ATOMIC ENERGY


PM Files
Report by the Special Committee of the National Security Council
                           to the President 1

 TOP SECRET                           [WASHINGTON,] January 31, 1950.

             DEVELOPTMIENT OF THERMONUCLEAR WEAPONS

                              THE PROBLEM
   1. By letter to Mr. Souers dated November 19, 1949) the President
designated the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, and the
Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission as a special Committee
of the National Security Council to make recommendations
   a. "as to whether and in what manner the United States should
undertake the development and possible production of 'super' atomic
weapons", and
   b. "as to whether and when any publicity should be given to this
matter."

                                ANALYSIS
   2. The nature of the decision on which the Committee has been
called upon to make recommendations needs to be defined with some
precision. Systematic theoretical investigations on the possibilities of
a thermonuclear weapon were undertaken at Los Alamos in the fall
of 1943, and some work on this problem has been going on since that
time (Appendix A). .0.2. Assuming a continuation of the present

  The body of this report is based on a working paper dated January 24, 1950,
prepared by R. Gordon Arneson, Special Assistant to Under Secretary of State
Webb for atomic energy policy. The working paper is printed in large part
in
Arneson, "The H-Bomb Decision" (part H), Foreign Service Journal,
June 1969,
pp. 25-26. On January 24, Secretary Acheson approved the working paper as
a
draft report to the President and transmitted it to Secretary Johnson and
Commissioner Lilienthal.
  The Special Committee (Acheson, Johnson, and Lilienthal) considered and
approved the working paper at a meeting of January 31, making a limited num-
ber of modifications. The session is described in Lilienthal, pp. 623-632,
and in
Acheson, pp. 348-349. The Special Committee immediately proceeded to the
White House where President Truman indicated his approval of the report.
The
White House meeting is not documented in the files of the Department of State,
but is described in Lilienthal, pp. 632-633, and in Acheson, p. 349.
  Later on January 31, the President released the following statement:
  "It is part of my responsibility as Commander in Chief of the Armed
Forces
to see to it that our country is able to defend itself against any possible
aggressor.
Accordingly, I have directed the Atomic Energy Commission to continue its
work on all forms of atomic weapons, including the so-called hydrogen or
super-
bomb. Like all other work in the field of atomic weapons, it is being and
will
be carried forward on a basis consistent with the overall objectives of our
program for peace and security.
  "This we shall continue to do until a satisfactory plan for international
control
of atomic energy is achieved. We shall also continue to examine all those
factors
that affect our program for peace and this country's security." (Public
Papers
of the United States: Harry S. Truman, 1950, p. 138)
  'Appendix A, a historical statement prepared by the U.S. Atomic Energy
Commission, is not prin, ted. The statement summarized past research and
development in the field of thermonuclear weapons.


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