13 



destruction, the provisions of the Charter dealing with disarmament and the 

 regulation of armaments would have been far more emphatic and realistic. 18 



Secretary of State Dean Rusk : 



Today the United States has operational weapons in its arsenal hundreds of 

 times as destructive as that first atom bomb. The Polaris and Minuteman missiles 

 are armed with warheads tens of times as powerful. The Soviets also have weap- 

 ons of great destructive power. 



The hard fact is that a full-scale nuclear exchange could erase all that man has 

 built over the centuries. War has devoured itself because it can devour the 

 world. * * * 



No responsible man will deny we live in a world of vast and incalculable 

 risks. Where decisions may be required in minutes, we must be constantly on 

 guard against the accident or miscalculation that can lead where no one wants to 

 go. A local conflict anywhere around the globe in which the interests of the great 

 powers are engaged might suddenly pose the prospect of nuclear war. 14 



Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson : 



* * * We have lost an important battle in technology. That has been demon- 

 strated by the satellites that are whistling above our heads. 13 



Unanimous statement by Senate Preparedness Subcommittee: 



We began with a simple — but revolutionary — fact. It was that for the first 

 time in all history a manmade satellite was placed into orbit around the earth. 



There were many who realized that this was an inevitable development of the 

 march of science. But the circumstances under which it happened were startling 

 and brought into sharp focus facts which had been known previously but not 

 fully appreciated. 



We had expected to be first with this achievement. In fact, we have yet to prove 

 second. * * * 



From the beginning, however, it developed that there was much more at stake 

 than the prestige of being "first". * * * 



[This achievement by the Soviet Union 1 has two important implications. 



First, it demonstrates beyond question that the Soviet Union has the propulsive 

 force to hurl a missile from one continent to another. 



Second, the Soviet Union has gathered basic information about outer space. 

 * * * It can now be said: 



* * * The Soviet Union has led the world into outer space. * * * 



We are engaged in a race for survival and we intend to win that race. But the 

 truly worthwhile goal is a world of peace — the only world in which there will 

 also be security. 



The immediate objective is to defend ourselves. But the equally important 

 objective is to reach the hearts and minds of men everywhere so the day will come 



13 Address by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles before the American Bar Asso- 

 ciation, August 26, 1953. However, according to Bernhard G. Bechhoefer ["Postwar Nego- 

 tiations for Arms Control," Brookings Institution, 1961, p. 28] : "Dulles' statement that 

 the delegates at San Francisco knew nothing of the bomb is not literally correct." Among 

 those present who knew were Secretary of State Stettinius, Assistant Secretary of War 

 John J. McCloy, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Artemus Gates, Assistant Secretary of 

 State Clement Dunn, British Ambassador Lord Halifax, and perhaps others. 



14 "Statement of Hon. Dean Rusk, Secretary of State." In U.S. Congress. Senate. Com- 

 mittee on Foreign Relations. Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Hearings before the * * * on 

 Executive M. 88th Congress, 1st Session. The treaty banning nuclear weapon tests in the 

 atmosphere, in outer space, and underwater, signed at Moscow on August 5, 1963, on 

 behalf of the United States of America, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and 

 Northern Ireland, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, August 12, 13, 14, 15, 19, 

 20, 21. 22, 23, 26, and 27, 1963. 88th Congress, first session. (Washington, U.S. Govern- 

 ment Printing Office, 1963), p. 12. 



15 Statement by Chairman Lyndon B. Johnson to Preparedness Investigating Subcom- 

 mittee Nov. 25, 1957. (The Sputnik had been launched Oct. 4, 1957.) In U.S. Congress. 

 Senate. Committee on Armed Services. Inquiry Into Satellite and Missile Programs. Hear- 

 ings before the Preparedness Investigating Subcommittee of the * * * Part I. Novem- 

 ber 25, 26, 27, December 13, 14, 16, and 17, 1957, January 10, 13, 15, 16, 19, 20, 

 21 and 23, 1958. 85th Congress, first and second sessions. (Washington, U.S. Government 

 Printing Office, 1958), p. 3. 



