According to the declaration, any international arrangements should have a dual goal: Preventing the use of atomic energy for destructive purposes, and promoting its use for peaceful and humanitarian ends. To reach these objectives, the signatory nations proposed a United Nations Commission empowered to make recommendations to the parent body. It was asked that the Commission make specific proposals “for effective safeguards by way of inspection and other means to protect states against the hazards of violations and evasions.” It was further suggested that the Commission’s work “proceed by separate stages, the successful completion of each of which will develop the necessary confidence of the world before the next stage is undertaken.”
Contained in the agreed declaration was the genesis of the basic feature of the control proposals subsequently advanced by the United States, and accepted by a large majority of the United Nations: safeguards through inspection and other means. It was recognized even at this early date that “effective, reciprocal, and enforceable safeguards” against evasion represented the minimum prerequisite of a satisfactory international arrangement.
At the Moscow meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers, held in December 1945, the Truman-Attlee-King proposals received the Soviet Union’s endorsement. The United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union agreed to invite Canada, China, and France to join with them in sponsoring a resolution calling for a United Nations Atomic Energy Commission. Such a Commission would consist of the 11 members of the Security Council plus Canada when that state was not sitting on the Council. It is noteworthy that the Commission’s proposed terms of reference were exactly those suggested by the Truman-Attlee-King declaration.
In its first substantive resolution, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted the recommendations of the Moscow Conference and established the United Nations Commission on Atomic Energy on January 24, 1946.
The Acheson-Lilienthal report
In order to inquire into the nature of the “effective, reciprocal, and enforceable safeguards” called for in the Truman-Attlee-King declaration, Secretary of State Byrnes in January 1946 appointed a Committee headed by Under Secretary of State Dean Acheson. The Committee in turn enlisted the aid of a Board of Consultants under the chairmanship of David Lilienthal.
The findings of the two groups were made public on March 28, 1946, in the Report on the International Control of Atomic Energy, commonly called the Acheson-Lilienthal report. It was advanced “not as a final plan but as a place to begin, a foundation on which to build.”
The report concluded that no security against atomic attack could be found in an agreement that merely “outlawed” these weapons. Nor was it considered feasible to control atomic energy “only by a system which relies on inspection and similar police-like methods.” Instead, inspection must be supplemented by international ownership and management of raw materials and key installations. “Dangerous” operations—those of potential military consequence—would be carried out by an Atomic Development Authority, an international agency under the United Nations. Only “safe” activities—those of no military importance—would be conducted by the individual nations, under licenses from the Atomic Development Authority. Any plan finally agreed upon would be implemented by stages with the United States progressively transferring its fund of theoretical and technological knowledge to an international authority as safeguards were put into effect.
The report amplified the Truman-Attlee-King proposals in two important respects.
First, it stated that international ownership—not specifically mentioned in the earlier declaration—was a necessary adjunct of international inspection. Second, it advanced the concept of “strategic balance” or “quotas.” The Report held that an acceptable plan must be “such that if it fails or the whole international situation collapses, any nations such as the United States will still be in a relatively secure position, compared to any other nation.” To help attain this end, it was proposed that the Atomic Development Authority’s stock piles and plants be well distributed geographically.