The 1956 Presidential election campaign gave increased impetus to
the push for a test ban when candidate Adlai Stevenson suggested that
the United States unilaterally stop testing as a first step in obtaining
a
test ban
agreement with
the
Soviet Union.
Although
Stevenson
ultimately lost the election, he made test ban a partisan issue.
As
Stevenson and Eisenhower sparred on the test ban issue, the Camnmission
"conducted a seventeen shot Pacific test series called Redwing, which
further advanced the Commission's designs of nuclear weapons which
produced minimal fallout.
Within a few months of the election, and
curing the internal Eisenhower Administration sparring over positions to
take
at
the
1957
London
disarmament
conference,
Stassen virtually
separated test ban negotiations from the American disarmament package
and set the stage for separate agreement on the test ban issue.
In 1957
Albert Schweitzer added his voice to the opponents of testing, the Pope
endorsed Schweitzer's stand, and Linus Pauling obtained the signatures
of 2,000 scientists on a petition opposing testing.
That spring the
Joint Cammittee on Atomic Energy cautiously explored the health effects
of radiation in hearings held over the summer of 1957.°%
As the Eisenhower Administration moved toward test ban negotiations
the Commission stepped up the pace of testing, conducting the twentyfour shot Plumbbob series at Nevada in 1957.
The tests, which explorec
air defense and anti-submarine warheads consisted of relatively small
explosions.
The Commission also explored a novel method to prevent
fallout by testing a device deep underground.
shot
proved
undercround.
that
nuclear
weapon
tests
Consequently, the Rainier
could be
performed
entirely
Again, the Federal Civil Defense Administration anc the
Department of Defense conducted civil and military effects tests as part
of the series. 40
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