News
When Professors Speak Out, Some Students Stay Quiet. Can Harvard Keep Everyone Talking?
News
Allston Residents, Elected Officials Ask for More Benefits from Harvard’s 10-Year Plan
News
Nobel Laureate Claudia Goldin Warns of Federal Data Misuse at IOP Forum
News
Woman Rescued from Freezing Charles River, Transported to Hospital with Serious Injuries
News
Harvard Researchers Develop New Technology to Map Neural Connections
As prospects for a nuclear test ban agreement at Geneva become progressively brighter (and sporadically dimmer), it seems apparent that Western negotiators, hastening to score a propaganda victory and, possibly, contribute to a healthier world, have overlooked a vital point in the mechanics of a moratorium. Under the partial draft treaty, as it now reads, all testing will stop, even those explosions which may be necessary for the continuation of experiments in the peaceful application of atomic energy.
Such a restrictive treaty could well be as damaging as no treaty at all. If scientists are forced to give up all hopes of testing theories on the constructive use of the atom, atomic research will lose many of its most devoted and imaginative workers. Even if the ban is legally only a temporary one, there will be a strong moral commitment implicit in it, which may make it difficult ever to resume tests. Considering the possible finality of the agreement they are undertaking, the men at Geneva should introduce flexible provisions governing peaceful experimentation under an international agency.
Although such a proposal will give the Russians one more talking point with which to obstruct a final solution, the failure to consider peaceful tests would be a dangerous one. Progress in the attempt to turn atoms into plowshares should not be sacrificed to the pressure against weapons tests.
Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.