Mar. 2, 1962 - President Kennedy's televised address on nuclear testing (excerpt)

Mar. 2, 1962 - President Kennedy said tonight he had ordered a resumption of nuclear tests in the atmosphere in late April unless the Soviet Union agreed in the interim to an iron-clad treaty banning all tests. Speaking on a nationwide television broadcast from the White House, the President held out to Premier Khrushchev the promise of a summit conference at which such a treaty could be signed. To head off a new series of tests by the U.S., Mr. Kennedy said, the Soviet Union will have to agree to “a fully effective treaty” before the latter part of April. Mr. Kennedy placed the need for renewed testing in the atmosphere was created by the Soviet Union and its massive series of more than 40 tests conducted last fall and winter.