600.0012/5–554
Memorandum by the Director of the Policy Planning Staff (Bowie) to the Secretary of State
top secret
Washington, May 5, 1954.
- Subject:
- NSC Consideration of Proposed Suspension of Tests of Atomic Weapons.
- 1.
- Foreign Secretary Eden has raised with you the question of discontinuing or suspending tests of atomic weapons and has reported that this proposal and its policing is considered “feasible” by the UK.1 Fifty thousand tons of TNT equivalent would be the upper allowable limit, and “observatories for monitoring” would be placed in Scandinavia, Switzerland and on the North American continent. If the Russians accepted, according to Eden, the UK would be disadvantaged and might look to us to be “as kind to the UK as possible within US laws” in supplying them with information of which they would be deprived by the moratorium on tests.
- 2.
- There has been strong world-wide reaction to the test programs and
numerous official suggestions that they be halted. The most important
are the following:
- a)
- Nehru’s proposal for suspension,2 which has been submitted to the Disarmament Commission and which will probably be considered in the course of the Disarmament Commission talks in London.
- b)
- Both houses of the Japanese Parliament have passed resolutions critical of tests and calling for effective control of atomic energy (April 5). These resolutions have been officially submitted to us.3
- c)
- The inhabitants of the Marshall Islands have submitted a petition to the UN which has been referred to the Trusteeship Council and which calls for the cessation of tests and, if this is not feasible, [Page 1420] a series of measures to circumscribe the effects on territories and populations in the Pacific.
- d)
- The Japanese Red Cross has submitted to us a petition it intends to present to an international Red Cross Conference in Norway at the end of May, calling for a suspension of tests and emphasizing the increased need for effective control of atomic energy.
- 3.
- At the request of the United States Representative to the United
Nations, the US Government has begun to consider the moratorium proposal
and it is being studied by the Atomic Energy Commission and the
Department of Defense. It is understood it would have these
disadvantages, inter alia:
- a)
- increased uncertainty with respect to the relative position of the United States and the USSR weapons programs;
- b)
- suspension would be difficult to monitor;
- c)
- the integration of atomic components into our weapons systems would be more difficult;
- d)
- the central problem of control of atomic weapons would remain and concentration on the fringe aspect might distract attention from effective control.
On the other hand:
- a)
- The suspension would increase goodwill for the United States in Asia and in Europe.
- b)
- It would alleviate the “jitters” now affecting populations within range of Soviet weapons and which is having a deleterious effect on our alliances.
- c)
- If agreement with the USSR were possible, this would contribute to the reduction of tensions and perhaps open the way to more fruitful discussions of atomic matters.
- d)
- Presumably, the USSR would be more disadvantaged by the suspension of tests than the Western world because of the relative arrears in their atomic programs.
Recommendation
That the [National] Security Council direct Defense, State and AEC to coordinate their studies of the advantages and disadvantages and to submit a report at an early date to be used as the basis for reply to the United Kingdom and possibly for devising a program for suspension of tests if the study so recommends.
Robert
Bowie