Foreign Relations of the United States, 1947, General; The United Nations, Volume I

501.BC Atomic/6–1347

The Secretary of State to the United States Representative at the United Nations (Austin)

top secret
No. 190

Washington, August 11, 1947.

Sir: The Department refers to the United States Mission telegram No. 566, dated June 13, 1947 (from Osborn) in which advice was solicited on the position of the United States Mission with respect to the form of the next report of the Atomic Energy Commission.

The Department has consulted with the War and Navy Departments and with the Atomic Energy Commission concerning this problem. On the basis of these discussions, it is the view of this Government: (a) that the next report of the Atomic Energy Commission should be presented in a form that will evidence the agreement of the majority on the proposals developed under Items A.1 through A.2 of AEC/C.2/16¹ which will enable the Security Council to direct the Commission to complete the task of developing specific proposals on the remaining items, and (b) that at the same time it is important that the next report of the Commission should reveal with unmistakable clarity the grave and fundamental differences between the position taken by the Soviet Union on atomic energy control and that of the United States and nine other members of the Commission.

As a method of achieving the foregoing objectives the Department looks with favor upon the suggestion made by Mr. Osborn at the meeting of the Executive Committee on Regulation of Armaments on July 10. This would provide that the next report would consist of two principal parts, the first being a presentation of the plans so far developed in Committee 2 in pursuance of the request contained in the fourth paragraph of the Security Council Resolution of March 10, 1947 (S/296)² and the second, a statement of the Soviet proposals of June 11, 1947 (AEC/24),³ together with a summary of the proceedings of the Commission at which these proposals were discussed and an indication of the areas of disagreement.

Very truly yours,

For the Secretary of State:

R. A. Lovett

1. “Summary of Principal Subjects to be Incorporated in Specific Proposals for the International Control of Atomic Energy,” the working schedule under which Committee 2 had been operating; for text, see the Second Report of the Atomic Energy Commission to the Security Council, AEC, 2nd yr., Special Suppl., pp. 5–8 passim, or Department of State Publication 2932, pp. 7–9.
2. SC, 2nd yr., No. 24, pp. 487–488.
3. AEC, 2nd yr., Plenary, pp. 21–24.