The U.S.'s self-imposed one-year suspension of nuclear tests has stirred uneasiness at the Defense Department and the Atomic Energy Commission, mostly because it seriously hinders U.S. research on compact nuclear weapons with reduced fallout. Last week, overruling Defense and AEC objections, President Eisenhower decided to extend the nuclear-test suspension, scheduled to end on Oct. 31, for two extra months.
Behind the decision lay the fact that the U.S.-British-Soviet conference in Geneva, aimed at reaching a test-ban agreement with adequate safeguards against cheating, had just recessed its bogged-down negotiations until Oct. 12 to await the outcome of face-to-face talks between the...