Nothing New

It was just 52 weeks since Bernard Baruch had first presented the U.S. atomic control plan, and time was still ticking away with no agreement in sight. But Lake Success was expectant: the Russians were finally going to spell out the kind of international atomic control they would accept. Andrei Gromyko turned up that morning in what looked like a brand-new tropical suit. Actually, Gromyko's grey suit was five years old. The new Russian control plan was also cut from old cloth.

Two Key Words. As he had before, Gromyko insisted again that the U.S. must destroy its stockpile of atomic bombs, and stop making them. He still wanted Russia and the rest of the Big Five to keep the ultimate right to veto U.N. punishment of nations caught violating world atomic rules. And, said Gromyko, there ought to be an International Control Commission which would "periodically carry out inspection of [atomic] facilities" in all countries.

This seemed to mean that, in return for a chance for Soviet citizens to inspect atomic plants in the U.S. and elsewhere, Russia would let non-Soviet citizens peer (to some still undefined degree) at what Russia was doing.

The key words in Gromyko's proposal were "periodically" and "inspection." Ten nations out of twelve on U.N.'s Atomic Energy Commission (Russia and Poland are the other two) have already agreed that there can be no security that depends on teams of international outsiders taking a "periodic" look at atomic progress here & there. Nor do they think "inspection" is sufficient; the U.N. majority believes that only an international authority--supervising most atomic production phases 24 hours a day and actually operating some phases--will give security.

Russia's proposals indicated that she still preferred to go her own currently bombless way rather than submit to real international socialization of the atom. In a U.N. where Russia can be outvoted, Moscow fears real control would be used to block her own research and development. Free enterprise, so long as it is Russian, seems much better.

Uncompromising Verdict. It took a second reading, and some reflection, to discourage optimists. Said one foreign diplomat, after lunch: "I am stupid. I have done it again & again. I thought this morning for a while that the Russians really meant business." Square, old-fashioned Warren Austin, senior U.S. delegate who likes to look for the bright side, at first thought Gromyko's words meant "a very promising advance." But It turned out that he had misunderstood at least one ambiguous passage.

The U.S. working delegate on the Atomic Energy Commission, gentle, saturnine Frederick H. Osborn, wasted no time on doubtful optimism. The 58-year-old geneticist and wartime major general (morale branch), who makes Britons at Lake Success think of Lord Halifax, was already on the record with an uncompromising verdict against the kind of control Gromyko proposed: "A fraud on the people of the world."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.