Office of the Historian

226. Memorandum for the Record, by the Deputy Director of the Executive Secretariat (Greene)1

Washington, June 5, 1957.

STASSEN’S MAY 31 MEMORANDUM TO ZORIN

At a meeting in the Secretary’s office on June 4,2 Admiral Strauss took exception to parts of Stassen’s May 31 memorandum to Zorin as follows:

  • Paragraph 12: The suggestion that we would be prepared to undertake a commitment not to be the first to use nuclear weapons is not authorized by any current policy and indeed is objectionable. The Secretary agreed.

  • Paragraph 13: Subparagraph (a) reflects the possibility of agreement on cessation of testing before installation of an inspection system, whereas the approved policy clearly prescribes that the inspection system must come first.

    Subparagraph (b) omits mention of the essential corollary of US agreement to a suspension of testing, namely, a declaration that unless an inspection system were operating at the end of the suspension period the US would immediately resume testing.

    Subparagraph (c) exceeds agreed policy by referring to the possibility of a limitation on the size of tests.

  • Paragraph 14: Erroneously confuses two different types of inspection—of testing and of weapons production—which should be kept separate.
  • Paragraph 15: is of the greatest importance to the AEC in that the idea of a “comparatively simple inspection system” is erroneous. In the view of the AEC, an inspection system could not be simple at all.

Joseph N. Greene, Jr.3
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 600.0012/6–557. Secret.↩
  2. See Document 221.↩
  3. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩