Editing Alec Douglas-Home (section)

=== Nuclear Test Ban Treaty ===
The principal landmark of Home's term as Foreign Secretary was also in the sphere of east–west relations: the negotiation and signature of the [[Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty]] in 1963. He got on well with his American and Soviet counterparts, Rusk and [[Andrei Gromyko]]. The latter wrote that whenever he met Home there were "no sudden, still less brilliant, breakthroughs" but "each meeting left a civilised impression that made the next meeting easier." Gromyko concluded that Home added sharpness to British foreign policy.{{Sfnp|Gromyko|1989|p=159}} Gromyko, Home and Rusk signed the treaty in Moscow on 5 August 1963.<ref name="timesban">{{Cite news |date=6 August 1963 |title=Three Ministers Sign Test Ban Treaty in Moscow |work=The Times |page=8}}</ref> After the fear provoked internationally by the Cuban Missile Crisis, the ban on nuclear testing in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water was widely welcomed as a step towards ending the cold war.<ref name=timesban/> For the British government the good news from Moscow was doubly welcome for drawing attention away from the [[Profumo affair]], a sexual scandal involving [[John Profumo|a senior minister]], which had left Macmillan's government looking vulnerable.<ref>Thorpe (1997), p. 267</ref>