The Advance of the Neutrals: April–October 1962

Abstract

When news of the American resumption of atmospheric testing arrived in Geneva, the Indian delegation immediately requested a special session of the ENDC.¹ In the preceding days, Western representatives had carefully canvassed neutral colleagues in an attempt to gauge their likely reaction to the start of US tests, discouraging any walkout and massaging protests down to a less emotional pitch.² Although uncertain at the start of the meeting that some conflagration would not occur, the West discovered to its relief that ‘the atmosphere was more one of sorrow than anger’.³ A round of speeches was made deploring the resumption but, amid general consensus that talks should continue, there was no walkout. Indeed, many neutrals distributed the blame equally between East and West; the provenance of the present tests lay, they acknowledged, in the Soviet testing programme of the previous autumn. Although there were some violent protests in Japan, where the testing issue carried special resonance, the principal characteristic of neutral reactions was restraint.⁴ From non-aligned capitals, British representatives reported unexpectedly mild responses, both in the press and in the streets.⁵ US Ambassador Galbraith, writing from India, told Kennedy: ‘We are getting only a few strictly CP demonstrations.’⁶ Joseph Godber commented: ‘the good sense of the neutrals as a body and their essential reasonableness, which throughout the Conference so far has worked to the Western advantage, proved predominant.’⁷