Foreign Relations of the United States, 1946, General; the United Nations, Volume I

Department of State Atomic Energy Files

Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. John M. Hancock of the United States Delegation to the Atomic Energy Commission ²⁰

[Extract]

[New York,] April 19, 1946.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . In going over the substance of the report²¹ he [Dr. Oppenheimer] added some points which I thought worth noting:

First, that Western Europe is very much concerned about atomic energy and atomic bombs.

Second, he recognizes the difficulty of developing tests without accepting other nations into the program. The committee thinks some plan has to be worked out which will not infringe sovereignty beyond an acceptable extent. Happily the problem is made easier by the fact that there are no vested interests outside of our own.

Third, he thinks it is important to get the knowledge in the intelligence field as to what Russia has, what she plans to do.

Fourth, he thinks the proposed system is entirely incompatible with the present Russian system. He thinks the plan of procedure should be to make an honorable proposal and thus find out whether they have the will to cooperate.

Fifth, he seems to put great faith in the idea that the American people will act quickly if some foreign nation gets off the reservation. I wonder whether it will be a repetition of the German and Japanese naval and military rearmament program which lacked only official statement as to its existence. Everyone knew quite well what Germany and Japan were doing, but the rest of us did not prepare and I doubt that we would have gone to war had we had the information officially. I think it will take a lot of a strain on the moral fibre of America to make an attack with the atomic bombs because some foreign nation gets off the reservation. At any rate, that is the crux of the issue before us.

J[ohn] M. H[ancock]

20. This memorandum describes a discussion with Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer which occurred at Mr. Baruch’s home on April 5; it has not been determined which members of the United States Delegation other than Mr. Hancock were present (Department of State Atomic Energy Files)
21. A Report on the International Control of Atomic Energy, March 16, 1946, Department of State Publication 2498, (Washington, 1946), the report of the Secretary of State’s Committee.