From the brink to the thaw
In October 1962 the world came closer to nuclear war than ever before. Both Kennedy and Khrushchev were shaken, and in the months that followed both looked for ways to lower the risk. Historians call this period of slightly warmer relations the thaw.
Kennedy set the tone in a speech at American University in Washington on 10 June 1963. He asked Americans to look again at their attitude to the Soviet Union, and reminded them what the two peoples shared: 'we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.' He also announced that talks on a nuclear test ban would begin in Moscow.
Key terms:
- Thaw: a time when the 'frozen' relations of the Cold War warmed a little and the superpowers reached some agreements.
- Hotline: a direct communications link between the leaders in Washington and Moscow.
- Fallout: radioactive dust that drops back to earth after a nuclear explosion, sometimes thousands of kilometres away.
- Non-proliferation: stopping the spread of nuclear weapons to more countries.
The 'Hotline', 1963
During the missile crisis, messages between the two leaders had to be written, put into code, sent, decoded and translated. Khrushchev's first letter took close to twelve hours to reach Kennedy in a form he could read. In a crisis where minutes mattered, that was far too slow.
On 20 June 1963 the two governments signed an agreement in Geneva to set up a direct link. It was working by 30 August 1963. It was not a red telephone but a teleprinter link, sending written messages. Written messages were chosen on purpose: they gave each leader time to think and were less likely to be misunderstood than a hurried phone call through interpreters.
Its limits: the Hotline only let the leaders talk. It did not remove a single weapon or settle any quarrel, and it was only useful if both sides chose to use it. Even so, it proved its worth during the Arab-Israeli war of June 1967, when it was used to make sure neither superpower misread the other's moves.
The Test Ban Treaty, 1963
By the early 1960s both superpowers were testing bigger and bigger bombs in the open air. In October 1961 the Soviet Union exploded the largest bomb ever tested. Fallout from such tests spread around the world, and scientists found radioactive material in milk and in children's teeth.
Earlier test ban talks had failed over one problem: checking. The USA wanted inspectors to visit Soviet sites. The Soviet Union saw this as spying. The answer in 1963 was to leave out the tests that were hardest to check. The treaty was signed in Moscow on 5 August 1963 by the USA, the Soviet Union and Britain.
- What it did: it banned nuclear test explosions in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water. These could be detected from outside a country, so no inspectors were needed. More than 100 other countries went on to sign.
- Its limits: testing underground was still allowed, and both superpowers carried out hundreds of underground tests in the years that followed, so they kept developing new weapons. France and China refused to sign. China tested its first atomic bomb in October 1964.
This is why it is often called the Limited Test Ban Treaty. It cut fallout, but it did not slow the arms race.
Two more treaties, 1967 and 1968
The next leaders, President Johnson and Leonid Brezhnev, kept the talks going.
🚀 The Outer Space Treaty, 1967
Each superpower feared the other might put nuclear weapons in orbit above its cities. The treaty was signed on 27 January 1967. It banned nuclear weapons in orbit, on the Moon or anywhere else in space. The Moon was to be used only for peaceful purposes, with no military bases, and no country could claim it as its own. Its limits: it did not ban missiles that fly through space on their way to a target, and it did not ban spy satellites. Nuclear weapons on earth were untouched.
🚫 The Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, 1968
By 1964 five countries had the bomb: the USA, the Soviet Union, Britain, France and China. Both superpowers feared a world with many more. The treaty was signed on 1 July 1968 by the USA, the Soviet Union, Britain and more than 50 other countries. Countries with nuclear weapons promised not to pass them, or the knowledge to make them, to others. Countries without them promised not to make or obtain them, and in return could get help with peaceful nuclear power. Its limits: France and China did not sign at the time, and neither did some other countries, such as India and Israel. It also did nothing to reduce the weapons the superpowers already had. They only promised to hold talks about that.
How much did the thaw change?
✅ What it achieved
These were among the first agreements to put any controls on nuclear weapons. They showed that the two sides could work together where they shared an interest, such as avoiding war by accident, cutting fallout and stopping other countries getting the bomb. They also built a habit of talking.
❌ What it did not change
No weapon was destroyed. In fact, after its climbdown over Cuba the Soviet Union built missiles quickly through the 1960s to catch up with the USA. The two sides were still rivals, backing opposite sides in the Vietnam War, and the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 showed that Soviet control of Eastern Europe was as tight as ever.
So the thaw made the Cold War a little safer, but it did not end it. The promise of arms talks made in 1968 leads on to the lesson Détente and SALT 1: How Far Had Relations Improved by 1972?
Common mistakes
Don't say the Test Ban Treaty banned all nuclear tests. Underground tests carried on. Don't describe the Hotline as a telephone. Don't say the Non-proliferation Treaty cut the number of nuclear weapons. It was about stopping new countries getting them. And keep the order straight: Hotline and Test Ban Treaty 1963, Outer Space Treaty 1967, Non-proliferation Treaty 1968.
Exam-style question
Extract A (a practice extract written for this lesson, in the style of a modern history textbook)
The agreements of the 1960s were little more than gestures. The much-praised Hotline was merely a teleprinter, and it removed no weapons at all. The Test Ban Treaty left both superpowers free to explode bombs underground, which they went on to do hundreds of times, while France and China simply refused to sign. Later treaties only banned what neither side wanted anyway. Not one warhead was scrapped. Behind the smiles and signatures, the arms race thundered on.
What impression does the author give about the agreements made between the superpowers in the 1960s? You must use Extract A to explain your answer. [6 marks]
Model answer
The author gives the impression that the agreements of the 1960s achieved very little and were mostly for show. This is seen in the language. The agreements are dismissed as 'little more than gestures', and the Hotline is 'merely a teleprinter', where 'merely' makes it sound unimportant. 'Behind the smiles and signatures' suggests the friendliness was only on the surface, while the arms race 'thundered on'. The author has also selected only the weaknesses: underground testing, France and China refusing to sign, and the fact that 'not one warhead was scrapped'. Nothing is said about what the agreements did achieve, such as the end of testing in the open air or quicker contact between the leaders in a crisis. This one-sided choice of material creates a scornful picture of the thaw.
What lifts this to the top level: it states one clear impression, supports it with short quotations, and explains how the author's choice of words and of what to stress and leave out builds that impression.
Exam tip
Look for the small words that carry the author's attitude. Here 'merely', 'simply' and 'only' all play the agreements down. Then name something the author has left out, such as the ban on tests in the atmosphere. You don't need to describe the treaties yourself: the marks are for how the extract creates its impression. For more help, see the lesson Paper 1 Question (a): What Impression Does the Author Give?