364. Telegram Secto 8 From John Foster Dulles at USUN1
Secto 8. Personal from Secretary to Acting Secretary. I have again gone over the August 19 draft of Presidential statement to be made at the time of the release of report of Geneva Meeting on Nuclear Testing.
1. I understand that the language on one-year suspension will read “to withhold further testing of atomic and nuclear weapons for a period up to one year beginning October 1, 1958”. This would in my opinion permit of the use of atomic and nuclear power for clearly civilian and peaceful purposes, and do so without loss of world propaganda effect because our statement would be in this respect substantially identical with the decision of the Supreme Soviet of March 31, 1958.
2. While accepting the foregoing draft as a statement of United States policy, I believe that the President’s public statement could with great advantage be substantially simplified. I am adding redraft at end of message to carry out this thought.
Let me emphasize that I am not seeking through this redraft to retract or modify in any way any of the previously agreed language so far as it is a United States policy position. However, since the public statement is primarily designed to influence world opinion and gain good will, I believe that it is desirable to emphasize the positive aspects and avoid expressing publicly some of the difficulties and complexities we foresee and which are inherent in the situation. Following is text of public statement I would suggest:
[Facsimile Page 2]Begin text: The United States welcomes the successful conclusion of the Geneva discussions on technical requirements for monitoring testing agreements.
Important questions remain to be resolved before a test monitoring system can be established. These include the organization of the control system and its relationship to the United Nations and national governments, the implementation of staffing and on-the-spot inspection, and the participation of the authorities on whose territories control posts should be located.
In an effort to resolve these questions, the United States is prepared to join with the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom, the other nations which have tested nuclear weapons, in negotiating an agreement for an effectively inspected suspension of nuclear tests. Representatives [Typeset Page 1425] of other countries having authority over areas within which control posts should be established would of course be consulted. The progress and results of these negotiations might be duly reported to the United Nations and its organs with disarmament responsibilities, through the intermediary of the Secretary General.
The United States is also prepared, unless testing is resumed by the Soviet Union, to withhold further testing of atomic and nuclear weapons for a period up to one year beginning October 1, 1958, while agreement is being reached both as to the terms of suspension of testing and the detailed arrangements for inspection. Further, if agreement on the terms of an effectively inspected suspension of nuclear tests can be achieved, the United States is prepared to suspend testing on a year-by-year basis, subject to a determination at the beginning of each year of extension that satisfactory progress is being made (a) in installing and operating the agreed inspection system, and (b) in reaching agreement on and implementing major and substantial arms control measures, such as the United States has long sought.
As the United States has frequently made clear, it does not consider that suspension of testing of atomic and nuclear weapons is in itself a measure of disarmament or limitation [Facsimile Page 3] of armament. The significance of an agreement for a monitored mutual suspension of tests is that it may lead to other and more substantial agreements relating to limitation and reduction of such weapons and to other essential phases of disarmament. This is our hope. End text.
- Source: Draft Presidential statement on cessation of nuclear testing. Confidential. 3 pp. NARA, RG 59, Central Files, 700.5611/8–2058.↩