CAN YOU TELL US WHAT DID PRESIDENT EISENHOWER SET OUT TO ACCOMPLISH WITH THE ATOMS FOR PEACE PLAN?

When he came to office, President Eisenhower was deeply concerned about the long terms implications of nuclear weapons. He agreed with the Oppenheimer Report that as the Soviet capability grew, each side would have the capacity to devastate the other. So therefore from the very beginning he was anxious to see whether there were any ways of controlling nuclear or reducing nuclear weapons in order to reduce this threat. His Atoms for Peace proposal which he put forward in the UN in December of '53 grew out of this interest and, uh, the desire to find some place to begin this effort toward control. He was conscious that, uh, various large proposals like total and complete disarmament, uh, were totally impractical under the circumstances. He was aware of the deep suspicions on both sides and of the resistance by the Soviets to any effective inspection. The atoms for peace was intended in his mind I believe to try to get around this, uh, these obstacles and still have something which could be agreed on a beginning. The Atoms for Peace essentially proposed that both sides begin to make contributions of fissile material to some kind of international agency at some agreed rate. Uh, this would be then used for peaceful purposes. One other purpose it seems to me was to dramatize the fact that the atom, while it was threatening in its military form, also had the potential of being useful to mankind in peaceful uses such as the production of energy and other purposes. Uh, he, he, uh, felt that the proposal was valuable because transfers of this sort would not require any inspection on either side. And I don't think he had any inflated ideas that the proposal itself was gonna result in any great control of the atom. But I think ne hoped that if the two sides could start negotiating on something like this which was relatively noncontroversial that they might then move on and do other more, uh, serious kinds of limitations.

HOW WAS ATOMS FOR PEACE RECEIVED BY THE STATE DEPARTMENT AND DEFENSE DEPARTMENTS? DID THEY INFLUENCE THE DRAFTING OF THE SPEECH AT ALL?

The, uh, Atoms for Peace proposal and speech were developed over, uh, a period of months in 1953 before it was given in December. The reason was that the scope of the speech was debated particularly between the defense department and the state department and C. D. Jackson who was the President's special adviser on, uh, this range of issues and Admiral Dawes who was in charge of the AEC. The point was that the, uh, defense department was not eager to see any major arms control initiative, uh, because they felt that it would interfere with their shift of strategy to the new look. The state department was concerned for quite other reasons. They were in the midst of trying to bring Germany into NATO and to foster uh, the building of the NATO structure... And they did not want to see a diversion from focus on that, uh, as a result of what they felt to be, uh, unprofitable negotiations on atomic issues. The result was that there was a good deal of pulling and hauling as to what the speech should attempt to do and exactly how, uh, what should be proposed to the Soviets for purposes of negotiation.

TO WHAT EXTENT DID ATOMS FOR PEACE HAVE POLITICAL GOALS, AND WAS IT A PROPAGANDA PLOY AS SORT OF A COLD WAR TACTIC?

To my mind Eisenhower was genuinely interested in trying to make some start, however small, in negotiations with the Soviet Union with respect to atom... the atom and uh, nuclear weapons. I do not think the atoms for peace proposal was primarily motivated by propaganda purposes Nevertheless, it was clear- that he was attempting to get the United States in the public mind on the side of a positive approach to the atom both in terms of the possible peaceful uses and second in proposing that the United States at least was prepared to try to start some means of controlling this threat of nuclear war.

WHAT DO YOU THINK ATOMS FOR PEACE ACHIEVED? WAS IT MEANT TO BE A NON-PROLIFERATION MEASURE IN SOME WAYS?

Atoms for Peace, I think, was intended primarily as a small initiative, uh, for the purpose of beginning some negotiations for the control of the atom as between the United States and the Soviet Union. It was not, I think, at that time visualized as a prolif... non-proliferation measure. The threat of proliferation wasn't in the forefront of people's concerns. Uh, the growing American and Soviet stockpiles were. And in a certain sense, uh, because atoms for peace called for creation of experimental reactors all around the world and training of technicians and engineers in many countries, uh, I suppose that it may have, uh, uh, er, hastened the possibility of proliferation. Uh, however, it also did set up this international agency which is... which develops series of guidelines and methods of inspection, uh, of the peaceful facilities which has probably over time contributed greatly to the reduction or the risk of proliferation.