ABSTRACT
Kendrick Oliver has ably chronicled Britain's role in the Partial Test-Ban Treaty (PTBT) negotiations using papers in The National Archives at Kew. This chapter addresses the extent to which the UK made particular efforts to ensure a successful outcome and the extent to which military considerations played a part in Her Majesty's Government, HMG's decision making on test-ban policy. Sir William Penney was firmly of the view, having thought about the problem extensively after his meeting with Macmillan, that the development of an Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) would demand nuclear tests. A test-ban treaty would therefore add considerably to the technical problems of an ABM defence problems that to him gave the appearance of being insoluble, even with US and Russian resources. The Russians made it impossible for the UK and the US to move forward towards the sort of nuclear test ban they wanted to see one with effective verification provisions.
