Foreign Relations of the United States, 1949, National Security Affairs, Foreign Economic Policy, Volume I

Department of State Atomic Energy Files

The Chairman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy (McMahon) to President Truman ¹

confidential

Washington, September 28, 1949.

Dear Mr. President: On July 14, 1949, I wrote letters to Secretary of Defense Johnson and to the Atomic Energy Commission (copy enclosed, classified Top Secret),² suggesting that production requirements in the field of atomic energy be increased.

Of course, I now adhere even more firmly to the views expressed in the letter of July 14, and am passing it on in the hope that you may find it helpful in considering whether or not a supplemental budget request should be forwarded to the present Congress. I particularly call your attention to the fact that since 1945 only about one-thirtieth (1/30) of our expenditures directly for national defense have been devoted to development of atomic energy.

Sincerely yours,

Brien McMahon

1. Senator McMahon addressed a separate letter to President Truman on September 28 dealing with the international control of atomic energy in light of the atomic explosion in the Soviet Union; for text, see p. 179.
2. Ante, p. 482.