Sept. 15, 1961 - The United States resumed atomic testing today by setting off a small underground explosion in Nevada. It was the first atomic weapons test by the U.S. since Oct. 30, 1958, when testing was voluntarily suspended in a futile attempt to reach a test-ban agreement with the Soviet Union. In announcing the explosion, President Kennedy (pictured at the Vienna Summit with Premier Khrushchev in June) said the U.S. had been "forced reluctantly" to renew testing because "the Soviet Union, without warning but after a great deal of preparation, resumed testing in the atmosphere." The announcement emphasized that the detonation had "produced no fallout." It said that "this is in marked contrast to Soviet nuclear tests in the atmosphere." The underground explosion took place deep in a tunnel dug into a mesa in the Nevada desert 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
