Editing Disarmament (section)

===Nuclear disarmament===
{{Main|Nuclear disarmament}} 
[[File:US and USSR nuclear stockpiles.svg|thumb| [[United States]] and [[USSR]]/[[Russia]]n [[nuclear weapons]] stockpiles, 1945–2006. These numbers include warheads not actively deployed, including those on reserve status or scheduled for dismantlement. Stockpile totals do not necessarily reflect nuclear capabilities since they ignore size, range, type, and delivery mode.]]
[[File:Dismantling of missile launch tubes under Cooperative Threat Reduction program..jpg|thumb|Workers cut launch tubes for nuclear missiles as part of the [[Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction|Cooperative Threat Reduction program]].]]

Nuclear disarmament refers to both the act of reducing or eliminating [[nuclear weapons]] and to the end state of a nuclear-free world, in which nuclear weapons are completely eliminated.

In the United Kingdom, the [[Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament]] (CND) held an inaugural public meeting at [[Central Hall, Westminster]], on 17 February 1958, attended by five thousand people. After the meeting a few hundred left to demonstrate at [[Downing Street]].<ref name=Minnion>John Minnion and Philip Bolsover (eds), ''The CND Story'', [[Allison and Busby]], 1983, {{ISBN|0-85031-487-9}}.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://spartacus-educational.com/PREcnd.htm |title=Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) |publisher=Spartacus-Educational.com |access-date=2019-02-27 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514024607/http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PREcnd.htm |archive-date=2011-05-14 }}</ref>

CND's declared policies were the unconditional renunciation of the use, production of or dependence upon nuclear weapons by Britain and the bringing about of a general disarmament convention. The first [[Aldermaston Marches|Aldermaston March]] was organised by the CND and took place at [[Easter]] 1958, when several thousand people marched for four days from [[Trafalgar Square]], London, to the [[Atomic Weapons Establishment|Atomic Weapons Research Establishment]] close to [[Aldermaston]] in [[Berkshire]], England, to demonstrate their opposition to nuclear weapons.<ref name=CND>[http://www.cnduk.org/pages/binfo/hist.html A brief history of CND]</ref><ref name=GuardianUnlimited:1958>{{cite news | work = [[Guardian Unlimited]] | title = Early defections in march to Aldermaston | date = 1958-04-05 | url = http://century.guardian.co.uk/1950-1959/Story/0,,105488,00.html }}</ref> The Aldermaston marches continued into the late 1960s when tens of thousands of people took part in the four-day marches.

In 1961, US President [[John F. Kennedy]] gave a speech before the UN General Assembly where he announced the US "intention to challenge the Soviet Union, not to an arms race, but to a peace race – to advance together step by step, stage by stage, until general and complete disarmament has been achieved." He went on to call for a global general and complete disarmament, offering a rough outline for how this could be accomplished:

{{cquote|<blockquote>The program to be presented to this assembly – for general and complete disarmament under effective international control – moves to bridge the gap between those who insist on a gradual approach and those who talk only of the final and total achievement. It would create machinery to keep the peace as it destroys the machinery of war. It would proceed through balanced and safeguarded stages designed to give no state a military advantage over another. It would place the final responsibility for verification and control where it belongs, not with the big powers alone, not with one's adversary or one's self, but in an international organization within the framework of the United Nations. It would assure that indispensable condition of disarmament – true inspection – and apply it in stages proportionate to the stage of disarmament. It would cover delivery systems as well as weapons. It would ultimately halt their production as well as their testing, their transfer as well as their possession. It would achieve under the eyes of an international disarmament organization, a steady reduction in force, both nuclear and conventional, until it has abolished all armies and all weapons except those needed for internal order and a new United Nations Peace Force. And it starts that process now, today, even as the talks begin. In short, general and complete disarmament must no longer be a slogan, used to resist the first steps. It is no longer to be a goal without means of achieving it, without means of verifying its progress, without means of keeping the peace. It is now a realistic plan, and a test – a test of those only willing to talk and a test of those willing to act.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/p/io/potusunga/207241.htm|title=Address by President John F. Kennedy to the UN General Assembly|publisher=U.S. Department of State}}</ref></blockquote>}}

Major [[List of anti-nuclear groups|nuclear disarmament groups]] include [[Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament]], [[Greenpeace]] and [[International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War]]. There have been many large anti-nuclear [[Demonstration (people)|demonstrations]] and [[protest]]s. On June 12, 1982, one million people demonstrated in New York City's [[Central Park]] against [[nuclear weapons]] and for an end to the [[Cold War]] [[arms race]]. It was the largest anti-nuclear [[Demonstration (people)|protest]] and the largest political demonstration in American history.<ref>Jonathan Schell. [https://www.thenation.com/article/spirit-june-12/ The Spirit of June 12] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170326232105/https://www.thenation.com/article/spirit-june-12/ |date=2017-03-26 }} ''The Nation'', July 2, 2007.</ref><ref>[http://www.icanw.org/1982 1982 - a million people march in New York City] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100616175116/http://www.icanw.org/1982 |date=June 16, 2010 }}</ref>  Following decades of campaigning the New Zealand government banned nuclear-armed and powered ships from entering the country's territorial waters in 1984 with the ban later extended to cover land and airspace.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Temocin |first=Pinar |date=2022-01-21 |title=From Protest to Politics: The Effectiveness of Civil Society in shaping the Nuclear-free Policy in Aotearoa New Zealand |url=https://commonslibrary.org/from-protest-to-politics-the-effectiveness-of-civil-society-in-shaping-the-nuclear-free-policy-in-aotearoa-new-zealand/ |access-date=2023-03-03 |website=The Commons Social Change Library |language=en-AU}}</ref>