Macmillan and Eisenhower: The Test-ban Negotiations, 1957–60

Abstract

However the importance and influence of scientists within and without government are assessed, however vital their knowledge, it was political decisions taken at national and international levels which transformed erudite speculations and assessments into an agreement to prohibit nuclear tests and inhibit or ‘control’ the nuclear arms race.¹ Equally, however widespread and publicised thess movement of protest might have been, that protest availed nought unless it influenced the decisionmakers. The scientists and protesters were a part of a movement against the nuclear arms race which focused on the issue of nuclear weapons testing, but the search for a multilateral agreement to halt nuclear tests and secure a measure of nuclear disarmament could only be conducted at the international level. The scientific community in Britain helped draw attention to the hazards of continued nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere and helped devise means of verifying compliance with a treaty. The protesters acted as an insistent chorus which the government found difficult to ignore; they played a part by encouraging the government to pursue with determination the search for a CTBT, but they did not change the government’s defence policy which included the possible use of nuclear weapons.