Department of State Atomic Energy Files
Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, by Mr. R. Gordon Arneson67
At 12:50 PM Secretary Wallace returned Mr. Baruch’s call. Messrs. Hancock, Swope, Farrell, Gordon, Johnson, Lindsay, and Arneson were present while Mr. Baruch talked to him.
Mr. Baruch told the Secretary that he was sorry to learn about his letter of July 23. If Mr. Wallace had spent just a few minutes with us before writing it, the various mis-statements of fact that the letter now contains could easily have been avoided. He said that their associations in the past had been such that he thought it was incumbent on each of them to discuss such matters in advance. He felt that both of them were anxious to do what was right, and their associations in the past had been on the basis of mutual understanding, and that he was sorry that the Secretary had not kept this necessity in mind in the instant case.
Mr. Baruch invited Mr. Wallace to come up to see him in order that they might go over the public documents in which the United States position has been amply spelled out. Whoever furnished Mr. Wallace with the information on which the letter was based had clearly transmitted gross errors of fact. He urged Mr. Wallace to come up as soon as possible in order that the rift that now existed between them might be prevented from becoming deeper. Mr. Baruch pointed out that he was as concerned as Wallace was about the increasing difficulty of seeing eye to eye with the Russians. The U.S. Delegation to the A.E.C. has exercised extreme care in working with the Russian Delegation and was doing everything in its power to understand and to take into account their point of view.
Mr. Baruch urged that Mr. Wallace consider seriously correcting [Page 938] the errors of fact in the July 23 letter. To this Mr. Wallace apparently replied that since he had been muzzled by the President he was in no position to make any public statement whatever on this matter. In reply, Mr. Baruch stated that the decision of course was up to Mr. Wallace, that we wanted him to make such corrections, and that if he felt that he was unable to do it himself, we would undertake to say it for him—and in our own words.
Mr. Baruch reminded Mr. Wallace that the proposals put forth on June 14 were in fact the official U.S. policy which had been approved paragraph by paragraph by President Truman himself. Mr. Wallace’s attack, therefore, on the Baruch Plan was actually an attack on official U.S. policy.
Mr. Baruch urged again in the interests of the country and in the interest of relations between them, that Mr. Wallace come up promptly to discuss this matter in detail. Mr. Wallace had clearly been misinformed as to the facts concerning our proposals and it was time that he got the facts straight. We are faced with a delicate situation which requires prompt attention.
In response to Mr. Wallace’s suggestion that he would like to bring Dr. Condon68 with him, Mr. Baruch replied that Mr. Wallace could bring with him anyone he wished to. He urged, however, that it be done soon, otherwise their relations would be very seriously damaged. Mr. Baruch stated that the decision was up to Mr. Wallace whether he wanted to come up or not, but that he should understand that if he didn’t we would be compelled to bring this issue to the attention of the public.
After he had finished talking with Mr. Wallace, Mr. Baruch told us that Wallace would call him back in a short while.