The hell bombLaurence, William L. (William Leonard)
Philosophy
The hell bomb
Laurence, William L. (William Leonard)
Hydrogen bomb
1. Managerial control or ownership of all atomic energy activities
potentially dangerous to world security.
2. Power to control, inspect, and license all other atomic activities.
3. The duty of fostering the beneficial uses of atomic energy.
4. Research and development responsibilities of an affirmative
character intended to put the Authority in the forefront of atomic
knowledge and thus to enable it to comprehend, and therefore to
detect—misuse of atomic energy. To be effective, the Authority must
itself be the world’s leader in the field of atomic knowledge and
development and thus supplement its legal authority with the great
power inherent in possession of leadership in knowledge.
These proposals represented a broadening—rather than essential
modification—of the Acheson-Lilienthal recommendations. The additional
features concerned (1) _condign punishment_, and (2) the so-called power
of veto of the United Nations Charter.
Whereas the Acheson-Lilienthal report had not dealt with the subject of
sanctions, Mr. Baruch held that a realistic agreement must provide for
penalties “of as severe a nature as the nations may wish and as
immediate and certain in their execution as possible....” Such “condign
punishment” would be meted out if _previously stipulated_ violations of
a control plan occurred.
This problem, Mr. Baruch stated, was intimately related with the veto
provisions of the United Nations Charter. Under the Charter, sanctions
can be invoked only with the concurrence of the five permanent members
of the Security Council, i.e., China, France, United Kingdom, United
States, and the Soviet Union. Mr. Baruch maintained, however, that
“there must be no veto to protect those who violate their solemn
agreements not to develop or use atomic energy for destructive
purposes.... The bomb does not wait on debate.” He pointed out that the
United States was “concerned here with the veto power only as it affects
this particular problem.”
A United States memorandum of July 12, 1946, stressed that “Voluntary
relinquishment of the veto on questions relating to a specific weapon
previously outlawed by unanimous agreement because of its uniquely
destructive character, in no wise involves any compromise of the
principle of unanimity of action as applied to general problems or to
particular situations not foreseeable and therefore not susceptible of
advance unanimous agreement.”
_The first Soviet proposals—Gromyko’s statement of June 19, 1946_
A week after the American plans were put forward, the Soviet Union
announced its own proposals. They were marked chiefly by Soviet
insistence that the United States agree to stop the production of atomic
weapons and destroy existing bombs _before_ international control
arrangements were negotiated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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