ABSTRACT
The following analysis focuses on the importance of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and of the negotiations leading up to it, to the breakthrough into a new era of international détente. This analysis necessitates a multi-polar approach based on multi-archival work and multinational perspectives. Although the narrative of this chapter includes descriptions of diplomatic wrangling and political intrigues, its main focus is on the history of ideas and perceptions. From whatever perspective we might approach the issue of nuclear non-proliferation in the 1960s, the Germans, particularly those in the Western part of the divided nation, remained the key to a treaty.
