Editorial Note
On September 23, Secretary of State Dulles addressed the United Nations General Assembly on the theme “Partnership for Peace”. During his remarks, Secretary Dulles reviewed what he characterized as the frustrating negotiations with the Soviet Union concerning implementation of President Eisenhower’s proposals of December 8, 1953.
The Secretary then continued: “The United States remains ready to negotiate with the Soviet Union. But we shall no longer suspend our efforts to establish an international atomic agency.” The Secretary expressed firm determination that the President’s proposals not die but be “nurtured and developed.” He then stated: “The United States is proposing an agenda item which will enable us to report on our efforts to explore and develop the vast possibilities for the peaceful uses of atomic energy. These efforts have been and will be directed primarily toward the following ends:
“(1) The creation of an international agency, whose initial membership will include nations from all regions of the world. It is hoped that such an agency will start its work as early as next year. (2) The calling of an international scientific conference to consider this whole vast subject, to meet in the spring of 1955, under the auspices of the United Nations. (3) The opening early next year, in the United States, of a reactor training school where students from abroad may learn the working principles of atomic energy with specific regard to its peacetime uses. (4) The invitation to a substantial number of medical and surgical experts from abroad to participate in the work of our cancer hospitals—in which atomic [Page 1520] energy techniques are among the most hopeful approaches to controlling this menace to mankind.”
In conclusion, Dulles stressed that “our planning excludes no nation from participation in this great venture.”
Following the Secretary’s address, Representative Lodge requested the Secretary-General to place “an item entitled International co-operation in developing the peaceful uses of atomic energy: report of the United States of America’” on the agenda of the General Assembly “as an important and urgent question”. Lodge delivered a statement on the subject before the General Committee on September 24.
The texts of the Secretary of State’s “Partnership for Peace” address, the United States request to the Secretary-General (UN doc. A/2734, September 23), and Ambassador Lodge’s statement of September 24 are printed in Department of State Bulletin, October 4, 1954, pages 471–477.