Atoms for Peace (Cont'd.)

Just as Secretary Dulles is confident of the ultimate triumph of free nations, so Dwight Eisenhower is sure that the best way to bulwark the world's security is to divert atomic production toward peaceful uses--just as fast as the Russians make it safe to do so. Last week Ike's drive went forward on three fronts:

In Washington, the President and the Atomic Energy Commission's Lewis Strauss more than doubled--to 100,000 kilograms (220,000 lbs.)--the amount of uranium 235 to be made available under the Atoms for Peace program for lease or sale at home and abroad. Of the new 59,000-kilogram allocation, to be "distributed over a number of years," 1) 30,000 kilograms will be for use in the U.S., principally for power reactors on a lease basis; and 2) 29,800 kilograms will go abroad through sale or lease to individual nations (but not to Russia or the satellites) and to the European Atomic Energy Community when it is finally set up. Immediately after the announcement three more nations--Italy, France, West Germany--signed agreements at the State Department to receive U-235 allotments under adequate safeguards, bringing the total to seven with another seven agreements about to be concluded.

Disarmament. In London, at week-long meetings of the U.N. Disarmament Subcommittee, U.S. Delegate Harold Stassen spelled out for Russia's Valerian Zorin a two-point U.S. plan for ending the H-bomb race as a "first step" toward overall arms reduction.

P:Point No. 1: The U.S., in exchange for Russian agreement to halt nuclear-weapons production by some mutually acceptable cut-off date, e.g., 1959, would agree to an immediate suspension of nuclear tests for ten months.

P:Point No. 2: The U.S., as soon as Russia and the West had ended nuclear-weapons production under strict inspection and enforcement, would join with Russia in dismantling some of its nuclear bombs and turning over the fissionable material to an international agency according to a 53-47 ratio, i.e., of every 100 lbs. of material transferred for peaceful purposes, the U.S. would provide 53 lbs., the Russians 47 lbs.

Such a two-step agreement, Harold Stassen stressed, would help reverse the tide of nuclear armament while still leaving the U.S. with "substantial nuclear-weapons capacity."

Clean Bombs. At his weekly news conference the President made two unexpected gestures of good will. Two weeks ago, he recalled, AEC Chairman Strauss and three top U.S. scientists had reported that U.S. H-bomb fallout has been reduced by 96%, and that, given more time and testing opportunities, they could be made 100% clean (TIME, July 8). Declared Ike: "If, ever under any circumstances," the U.S. makes another major H-bomb test, he would invite "any" other nation, including Russia, to visit the test site, "put its proper instruments in the air," and thus decide for itself the degree of U.S. H-bomb radioactivity. Moreover, once the U.S. makes its completely clean bomb, he favored sharing the information with the Russians.

Ike's proposals prompted as many questions as they answered. Reporters wanted to know whether this meant that the Administration, in view of the prospect of being able to produce a clean bomb, had changed its mind about the desirability of suspending nuclear tests even if the Russians should agree.

Said Ike: The Administration "will stand firmly" behind its disarmament offers. Reason: "The political, psychological effects of doing this [are] so great that even if you suffered some scientific disadvantage, we should go ahead with [test suspension]." Then, swinging over to the other side in this public debate with himself, Ike examined the possible losses, admitted that they, too, could be great. If the U.S., he said, continued to test nuclear devices, not all of which are necessarily weapons, and thus came up with this "completely clean product," it would have many "economical, useful purposes," e.g., in building tunnels, moving mountains, "and of course you wouldn't want to deny civilization the opportunity of using it."

The President vigorously denied that the U.S. was "shooting from the hip" in enunciating its disarmament policy. But he gave the impression, as the Christian Science Monitor's Richard L. Strout pointed out, of "a conscientious man, eager to do what is in humanity's highest interest, reaffirming his pledge to go ahead with a cessation of atomic tests, but at the same time weighing the possible loss to mankind of losing the peaceful knowledge which such tests might bring." It was an impression of confusion, too, but it left no confusion about Ike's basic aim of making the famed U.S. atom do the best by the world in the long run that it can possibly do.

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