蜜芽传媒

Fifty years ago today President Kennedy gave a speech at the American University in Washington. He launched the nuclear test ban treaty. It came a year after the Cuban missile crisis that had brought to the brink the world鈥檚 two super powers.

The President announced his decision to suspend all atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons, as long as other nations would do the same.

The rhetoric and reasoning of Kennedy鈥檚 speech so impressed Khrushchev that he hailed it, 鈥渢he greatest speech by any American President since Roosevelt鈥�. And seven weeks later the test ban treaty was signed in Moscow.

President Kennedy asserted that 鈥渉istory teaches us that enmities between nations, as between individuals, do not last forever. However fixed our likes and dislikes may seem, the tide of time and events will often bring surprising changes in relations between nations and neighbours.鈥�...