III. The Postwar Paradox : Cold War and Internationalism 



The historical setting for U.S. diplomatic efforts aimed at the inter- 

 national control of atomic energy contained two opposite and irrecon- 

 cilable trends. On the one hand, the end of World War II had wit- 

 nessed the emergence of two great powers, the United States and the 

 Soviet Union, whose basic ideologies were intrinsically at odds with 

 one another. The early years of the postwar period when the Baruch 

 plan was being negotiated were to reveal a growing antagonism in 

 United States-Soviet relations which was to become known as the cold 

 war. On the other hand, there also emerged a widespread attitude of 

 international cooperation in world affairs, as, in June 1945, the diverse' 

 powers attempted to establish a framework for peace through the 

 United Nations, an organization which was to receive a serious chal- 

 lenge in its attempts to establish international control of atomic energy. 

 And despite the increasing awareness of the widening breach between 

 the United States and the Soviet Union, efforts were made to achieve 

 some measure of cooperation between the two countries, e.g., the post- 

 war conferences of ministers. 



Preparation for International Control Efforts 



On the international level, a major concern was the control of atomic 

 energy, both as a means of destruction and as a new power which 

 could benefit mankind, and the nations of the world acted to set up 

 international machinery to cope with this problem. The first step was 

 an agreement among those powers which had been involved in the 

 development of atomic energy during the war, the United States, 

 Great Britain, and Canada. Meetings were held in Washington among 

 President Hairy S. Truman, British Prime Minister Clement Attlee, 

 and Canadian Prime Minister W. L. Mackenzie King; as noted above, 

 the resulting agreement of November 15, 1945 is known as the Three 

 Nation Agreed Declaration. In it, the three countries declared their 

 intention to share with all nations the scientific information associated 

 with atomic energy for peaceful purposes. However, the Declaration 

 acknowledged the dilemma posed by the practical applications of 

 atomic energy, in that much of the information necessary to carry out 

 the industrial applications was virtually the same as that needed for 

 weapons production. It was agreed, therefore, that it was necessary to 

 withhold this information until appropriate safeguards could be es- 

 tablished to insure that it would be used only for peaceful purposes. 

 To this end, the three heads of state suggested that the United Nations 

 Organization set up a Commission which would make recommendations 

 on the question of international control to the United Nations. 5 



Russian agreement to the principles of the Three Nation Agreed 

 I teclaration was obtained the next month, at the Conference of Minis- 

 ters in Moscow, and was made public on December 27 in the Moscow 



'For a complete text of the Three Nation Agreed Declaration, sre U.S. Department 

 of State The international Control of Atomic Energy, drouth of a Policy, Publication 

 •J702 (Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing office, 1946), pp. 118-120. 



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