear Non - Proliferation treaty, July 1968

  • Non - nuclear states would never be able to establish nuclear weapon arsenals by forming alliances with those states that had nuclear weapons
  • Nuclear powers were agreeing they would not share their technology, and non nuclear states would not seek nuclear weapons technology
  • Most countries in UN became signatories between 1968 and 1979
  • For political reasons France and China did not sign until 1992
• Cut backs in Materials for nuclear weapons

  Reasons for cutting back nuclear weapons

  • Economic: Reduce the cost of the arms race focus on domestic spending
  • Social: Anti - nuclear and environmentalist movement
  • Pressure from other countries: Fear of accidental casualties
• Cutbacks in materials for nuclear weapons

  What caused a delay?

  • Prague Spring 1968 and Johnson not re - running
• Cut backs in materials for nuclear weapons

  What was the eventual product the talks after a change of leadership?

  • The SALT treaties. Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
• Cut back in Materials for nuclear weapons

  • Signing of the NPT, further discussions on arms limitation were intiated
  • Economic reasons for doing so
  • USA there were social reasons as well
  • Pressure from other countries to decrease nuclear weapons
  • Issue of cost
• Cut back in materials for nuclear weapons

  • Soviet intervention in Czech and Johnson decision that he would not run for re - election in Nov 1968, halted further discussions
  • Fruitless discussions if Johnson's successor was uninterested in arms limitation
  • Nixon elected in 1969 and resolution of Prague Spring, SALT strategic Arms Limitation