The Senate Consents

FOREIGN RELATIONS

The outcome was never in serious doubt--only the size of the majority. Last week, after nearly three weeks of hearings and eleven days of formal debate, the U.S. Senate gave its consent to the nuclear test ban treaty with Russia by an 80 to 19 margin. President Kennedy hailed the vote as "a welcome culmination of this effort to lead the world once again to the path of peace."

A Real Stinker. In its final hours, the debate produced sparks. The day before the ratification vote, dissenting Senators sought to tie a spate of qualifications to the pact--any one of which could have put the whammy on the whole works. "If reservations are attached to the treaty," New York Republican Jacob Javits had warned, "it will mar for the world and all the nations which are signing the treaty the statesmanship which dedicated it in the first place."

Despite the warning, Arizona Republican Barry Goldwater introduced a reservation that would have made the treaty conditional on the withdrawal of Soviet men and materiel from Cuba. "If you must vote for this treaty," said Goldwater, who had no intention of doing so, "demand at least this single, honorable, appropriate and meaningful price." Fuming, Majority Leader Mike Mansfield accused Goldwater of seeking "not to build the treaty but to bury it." Besides, added Arkansas Democrat J. William Fulbright, "the Russians would laugh at us." Barry lost, 75 to 17.

Some Senators found more attractive an "understanding" sponsored by Texas Republican John Tower and Louisiana Democrat Russell Long. Troubled by the treaty's prohibition of "any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion," the two wanted to add a specific assurance in the resolution of ratification that the use of nuclear weapons was not barred in case of armed conflict. Fulbright saw no need for it. "There's a lot of things we agree on that shouldn't be in this treaty," said he. "I suppose if we took a poll we'd all agree that Khrushchev is a stinker, but that doesn't mean we want to write that into the treaty."

With the Tower-Long proposal drawing unexpected support from several pro-treaty Democrats, Minority Leader Everett Dirksen rose to attack it. Dramatically flourishing the letter that President Kennedy had written to him and

Mansfield during the debate, Dirksen reminded his colleagues of its "solemn and unequivocal assurance" that "the treaty in no way limits the authority of the Commander in Chief to use nuclear weapons for the defense of the U.S. and its allies." In the letter, Kennedy also promised that the U.S. would seek to minimize the risks involved in the treaty by continuing underground tests, maintaining weapons research labs, expanding detection facilities and remaining ready to resume atmospheric testing on short notice. The Tower-Long proposal was tabled, 61 to 33, and the way was clear for ratification.

"A Troubled No." Even before the quorum bells sounded for the final vote, ratification was a certainty. Georgia's Richard Russell, a treaty opponent, shrugged: "They had it all counted up." Despite the lack of suspense, the galleries were filled as photographers for the U.S. Capitol Historical Society recorded the moment--the first time picture-taking was authorized while the Senate was in session. All but two Senators had announced their views in advance, and the unknowns split, Nevada Democrat Howard Cannon voting "yea" and Maine Republican Margaret Chase Smith weighing in with what she later described as "a troubled no." With the words, "I move that the President be immediately notified," Majority Leader Mansfield ended the proceedings. It was all over in ten minutes.

Thus the U.S. Senate became the first parliamentary body of the three original signatories* to ratify the pact. Next day, having obviously waited for the Senate to act, two dozen members of the 3 3-member Presidium of the Su preme Soviet met and speedily followed suit. Britain will put the treaty before Commons when it convenes late this month, and if no objections are raised within 21 days (none are expected), the treaty automatically is ratified.

* In addition to the U.S., Britain and Russia, 100 other nations out of the 127 eligible to sign the pact have done so. Outstanding holdouts: France, Red China, North Korea, North Viet Nam, Albania, Cuba.

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