Office of the Historian

501.BC Atomic/6–2746

Memorandum by Mr. James E. Doyle, Assistant to the Counselor (Cohen), to the Under Secretary of State (Acheson)7

[Washington,] June 27, 1946.

I think the most important thing by far is that the current negotiations on the UN Atomic Energy Commission should be held strictly to exploring the nature of the problem of the control of atomic energy. This means that the discussions should be directed to the functions of an international authority on atomic energy. It seems to me unwise even to branch out to the enforcement problem now, and clearly unwise to branch out from atomic energy to the entire field of disarmament.

SPA’s views on the telegram (through Mr. Blaisdell) are that the USSR has not in fact seized the moral leadership, that inspection is probably not the “basic issue” presently, that the USSR has not grasped the initiative, that the United States may not desire to agree to “unhampered inspection of military establishments and means of production”, and that the Embassy in Moscow may be unable to evaluate more than “the one vital factor” to which it refers.

  1. The source text bears the following handwritten addition by Mr. Doyle: “This refers to Moscow’s 2013 of June 27, 1946.”↩