109. Diary Entry by Ann C. Whitman, February 6, 19561
President talked to Andy Goodpaster about the disarmament proposal of Harold Stassen.2
[Page 317]President: “I am convinced that there has got to be something more of meat, if we are going to send a special delegation to Moscow, if I am to send a special message to Congress and appear before the American public. It is almost like using the Soviet approach and that I deplore—the technique of reiteration and reiteration.
“Harold Stassen is probably feeling a great deal of pressure because he must get ready for the next meeting (next Disarmament meeting of UN). We must do one of two things:
- (a)
- Tell Stassen to continue for the moment on the same old line. (Difficulty about that is that we have promised to give Britain an answer this week regarding reduction of our forces to 2,500,000.) There is the added factor that nothing is so illusory as reduction of armament through reduction of men—the treaty of Versailles—all depends on how you use your forces.
- (b)
- Second course of action, which is to see if we can push ahead instantly with such parts of the program as seem to us to have good sense, and then to add something else to it.
Lewis Strauss is suggesting something that, almost word for word, I suggested in September of 1953—that the U.S. stands ready to put into a common pool for the benefit of the world as much fissionable material as the rest of the world combined.3 He further proposes that we make 20,000 kg. available for distribution in the world in power reactors (1,000 to the UN without cost, 5,000 to EURATOM) to be paid for, and the other 14,000 to be distributed throughout the world to be paid for, on terms acceptable to all the nations who want to participate. This would be a great step.
This is the only way we can justify plant.
Suggestion #1 President considers “too much talk about too little.”
- Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, ACW Diary. Secret.↩
- Not printed. Stassen’s memorandum to the Vice President; Secretaries of State, the Treasury, and Defense; Attorney General; Directors of ODM, Bureau of the Budget, USIA, and CIA; Chairmen of the JCS and the AEC; Representative at the United Nations Lodge, and the Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, February 2, contained three attachments: a draft message to Congress, a draft letter to Bulganin, and a draft message to the people of the United States. (Department of State, Central Files, 600.0012/2–256)↩
- Eisenhower is presumably referring to the proposal in his “Atoms for Peace” speech to the U.N. General Assembly on December 8, 1953.↩