57. Memorandum From the Secretary of State to the President1
SUBJECT
- Progress on International Atomic Energy Agency
I wish to advise you of two developments in the negotiations to establish an International Atomic Energy Agency as first proposed by you in your speech of December 8, 1953, before the United Nations General Assembly.
On or shortly after August 22, 1955, a draft statute establishing such an agency will be circulated on a confidential basis to all members of the United Nations and its specialized agencies for comment. This draft statute has been developed under the leadership of Morehead Patterson and has the general agreement and sponsorship [Page 177] of a negotiating group of states consisting of the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Belgium, South Africa, Australia and Portugal. A copy has already been sent to the Soviet Government, and we remain ready to negotiate with them when their comments are received.
Also on August 22, a closed meeting will commence in Geneva between our technical experts and atomic energy experts from the USSR. Experts from the United Kingdom, Canada, France, and Czechoslovakia will also be present. These talks will be confined to a study by experts of one objection which the Soviets have raised against your proposal. The Russians claim, in seeking to justify their reluctance to join with us in advancing the peaceful uses of atomic energy, that such uses will inevitably build up military stocks of atomic material. We say that safeguards against such diversion of material from peaceful uses of atomic energy can be devised by our scientists. Talks on this technical point should give us an opportunity to assess the genuineness of recent Russian professions of interest in getting ahead with the peaceful uses of atomic energy. In view of the technical nature of these talks, Lewis Strauss and the Atomic Energy Commission are taking the lead in preparations. No “atomic secrets” will be exchanged, of course, and our representatives will avoid discussion of general questions relating to the Agency or to disarmament and the control of military uses of atomic energy.
I believe that these developments mark significant progress toward making a reality of your vision of peaceful cooperation in achieving the benefits of atomic energy.
- Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, Dulles–Herter Series. Secret.↩