NATIONAL SECURITY POLICY


military importance. Mr. LeBaron said that he had discovered no
intent on the part- of the military to keep anything secret except with
regard to weapons and that, for example, we should certainly open
low energy piles tip to anyone who wanted them. In response to a
specific question as to what kind of information he would advocate
giving the Dutch, for example, he said that in the first instance it
would be technical information but tha t What he had in mind was the
"fact that in an intellectual atmosphere freedom of information plays
a great part.
   In a discussion with Mr. LeBaron, Dr. Oppenheimer stated that we
 may find that in the next eight years our eastern seaboard is quite
 vulnerable to attack and that one of the things perturbing the Ameri-
 can people for the first time is the fact that their country is or may
 shortly be vulnerable to direct attacks from an enemy in the event of
 war.
   Dr. Oppenheimer expressed some skepticism about the Russians
 having gotten very far on the 1-bomb. In response to a specific ques-
 tion, he said that if they had been able to make any advances on 'the
 basis of information given them by Dr. Fuchs  they were marvelous
 indeed.
 He stated also his belief that there was more than a difference of
 degree between killing 10 people and 10 million and that it was very
 definitely a matter of morality. In this connection, he recalled that
 Mr. Stimson12 had doubts about our fire-bombing Tokyo.
 In response to a question from Mr. H, alalby about the Russians using
 'their possession of the atomic bomb as a form of blackmail on the
 Western Europeans, Dr. Oppenheimer said that we should, of course,
 keep it for reprisal in any case. General Landon pointed out (that in
 the field of conventional armaments we are outnumbered and that if
 we looked to the"Germans to make up -this lack on our part, we may
 find that we have only 'raised another problem of equal intensity.
 Mr. Nitze referred to the particular advantages of surprise attack in
 atomilc warfare and suggested that there may be a balance at the
 present between our moral restraint on the one hand and the fact that
 the Russians have fewer bombs on the other. Dr. Oppenheimer agreed
that all of these were very pertinent questions land ones which should
be carefully studied in the paper. Mr. LeBaron said -that looking at
these facts, pa.rticularly the fact that we are outnumbered, and trying
to answer the question of how we defend ourselves, one comes to the
answer that you must multiply our smaller number of men by techno-
logical skill, and that the present logical conclusion of such a formula,

  "The Fuchs case is discussed in the editorial note on p. 524.
  1tHenry L. Stimson, Secretary of War, 1940-1945.


173