A Three-Test Ban

From the councils of the Administration last week emerged a curt and puzzling bulletin announcing that the three detonations scheduled to take place at the Nevada nuclear test, site during May had been canceled. That was all. There was no public gesture of explanation.

Shortly before, President Kennedy had received from Premier Khrushchev a message replying to a joint U.S.-British appeal to get the stalled nuclear test ban negotiations moving again. To head off the obvious inference that Khrushchev's message prompted the U.S. decision to cancel the Nevada tests, Administration spokesmen hastened to assure newsmen that the events were unconnected. "Just a coincidence," said one high official. Khrushchev's letter, according to New Frontiersmen, "left the test ban issue right where it was--on dead center."

Seeking an Excuse. What really led the Administration to call off the tests was another, indirect message from Khrushchev. In a flurry of radio broadcasts, the Russians charged the U.S. with "imposing on the world a new round in the atomic arms race," warned that Russia "is not going to stand by idly watching the U.S. perfect its nuclear weapons."

Although the Nevada detonations would have been the first fallout-producing nuclear tests of 1963 on either side of the Iron Curtain, they hardly warranted the Russian outbursts. Of the three explosions, only two would have been nuclear (the other test was to have employed a conventional chemical explosive), and they would have been fire-crackerish as nuclear tests go. The fallout would have been confined to the vicinity of the test site.

The Russian denunciations confirmed U.S. suspicions that the Kremlin is looking for an excuse to go ahead with a new series of nuclear tests. If the Russians do that, the Administration reasons, the U.S. will have no choice but to proceed with full-scale testing, and the last, faint hope for a nuclear test ban will vanish. To avoid giving the Russians an excuse, the U.S. canceled its tests.

Clinging to Hope. After 4 1/2 years of intermittent test ban talks between the U.S. and Russia, the current negotiations in Geneva are stuck on the basic issue of how many on-site inspections each side would permit in its territory. The U.S. wants seven a year; the Russians refuse to consider any more than three.

Faint as the test ban hope seems, President Kennedy clings to it. Last week Kennedy was cheerfully telling visitors that things were going well for his Administration. Then one of his guests mentioned the test ban impasse. The President's hand flopped down on the arm of his rocking chair. His jaw tightened. He shook his head. "If we don't get an agreement this time," he said, "that's about it. That's the end. We'll both go right on testing."

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