Partial Test Ban Treaty: Resources

It's the end of the world as we know it, and, frankly, no one feels fine. Just ask the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which keeps track of the time on the Doomsday Clock—a clock face that symbolically represents how close the planet is to a nuclear holocaust. In January 2017, the clock was moved 30 seconds closer to midnight, i.e., the end of the world.

That puts us at two-and-a-half minutes to midnight. Oh, good.

The Atomic Heritage Foundation is an organization that is all about the history and memory of the Manhattan Project and the Atomic Age.

The United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs isn't about offering support to politicians who cheat on their spouses. It works toward controlling and eliminating weapons of military aggression worldwide. The group takes special interest in the disarmament and discontinuation of weapons of mass destruction (which, in some cases, could be used to describe certain marriages).

Dr. Strangelove, Stanley Kubrick's 1964 black comedy about Cold War hysteria and the obsession with the nuclear bomb makes for an unsettling bit of entertainment. This bizarre and disturbing film features an outstanding cast, including an incredibly versatile performance by Peter Sellers, who plays three different characters.

Or anyone, really. Threads is a 1984 British made-for-TV movie that does its best to accurately depict the circumstances of a nuclear attack. It's considered one of the grimmest films ever made, so watch with care. Just think—this was on regular television.

No, we're not talking about the Doomsday Clock this time, we're actually talking about Rocky IV. This might seem like a strange choice here, but not all Cold War-era films about the Cold War were chock-full of espionage and atomic anxiety. In this epic boxing flick, we see American boxer Rocky Balboa compete against the aptly and simply named Soviet boxer Drago. It's a thinly veiled allegory about world politics at the time.

The year 2017 brought a lot of interesting changes to the world, especially regarding the political situation in the United States. There's a lot of speculation about what might or might not happen. Here's just one take on current affairs as they pertain to nuclear energy in the 21st century.

Twenty-five years into the treaty, and we were still trying to get up that great big hill of hope. Check out this opinion article in The New York Times reflecting on the successes and failures of the PTBT—a quarter century after its ratification.

The Guardian provides an assessment of the lasting impact of the Castle Bravo nuclear test on Bikini Atoll 60 years after its detonation.

In the spring of 2017, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory declassified more than 200 films documenting atmospheric nuclear tests. Now, you can watch them all from the comfort of your own fallout shelter.

In this lengthy interview, Spurgeon Keeny (yes, his name is Spurgeon), senior fellow at the National Academy of Sciences and former president and director of the Arms Control Association, talks about the PTBT on the 40th anniversary of its ratification. Grab a bowl of popcorn, folks. Edge of your seat entertainment here.

In this bit of historical footage, we see JFK addressing the nation on the PTBT a few days before it was signed in Moscow.

Just in case your video player or whatever isn't working, the JFK presidential library has kindly provided some historical radio records of the 35th prez addressing the nation on the PTBT a few days before it was signed in Moscow.

The White House is one well-equipped facility that documents nearly everything—because you never know when something historic is going to happen. This means that a lot of historical events have been collected, including conversations between presidents and their advisors. This is one example, of JFK talking with Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs McGeorge Bundy and Deputy Special Assistant to the President Walt Rostow about meeting with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, French President Charles de Gaulle, and British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan about the PTBT.

No doubt one of the more awkward images in the JFK library's archive, here we have John F. Kennedy meeting with Nikita Khrushchev and maybe having a moment…but probably not.

A beautiful, full-color photograph of JFK signing the PTBT, complete with a crowd of solemn-looking old men and some brocade curtains à la Scarlett O'Hara.

That's one mean missile you've got there. If there is one thing the Soviet Union never quite got, it was subtlety.