Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Volume III, National Security Policy; Arms Control and Disarmament, Microfiche Supplement

540. Memorandum of Conference with the President¹

Washington, March 10, 1960, 8:35 a.m.

OTHERS PRESENT

• Secretary Dillon
• Mr. McCone
• Major Eisenhower

Mr. McCone opened by informing the President that plans are going forward for Project Gnome, part of Operation Plowshare. This experiment would require a full year of preparation. Since the extensive construction work will require obtaining contractors and letting bids, an announcement will be necessary in the near future.

The President said the only difficulty was that this almost serves notice to the world that we have given up obtaining an overall nuclear test ban agreement within a year. Mr. Dillon said that the principle of peaceful use of atomic energy has been agreed on with the Soviets.

The President said he had no objection, but that the announcement should include that we would welcome observers from the U.N. or from any member nation of the U.N. which has an interest in the project. He further desired that the idea that the principle has been approved between the U.S. and the Soviets be added to the announcement.

Mr. McCone said it would be useful to prod the Soviets on the test ban matter anyway. The Soviets have no intention of agreeing with any of our proposals at Geneva. Only yesterday they informed our negotiators in Geneva by direct telegraph from Moscow that they cannot fulfill their obligation to the IAEA on safeguarding nuclear reactors unless agreement on a nuclear test suspension has been reached. This linking of totally unrelated matters indicates they have no desire to make real progress.

The President said he wanted one more item added, which would be that final authorization for the actual detonation would be reserved for action by the President. He directed Mr. Dillon to inform the British Ambassador of our intention to go on with this project, but warned him not to afford the British a veto.

As a sidelight, Mr. McCone pointed out that the Canadians had a similar project in the Athabaska Tar Sands ready to go. They are holding up simply because they do not wish to be the first to fire a device. Mr. McCone pointed out the increased difficulties we are having in holding our laboratories together, stressing Livermore which has considerable interest in Plowshare.

The President, as another sidelight, said he wished that we could eliminate nuclear weapons entirely from the world. This is, of course, impossible, but many people think it can be done. Therefore, the only qualm he has on an operation such as this is that it might unnecessarily worry people who are scared enough anyway.

* * *

Finally, Mr. Dillon told the President that our disarmament plan has been presented to NATO by Mr. Eaton. It was well received and another meeting on this subject is scheduled for Saturday. Indications are that this can be made public on Monday.

John S.D. Eisenhower

1. Source: Operation Plowshare. Secret. 2 pp. Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, DDE Diaries.