Department of State Atomic Energy Files
Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. Franklin A. Lindsay72
Subject: Conversation with Dean Acheson, Friday, Nov. 8, 1946 (Messrs. Hancock and Lindsay)
With respect to proposed University of Chicago meeting, Mr. Acheson stated that he had asked Kennan not to attend the session.
Acheson had seen the President that morning concerning our proposed course of action and the President was writing Mr. Baruch a letter confirming the Secretary of State’s recent note.73
We discussed the form in which the political questions should be put. Acheson fully agreed that there was no advantage in bringing up the easy questions first, but that we should begin with the basic fundamentals of international control. He took the position that this report should not be considered as final but rather as an interim report. We suggested that it might be in the form of a single report which could be accepted unanimously by the Commission and which would include:
- a)
- Areas of complete agreement,
- b)
- The principles which the United States and its friends supported, and
- c)
- The position held by Russia and Poland.
Such a report would have the advantage of highlighting the basic differences between us without forcing the Russians at this time to take a public stand against our proposals. This might make it easier for them to reverse their position at a later date.
In respect to the Molotov resolution on disarmament, rather than an attempt to revise the Molotov resolutions (an indirect attack) except when final action and vote is in order, Acheson agreed with Hancock that our initial approach should be a direct attack and should say in effect, “We have already been negotiating for nearly a year on disarmament in the field in which the Russians are weakest and in which we are the strongest. We have had no success whatsoever. Under such circumstances, it seems unthinkable that the Russians are sincere in their proposal for general disarmament in other fields in which they hold the advantage.” Acheson asked that he be kept informed of our progress and added that the Secretary of State sometimes neglected to keep him informed.