This address was given by
Dwight D. Eisenhower before the General Assembly of
the United Nations on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy,
New York City, December 8, 1953.
Madame President, Members of the
General Assembly:
When Secretary General Hammarskjold's
invitation to address this General Assembly reached me
in Bermuda, I was just beginning a series of
conferences with the Prime Ministers and Foreign
Ministers of Great Britain and of France. Our subject
was some of the problems that beset our world.
During the remainder of the Bermuda
Conference, I had constantly in mind that ahead of me
lay a great honor. That honor is mine today as I stand
here, Privileged to address the General Assembly of
the United Nations.
At the same time that I appreciate the
distinction of addressing you, I have a sense of
exhilaration as I look upon this Assembly.
Never before in history has so much
hope for so many people been gathered together in a
single organization. Your deliberations and decisions
during these somber years have already realized part
of those hopes.
But the great test and the great
accomplishments still lie ahead. And in the confident
expectation of those accomplishments, I would use the
office which, for the time being, I hold, to assure
you that the Government of the United States will
remain steadfast in its support of this body. This we
shall do in the conviction that you will provide a
great share of the wisdom, the courage, and the faith
which can bring to this world lasting peace for all
nations, and happiness and well-being for all men.
Clearly, it would not be fitting for
me to take this occasion to present to you a
unilateral American report on Bermuda. Nevertheless, I
assure you that in our deliberations on that lovely
island we sought to invoke those same great concepts
of universal peace and human dignity which are so
clearly etched in your Charter.
Neither would it be a measure of this
great opportunity merely to recite, however hopefully,
pious platitudes.
I therefore decided that this occasion
warranted my saying to you some of the things that
have been on the minds and hearts of my legislative
and executive associates and on mine for a great many
months-thoughts I had originally planned to say
primarily to the American people.
I know that the American people share
my deep belief that if a danger exists in the world,
it is a danger shared by all--and equally, that if
hope exists in the mind of one nation, that hope
should be shared by all.
Finally, if there is to be advanced
any proposal designed to ease even by the smallest
measure the tensions of today's world, what more
appropriate audience could there be than the members
of the General Assembly of the United Nations?
I feel impelled to speak today in a
language that in a sense is new--one which I, who have
spent so much of my life in the military profession,
would have preferred never to use.
That new language is the language of
atomic warfare.
The atomic age has moved forward at
such a pace that every citizen of the world should
have some comprehension, at least incomparative terms,
of the extent of this development of the utmost
significance to every one of us. Clearly, if the
people of the world are to conduct an intelligent
search for peace, they must be armed with the
significant facts of today's existence.
My recital of atomic danger and power
is necessarily stated in United States terms, for
these are the only in controvertible facts that I
know. I need hardly point out to this Assembly,
however, that this subject is global, not merely
national in character.
On July 16, 1945, the United States
set off the world's first atomic explosion. Since that
date in 1945, the United States of America has
conducted 42 test explosions.
Atomic bombs today are more than 25
times as powerful as the weapons with which the atomic
age dawned, while hydrogen weapons are in the ranges
of millions of tons of TNT equivalent.
Today, the United States' stockpile of
atomic weapons, which, of course, increases daily,
exceeds by many times the explosive equivalent of the
total of all bombs and all shells that came from every
plane and every gun in every theatre of war in all of
the years of World War II.
A single air group, whether afloat or
land-based, can now deliver to any reachable target a
destructive cargo exceeding in power all the bombs
that fell on Britain in all of World War II.
In size and variety, the development
of atomic weapons has been no less remarkable. The
development has been such that atomic weapons have
virtually achieved conventional status within our
armed services. In the United States, the Army, the
Navy, the Air Force, and the Marine Corps are all
capable of putting this weapon to military use.
But the dread secret, and the fearful
engines of atomic might, are not ours alone.
In the first place, the secret is
possessed by our friends and allies, Great Britain and
Canada, whose scientific genius made a tremendous
contribution to our original discoveries, and the
designs of atomic bombs.
The secret is also known by the Soviet
Union.
The Soviet Union has informed us that,
over recent years, it has devoted extensive resources
to atomic weapons. During this period, the Soviet
Union has exploded a series of atomic devices,
including at least one involving thermo-nuclear
reactions.
If at one time the United States
possessed what might have been called a monopoly of
atomic power, that monopoly ceased to exist several
years ago. Therefore, although our earlier start has
permitted us to accumulate what is today a great
quantitative advantage, the atomic realities of today
comprehend two facts of even greater significance.
First, the knowledge now possessed by
several nations will eventually be shared by
others--possibly all others.
Second, even a vast superiority in
numbers of weapons, and a consequent capability of
devastating retaliation, is no preventive, of itself,
against the fearful material damage and toll of human
lives that would be inflicted by surprise aggression.
The free world, at least dimly aware
of these facts, has naturally embarked on a large
program of warning and defense systems. That program
will be accelerated and expanded.
But let no one think that the
expenditure of vast sums for weapons and systems of
defense can guarantee absolute safety for the cities
and citizens of any nation. The awful arithmetic of
the atomic bomb does not permit any such easy
solution. Even against the most powerful defense, an
aggressor in possession of the effective minimum
number of atomic bombs for a surprise attack could
probably place a sufficient number of his bombs on the
chosen targets to cause hideous damage.
Should such an atomic attack be
launched against the United States, our reactions
would be swift and resolute. But for me to say that
the defense capabilities of the United States are such
that they could inflict terrible losses upon an
aggressor--for me to say that the retaliation
capabilities of the United States are so great that
such an aggressor's land would be laid waste--all
this, while fact, is not the true expression of the
purpose and the hope of the United States.
To pause there would be to confirm the
hopeless finality of a belief that two atomic colossi
are doomed malevolently to eye each other indefinitely
across a trembling world. To stop there would be to
accept helplessly the probability of civilization
destroyed--the annihilation of the irreplaceable
heritage of mankind handed down to us generation from
generation--and the condemnation of mankind to begin
all over again the age-old struggle upward from
savagery toward decency, and right, and justice.
Surely no sane member of the human
race could discover victory in such desolation. Could
anyone wish his name to be coupled by history with
such human degradation and destruction.
Occasional pages of history do record
the faces of the "Great Destroyers" but the whole book
of history reveals mankind's never-ending quest for
peace, and mankind's God-given capacity to build.
It is with the book of history, and
not with isolated pages, that the United States will
ever wish to be identified. My country wants to be
constructive, not destructive. It wants agreement, not
wars, among nations. It wants itself to live in
freedom, and in the confidence that the people of
every other nation enjoy equally the right of choosing
their own way of life.
So my country's purpose is to help us
move out of the dark chamber of horrors into the
light, to find a way by which the minds of men, the
hopes of men, the souls of men every where, can move
forward toward peace and happiness and well being.
In this quest, I know that we must not
lack patience.
I know that in a world divided, such
as our today, salvation cannot be attained by one
dramatic act.
I know that many steps will have to be
taken over many months before the world can look at
itself one day and truly realize that a new climate of
mutually peaceful confidence is abroad in the world.
But I know, above all else, that we
much start to take these steps--now.
The United States and its allies,
Great Britain and France, have over the past months
tried to take some of these steps. Let no one say that
we shun the conference table.
On the record has long stood the
request of the United States, Great Britain, and
France to negotiate with the Soviet Union the problems
of a divided Germany.
On that record has long stood the
request of the same three nations to negotiate the
problems of Korea.
Most recently, we have received from
the Soviet Union what is in effect an expression of
willingness to hold a Four Power meeting. Along with
our allies, Great Britain and France, we were pleased
to see that this note did not contain the unacceptable
preconditions previously put forward.
As you already know from our joint
Bermuda communique, the United States, Great Britain,
and France have agreed promptly to meet with the
Soviet Union.
The Government of the United States
approaches this conference with hopeful sincerity. We
will bend every effort of our minds to the single
purpose of emerging from that conference with tangible
results toward peace--the only true way of lessening
international tension.
We never have, we never will, propose
or suggest that the Soviet Union surrender what is
rightfully theirs.
We will never say that the people of
Russia are an enemy with whom we have no desire ever
to deal or mingle in friendly and fruitful
relationship.
On the contrary, we hope that this
coming Conference may initiate a relationship with the
Soviet Union which will eventually bring about a free
inter mingling of the peoples of the east and of the
west--the one sure, human way of developing the
understanding required for confident and peaceful
relations.
Instead of the discontent which is now
settling upon Eastern Germany, occupied Austria, and
countries of Eastern Europe, we seek a harmonious
family of free European nations, with none a threat to
the other, and least of all a threat to the peoples of
Russia.
Beyond the turmoil and strife and
misery of Asia, we seek peaceful opportunity for these
peoples to develop their natural resources and to
elevate their lives.
These are not idle works or shallow
visions. Behind them lies a story of nations lately
come to independence, not as a result of war, but
through free grant or peaceful negotiation. There is a
record, already written, of assistance gladly given by
nations of the west to needy peoples, and to those
suffering the temporary effects of famine, drought,
and natural disaster.
These are deeds of peace. They speak
more loudly than promises or protestations of peaceful
intent.
But I do not wish to rest either upon
the reiteration of past proposals or the restatement
of past deeds. The gravity of the time is such that
every new avenue of peace, no matter how dimly
discernible, should be explored.
These is at least one new avenue of
peace which has not yet been well explored--an avenue
now laid out by the General Assembly of the United
Nations.
In its resolution of November 18th,
1953 this General Assembly suggested--and I
quote--"that the Disarmament Commission study the
desirability of establishing a sub-committee
consisting of representatives of the Powers
principally involved, which should seek in private an
acceptable solution . . . and report on such a
solution to the General Assembly and to the Security
Council not later than 1 September 1954."
The United States, heeding the
suggestion of the General Assembly of the United
Nations, is instantly prepared to meet privately with
such other countries as may be "principally involved,"
to seek "an acceptable solution" to the atomic
armaments race which over shadows not only the peace,
but the very life, of the world.
We shall carry into these private or
diplomatic talks a new conception.
The United States would seek more than
the mere reduction or elimination of atomic materials
for military purposes.
It is not enough to take this weapon
out of the hands of the soldiers. It must be put into
the hands of those who will know how to strip its
military casing and adapt it to the arts of peace.
The United States knows that if the
fearful trend of atomic military build up can be
reversed, this greatest of destructive forces can be
developed into a great boon, for the benefit of all
mankind.
The United States knows that peaceful
power from atomic energy is no dream of the future.
That capability, already proved, is here--now--today.
Who can doubt, if the entire body of the world's
scientists and engineers had adequate amounts of
fissionable material with which to test and develop
their ideas, that this capability would rapidly be
transformed into universal, efficient, and economic
usage.
To hasten the day when fear of the
atom will begin to disappear from the minds of people,
and the governments of the East and West, there are
certain steps that can be taken now.
I therefore make the following
proposals:
The Governments principally involved,
to the extent permitted by elementary prudence, to
begin now and continue to make joint contributions
from their stockpiles of normal uranium and
fissionable materials to an international Atomic
Energy Agency. We would expect that such an agency
would be set up under the aegis of the United Nations.
The ratios of contributions, the
procedures and other details would properly be within
the scope of the "private conversations"I have
referred to earlier.
The United states is prepared to under
take these explorations in good faith. Any partner of
the United States acting in the same good faith will
find the United States a not unreasonable or
ungenerous associate.
Undoubtedly initial and early
contributions to this plan would be small in quantity.
However, the proposal has the great virtue that it can
be under taken without the irritations and mutual
suspicions incident to any attempt to set up a
completely acceptable system of world-wide inspection
and control.
The Atomic Energy Agency could be made
responsible for the impounding, storage, and
protection of the contributed fissionable and other
materials. The ingenuity of our scientists will
provide special safe conditions under which such a
bank of fissionable material can be made essentially
immune to surprise seizure.
The more important responsibility of
this Atomic Energy Agency would be to devise methods
where by this fissionable material would be allocated
to serve the peaceful pursuits of mankind. Experts
would be mobilized to apply atomic energy to the needs
of agriculture, medicine, and other peaceful
activities. A special purpose would be to provide
abundant electrical energy in the power-starved areas
of the world. Thus the contributing powers would be
dedicating some of their strength to serve the needs
rather than the fears of mankind.
The United States would be more than
willing--it would be proud to take up with others
"principally involved: the development of plans where
by such peaceful use of atomic energy would be
expedited.
Of those "principally involved" the
Soviet Union must, of course, be one.
I would be prepared to submit to the
Congress of the United States, and with every
expectation of approval, any such plan that would:
First--encourage world-wide
investigation into the most effective peace time uses
of fissionable material, and with the certainty that
they had all the material needed for the conduct of
all experiments that were appropriate;
Second--begin to diminish the
potential destructive power of the world's atomic
stockpiles;
Third--allow all peoples of all
nations to see that, in this enlightened age, the
great powers of the earth, both of the East and of the
West, are interested in human aspirations first,
rather than in building up the armaments of war;
Fourth--open up a new channel for
peaceful discussion, and initiate at least a new
approach to the many difficult problems that must be
solved in both private and public conversations, if
the world is to shake off the inertia imposed by fear,
and is to make positive progress toward peace.
Against the dark background of the
atomic bomb, the United Stats does not wish merely to
present strength, but also the desire and the hope for
peace.
The coming months will be fraught with
fateful decisions. In this Assembly; in the capitals
and military headquarters of the world; in the hearts
of men every where, be they governors, or governed,
may they be decisions which will lead this work out of
fear and into peace.
To the making of these fateful
decisions, the United States pledges before you--and
therefore before the world--its determination to help
solve the fearful atomic dilemma--to devote its entire
heart and mind to find the way by which the miraculous
inventiveness of man shall not be dedicated to his
death, but consecrated to his life.
I again thank the delegates for the
great honor they have done me, in inviting me to
appear before them, and in listening to me so
courteously. Thank you.
NOTE: The President's opening
words referred to Mme. Vijaya Pandit, President of the
United Nations General Assembly.
Atoms
For Peace (Part of the Milestone Document Series
published by the National Archives & Records
Administration)
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