156. Editorial Note
Between September 20 and October 26, representatives of 81 nations attended an international conference at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York to work out the final text of the Statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Regarding the previous negotiations on the draft Statute, see Document 120.
At this conference a number of amendments were proposed to the draft Statute, and an amended version was adopted unanimously by the conference on October 26. Eighty of the 81 nations had signed the [Page 429] Statute during the following 90 days when the Statute was open for signature. Various articles of the Statute, including amendments, are summarized in Yearbook of the United Nations, 1956, pages 104–107.
A listing of the United States Delegation to the conference is printed in Department of State Bulletin, September 17, 1956, page 459. The welcoming address by Lewis L. Strauss at the conference on September 20 and a statement on September 24 by Ambassador James J. Wadsworth, whom President Eisenhower appointed as Representative and Chairman of the Delegation on August 2, are printed ibid., October 8, 1956, pages 535–540. Correspondence with the Soviet Union relating to the creation of the Agency is printed ibid., October 22, 1956, pages 629–631.
Eisenhower’s letter to João Carlos Muñiz, president of the conference, October 23, and his enclosed statement to the conference, October 26, which Strauss read to the delegates at the closing session, are printed ibid., November 19, 1956, pages 813–815, and Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1956, pages 1027–1033.
The Statute is printed in Department of State Bulletin, November 19, 1956, pages 820–828.
Instructions to the United States Delegation were contained in a letter from Acting Secretary Hoover to Wadsworth, September 18. (USUN Files, IAEA) The basic position paper, dated September 14, is in Department of State, Atomic Energy Files: Lot 57 D 688, IAEA— Conference. Additional documentation on the conference is ibid., and in Atomic Energy Files: Lot 57 D 688, IAEA—Director General, and IAEA—General.