World: TEST BAN CHRONOLOGY

No diplomatic exercise could have been more wearisome and frustrating than the nuclear test ban negotiations between the West and Russia, which in one form or another have continued for more than 17 years. The milestones on the long road:

∙DECEMBER 1946—The U.N. General Assembly adopts the U.S.-sponsored Baruch Plan for international control and inspection of atomic energy facilities. Russia refuses to accept it.

∙NOVEMBER 1951—France, Britain and the U.S. submit tripartite proposals for “armament and atohi bomb regulation.” Says Russia’s Andrei Vishinsky at the U.N.: “I laughed all night.”

∙JULY 1955—President Eisenhower proposes an “open skies” inspection plan at the Geneva Summit Conference. Russia turns down the proposal.

∙NOVEMBER 1955—In the “spirit of Geneva,” Secretary of State John Foster Dulles proposes a limit on nuclear tests. Russia refuses.

∙JUNE 1957—Russia agrees in principle to on-site inspections to guard against underground tests, but refuses to specify a number.

∙AUGUST 1958—After a series of letters between Bulganin, Khrushchev and Eisenhower, Russia, Britain and the U.S. agree to begin negotiations for the suspension of nuclear tests.

∙OCTOBER 1958—The first test ban talks open in Geneva.

∙MARCH 1959—Britain and the U.S. drop their insistence that a test ban must be part of complete disarmament pact.

∙JULY 1959—Russia accepts ten Western technical proposals for detecting high-altitude tests.

∙FEBRUARY 1960—The U.S. proposes a phased test ban treaty, beginning with a cessation of atmospheric tests. Russia refuses.

∙MARCH 1960—Russia calls for a voluntary moratorium of all major tests. West refuses without adequate detection controls.

∙MAY 1960— The U-2 incident causes the collapse of the summit disarmament conference in Paris.

∙AUGUST 1960—Russia proposes three on-site inspections, countering a U.S. suggestion for 20.

∙JUNE 1961—Kennedy and Khrushchev meet in Vienna, get nowhere.

∙NOVEMBER 1961—Russia withdraws the idea of any on-site inspections, says the West wants them only to send “NATO spies” into the Soviet Union.

∙JANUARY 1962—Russia walks out of the three-power Geneva test ban talks with Britain and the U.S. after 353 meetings. Conversations continue at the 17-nation Geneva Disarmament Conference.

∙FEBRUARY 1963—U.S. scales down its demand for on-site inspections to seven. Russia again refuses, says it might agree to two or three.

∙JUNE 1963—In a series of secret communications, Kennedy and Khrushchev agree to hold high-level test ban negotiations in Moscow.

∙JULY 1963—Test ban talks in Moscow.