A draft Presidential statement is distributed herewith in connection with
the November 2, 1961 meeting of the National Security Council.
Attachment
PROPOSED PRESIDENTIAL STATEMENT WITH RESPECT TO NUCLEAR
TESTING
With the Soviet Union now drawing to a close its current series of
nuclear tests, it is time for every American, and for every friend
of freedom, to examine the meaning of these tests in their true
perspective. For whatever senseless threats have been made, whatever
groundless fears have been raised, whatever irresponsible headlines,
rumors and speculation have been circulated, the basic facts remain
unchanged. We have not lost our lead in the military balance of
power. We have not lost our determination to face any risk in the
defense of our vital interests. And we have not lost our desire to
achieve a world free from the fear of both nuclear tests and nuclear
war.
I do not suggest that we can completely dismiss these Soviet tests as
unimportant bluff and bluster. They are important to any thoughtful
person, in any country, who cannot help but have new concern for the
health of his children and new contempt for such crude and cruel
tactics. Presumably these blasts are also important to Soviet
military leaders and scientists for testing certain weapons or
experiments—and as further evidence on these purposes becomes
available, it will be evaluated in the light of our own
progress.
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But this much can be said with certainty now:
(1) In terms of total military strength, we would not trade places
with any nation on earth.
(2) Every potential aggressor knows that the strategic nuclear force
which we could bring to bear—even if we had first been struck the
most devastating blow he could launch—would still be greater than
the total strategic forces he possessed before attacking us.
(3) It is not necessary for us to explode oversized bombs to confirm
the hard fact that we have many times more nuclear power and
strategic delivery systems—intercontinental bombers and ballistic
missiles—than any other nation on earth in a force so deployed as to
survive any sneak attack and capable of devastating any nation
foolish enough to threaten the security of this nation or any of its
allies.
In the absence of a signed and effective test ban treaty with
enforceable inspection, our own testing program will proceed on the
basis of our own needs. When our responsibilities to free world
security require us to test new weapons in any environment, all
necessary advance preparations will [Facsimile Page 3] have been completed. But an
actual test series is not undertaken lightly or hastily. Others may
test nuclear weapons in the atmosphere for so-called psychological
or political reasons—but the United States has no intention of
rushing into precipitate atmospheric testing without solid military
justification and careful scientific preparation. Others may conduct
a series of such tests without taking any substantial steps to
safeguard the health of their own citizens, their co-inhabitants of
this planet and generations yet unborn—but the United States will
conduct no such series without imposing whatever safeguards are
necessary to prevent its world-wide fall-out from rising above a
mere fraction of that resulting from the current Soviet series.
In short, the United States will undertake atmospheric nuclear tests
only when such tests are deemed necessary, in the light of our
evaluation of Soviet tests, to maintain the Free World’s present
superiority in defensive and deterrent strength—only to the degree
that the orderly and essential scientific development of new weapons
has reached a point where further progress is not possible without
such tests—and only within limits that restrict the fall-out from
such tests to an absolute minimum.
To sum up: As long as we can keep our heads clear, our voices calm
and our powder dry, it will make no sense for the enemies of freedom
to attack, or for the friends of freedom to face the future with any
spirit other than one of abiding confidence.
