1979

The Conference on Disarmament is formed.

Nine kilograms of weapons grade uranium are found to be missing from a nuclear fuel plant in Erwin, Tennessee.

March 31
Helen Caldicott's anti-nuclear speech in Boston is heard by thousands instead of the anticipated hundreds. She rejuvenates Physicians for Social Responsibility, the organization that drew attention to the radiation pollution of human breast milk and children's teeth by strontium-90 in the 1960's, due to atmospheric nuclear explosions.

May 11
Admiral of the Fleet the Earl Mountbatten accepts the award of the Louise Weiss Foundation Prize to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). He states, "A new world war can hardly fail to involve the all-out use of nuclear weapons. Such a war would not drag on for years. It could all be over in a matter of days. And when it is all over what will the world be like? Our fine great buildings, our homes will exist no more. The thousands of years it took to develop our civilization will have been in vain. Our works of art will be lost. Radio, television, newspapers will disappear. There will be no means of transport. There will be no hospitals. No help can be expected for the few mutilated survivors in any town to be sent from a neighboring town-there will be no neighboring towns left, no neighbors, there will be no help, there will be no hope."

June 18
President Jimmy Carter and General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev sign the Second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT II)) in Vienna, Austria. The Treaty establishes a ceiling of 2,400 strategic offensive weapons and limits Multiple Independently-targeted Reentry Vehicles (MIRV) to 1,320 launchers.

August 7
Highly enriched Uranium is released from a secret nuclear-fuel plant near Erwin, Tennessee, and about 1,000 people are contaminated with up to five times as much radiation as they would normally receive a year.

September 22
A nuclear explosion occurs over the South Indian Ocean off the Cape of Good Hope, possibly conducted by Israel, with the assistance of South Africa.

November 9
A simulated missile attack accidentally fed into the American early warning system fools operators. During the six minutes it takes to discover that the attack is not authentic, fighters from bases in the United States and Canada take off, and missile and submarine installations worldwide are placed on alert.

December
President Jimmy Carter requests a considerable increase in defense spending and signs Presidential Directive 59, calling on the US to develop and maintain the capability to wage a protracted nuclear war.

December 12
As part of its "Double-Track" strategy NATO decides to deploy additional intermediate-range nuclear missiles (Cruise Missiles and Pershing II) in Europe and simultaneously to negotiate for their removal.

December 27
President Jimmy Carter withdraws the SALT II Treaty from consideration by the Senate for ratification as a result of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. [see June 18, 1979]