Department of Defense Files: Telegram
The British Prime Mmister (Attlee) to President Truman
Number 2. Personal. Thank you for your telegram number 1 of August 9th.72 Since its receipt I have read the admirable statement which you included in your broadcast of August 9th73 which in fact amounts to a declaration of intentions of the kind I had in mind. In these circumstances I think that any joint declaration should wait until the means of control and the implications in the field of international relations have been more fully considered between those concerned. In the meantime I propose myself to issue as soon as possible a statement in the following terms. I hope that all this will be in accordance with your views.
“Since I issued a statement on the day of the release of the first atomic bomb, nearly a week ago, the vast and terrible effects of this new invention have made themselves felt. The last of our enemies has offered surrender. The events of these tremendous days reinforce the words in that statement to the effect that we must pray that the discovery which led to the production of the atomic bomb will be made to conduce to peace among the nations, and that instead of wreaking measureless havoc upon the entire globe, it may become a perennial fountain of world prosperity. President Truman in his broadcast of August 9th has spoken of the preparation of plans for the future control of the bomb, and of a request to Congress to cooperate to the end that its production and use may be controlled and that its power may be made an overwhelming influence towards world peace. It is the intention of His Majesty’s Government to put all their efforts into the promotion of the objects thus foreshadowed, and they will lend their full cooperation to the end.”74
- See footnote 69, p. 37.↩
- Reference is to President Truman’s Report to the Nation on the Potsdam Conference; for text, see Department of State Bulletin, August 12, 1945, p. 208.↩
- The text of this statement by Prime Minister Attlee as released is printed in The Times (London), August 13, 1945, p. 4, col. 6.↩