151 



Minister Churchill at the Bermuda conferences of 1953, and receiving 

 British encouragement, President Eisenhower offered his Atoms for 

 Peace proposal in an address to the General Assembly of the United 

 Nations, December 8, 1953. 33 



Speaking first of the destructive potential of nuclear weapons, the 

 President emphasized two atomic realities of the day : (1) knowledge 

 of atomic power which some nations then possessed would eventually 

 be shared by others; and (2) even a vast superiority in numbers of 

 nuclear weapons would not prevent the damage and toll of human 

 lives that could be inflicted by surprise aggression. Even against the 

 most powerful defense, he said, an aggressor having enough atomic 

 bombs for a surprise attack could probably inflict hideous damage on 

 chosen targets. What, then, should be done? The consequences of in- 

 action were too forbidding to accept. He said : 3i 



To pause there would be to confirm the hopeless finality of a belief that two 

 atomic colossi are doomed malevolently to eye each other indefinitely across a 

 trembling world. To stop there would be to accept helplessly the probability of 

 civilization destroyed — the annihilation of the irreplaceable heritage of mankind 

 handed down to us from generation to generation — and the condemnation of man- 

 kind to begin all over again the age old struggle upward from savagery toward 

 decency, and right, and justice. 



The President proposed to promote peaceful uses of nuclear power 

 as a way to reverse the trend of atomic military buildup. Nuclear ma- 

 terials committed to peaceful purposes would not be available for 

 weapons. To this end, he proposed that the nuclear nations of the 

 world, primarily the United States and U.S.S.K., contribute fissionable 

 materials to an international pool that would be administered by an 

 International Atomic Energy Agency. This pool would provide fuel 

 for abundant electrical energy to the power-starved areas of the world. 

 The initial contributions to the pool would be small. However, the pro- 

 posal had the great virtue, said the President, that it could be under- 

 taken without the irritations and mutual suspicions incident to any 

 attempt to set up a system of worldwide inspection and control. Elabo- 

 rating on his proposal, the President said : 35 



The Atomic Energy Agency could be made responsible for the impounding, 

 storage, and protection of the contributed fissionable and other materials. The 

 ingenuity of our scientists will provide special safe conditions under which such 

 a bank of fissionable material can be made essentially immune to surprise 

 seizure. 



The more important responsibility of this Atomic Energy Agency would be to 

 devise methods whereby this fissionable material would be allocated to serve the 

 peaceful pursuits of mankind. Experts would be mobilized to supply atomic 

 energy to the needs of agriculture, medicine, and other peaceful activities. A 

 special purpose would be to provide abundant electrical energy in the power- 

 starved areas of the world. 



The President specifically invited participation of the Soviet Union 

 and committed himself to seek the legislation necessary for the United 

 States to carry out its part of the proposals. 



Within the United Nations, the response to the Atoms for Peace 

 proposal was instantaneous and favorable. The speech was scored as 

 a victory for the United States in international affairs by undercut- 



m "Address bv the President before the United Nations General Assembly," Congressional 

 Record, vol. 100. January 7, 1954, pp. 61-63. 



34 Ibid., p. 62. 



35 Loc. cit. 



