Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, National Security Affairs, Volume II, Part 2

OCB files, lot 62 D 430, “President’s UN Speech”

Memorandum by the Special Assistant to the President (Jackson) to the Operations Coordinating Board¹

secret

[Washington,] December 9, 1953.

• Subject:
• Follow-up Exploitation of the President’s U.N. Address

The main points of the President’s U.N. address of December 8, 1953, particularly those dealing with the sharing of the peaceful benefits of atomic energy with the entire world, can be expected to raise the most searching domestic and international questions both as to conditions which will have to be met and as to the specific safeguards and procedures which remain to be established.

To ensure that the resultant statements and actions in the public opinion field will be in support of current U.S. national security policies, I believe that the OCB should undertake to coordinate the various follow-up activities which may be expected to take place.

It will be particularly important to impress upon world opinion the sincerity with which the United States seeks international security through the reduction of the arms burden, while at the same time avoiding any premature stimulation of false optimism regarding immediately realizable disarmament, which cannot be fulfilled under present conditions of international tensions.

Furthermore, since the President’s proposals constitute a direct challenge to the Soviets near monopoly of “peace” propaganda, it will be of the utmost importance to develop an integrated national program designed to achieve a world climate of opinion in which the proposals set forth by the President can be accepted and adhered to.

Since exploitation of the initial delivery of the speech has already been planned and implemented by an informal working group composed of the Department of State, USIA, and OCB staff representatives, I recommend:

(a) that the Board direct its Executive Officer to establish an interdepartmental working group to be chaired by a member of the OCB staff, in which the Atomic Energy Commission and the Federal Civil Defense Administration will be invited to participate;

(b) that the working group note the actions already taken or under way, including the carrying out of recommendations under NSC 151² and, as a matter of urgency, develop for the Board’s approval specific programs for follow-up exploitation of the President’s U.N. speech in both the domestic and international public opinion fields.

C. D.

1. Copies to Elmer Staats and George A. Morgan, Executive Officer and Deputy Executive Officer, respectively, of the Operations Coordinating Board. Source text is accompanied by a memorandum of transmittal “for action” from the Director of the Executive Secretariat Walter K. Scott to the Operations Coordinator Walter Radius, dated Dec. 10, 1953.
2. Dated May 8, p. 1150.