Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, Regulation of Armaments; Atomic Energy, Volume XX

161. Letter From the President’s Special Assistant (Stassen) to Emmet J. Hughes¹

Washington, October 15, 1956.

Dear Emmet: In view of the repeated attempts of Adlai E² to wiggle out of the untenable position of his initial proposal on stopping tests,³ and his endeavor to infer that the administration was considering some different position, the rather thorough discussion of this subject and the official United States position taken on April 23, 1956 in the London talks,⁴ prior to the campaigning, is forwarded for your information.

The position which I then expressed has never been changed nor have I or the President’s Study Groups recommended any different position at any time.

Sincerely,

Harold

1. Source: Eisenhower Library, White House Central Files, Confidential File. Hughes was a speech writer for President Eisenhower and subsequently author of The Ordeal of Power: A Political Memoir of the Eisenhower Years (New York: Atheneum, 1963).
2. The words “Adlai E” have been inserted in Stassen’s handwriting on the source text.
3. Stevenson first proposed a ban on further H-bomb tests in his speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors on April 21. See Walter Johnson, ed., The Papers of Adlai E. Stevenson: Toward a New America, 1955–1957 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976), pp. 115–118.
4. Reference is to Stassen’s statement to the Subcommittee of the U.N. Disarmament Commission, April 23. (Eisenhower Library, White House Central Files, Confidential File)