On August 6, 1963, after more than eight years of difficult negotiations, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union signed the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Photo from the JFK LibraryFrom The Wall Street Journal:
It's back. A decade after its rejection by the Senate, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) is once again under consideration. President Barack Obama says he wants the Senate to ratify it "at the earliest, practical date." But to what end? As the ratification debate of the 1990s showed and the last 10 years confirm, the CTBT is irrelevant to the world's main nuclear dangers and may actually encourage the very proliferation it aims to stem.
In 1992, the U.S. unilaterally pledged to forgo all nuclear testing involving a "critical" explosion, i.e., an explosion of fissile material involving a self-sustaining chain reaction. In 1996, the U.S. voted for the CTBT when it was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly and the U.S. became the first country to sign it. In 1997, President Bill Clinton sent it to the Senate. In 1999 the Senate denied approval, 19 votes short of the 67 necessary.
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My Comment: For the trouble spots in the world .... a nuclear test ban treaty is perceived as just a piece of paper. Having it ratified by the U.S. Senate will only make President Obama's base "feel good" about it ..... but it will have ZERO impact on countries like North Korea, Iran, and who knows who else.
