ONE YEAR AGO today, the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty came into force. Upon deposit of separate instruments of ratification, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and the United States consummated a solemn pledge not to test nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, in outer space, and in the oceans. The world embarked on the first step to remove the threat of oblivion that for two decades has stalked the earth.
More than 100 nations have now signed the test ban treaty. The air is cleaner, the world is safer, and the hopes for peace are a little brighter because of this act of commonsense. Next week, I will report to the Nation on our progress under the test ban treaty.
This weekend, in our homes and houses of worship throughout the land, I think it appropriate that all Americans pause to mark in gratitude, in pride, and in prayer the historic anniversary we now observe.
Note: On October 15, the day before the detonation of the first Chinese nuclear device (see Item 675), the White House made public the 6th report by the Federal Radiation Council giving up-to-date information relating to fallout. The report confirmed earlier predictions of fallout levels and concluded that health risks from radioactivity in food for the next several years would be too small to justify protective actions to limit the intake of radionuclides through the diet. The report indicated the following changes in the fallout situation since 1963:
1. Short-lived radionuclides produced by nuclear testing, iodine 131 and strontium-89, had disappeared from the environment.
2. The inventory of the long-lived nuclides strontium-90 and cesium-137 in the atmosphere by mid-1964 had been reduced to one-half that in January 1963, at the end of the last test series.
3. Long-lived nuclides had reached a delayed peak in the diet during 1964 and would decrease in future years.
The Council, under the chairmanship of Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Anthony J. Celebrezze, was established by Executive Order 10831 of August 14, 1959 (24 F.R. 6669, 3 CFR, 1959-1963 Comp., p. 365), to advise the President with respect to radiation matters directly or indirectly affecting health.
The President's statement of October 11 was released at Austin, Tex.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Statement by the President on the Anniversary of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/242346