A comprehensive test ban was always the original intention of the treaty that eventually became the PTBT. It is "partial" in part because the U.S. and the USSR had so many conflicting stipulations and requests that remained unresolved. The diplomatic stubbornness of both sides wore away at the possibility of a total test ban—essentially making the idea incomprehensible. (Get it?) This is why the opening statements of the PTBT explain the desire for the future elimination of all weapons while settling for restrictions in the present.

During the Carter administration in the late 1970s and early 1980s, discussions about a total test ban began at the United Nations. Although Carter's efforts would not come to fruition, the issue of a comprehensive test ban was picked up later in the 1980s on the initiative of Mikhail Gorbachev.

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, which has been signed but not ratified, bans all nuclear tests and explosions, including all of those described in the PTBT, as well as underground testing and peaceful detonations. The treaty will remain out of force until it has been ratified by the following nations: Democratic People's Republic of Korea, India, Pakistan, China, Egypt, Iran, Israel, and the United States.

And we wonder why we can't have nice things.