FOREIGN RELATIONS, 1946, VOLUME VI



York Tass dispatch reporting that at June 19 meeting UN Atomic
Energy Commission Australian, Canadian, British, Chinese, Brazilian
and Mexican representatives announced approval by their respective
govts of US proposals advanced by Baruch, and that Gromyko pre-
sented Soviet proposal for international agreement which would "ban
production and utilization of atomic weapons and provide for destruc-
tion of existing stores of atomic weapons".''5 Bulk Gromyko's speech
is then quoted.'6
                                                            [SMITH]

501.BC Atomic/6-2646: Telegram
  The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Smith) to the Secretary
                              of State

TOP SECRET                           Moscow, June 26, 1946-1 p. m.
                                     [Received June 26-10: 20 a.m.]
  2013. Viewed from this Embassy, Gromyko's atomic control pro-
posal is thoroughly disingenuous proposition w-hich tends to (1)
seize for USSR moral leadership on atomic question and (2) obscure
the basic issue, which is inspection. I do not think USSR should be
permitted to grasp the initiative on so critical an issue. I question
whether attempt at logical refutation of Gromyko proposal will suffice.
I suggest consideration of our boldly recapturing moral ascendancy
and reemphasizing basic issue of inspection by stating that we are
Irepared to discuss regulation and control of all weapons of war-
not only atomic bomb-provided such discussions should lead to cre-
ation of effective international machinery under UNO for unham-
pered inspection of military establishments and means of production
provided we can make such a proposal in all sincerity.'7  If USSR
accepts, well and good-we shall have attained the millenium. If
USSR equivocates or refuses, then Soviet pretensions will have been
exposed for what they are worth. The one vital factor which we are

  1 For documentation in regard to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commis-
sion activities, see vol. i.
  16 For text of the proposals made by Andrey Andreyevich Gromyko, the repre-
sentative of the Soviet Union at the United Nations, see New York Tines,
June 20, 1946, p. 4.
  17 In a memorandum dated June 27, 1946, Llewellyn E. Thompson, Chief of
the
Division of Eastern European Affairs, stated: "Ambassador Smith's view
as
reported in his telegram 2013, June 27, that basic issue in the atomic control
question is that of inspection is certainly correct. If his proposal that
we state
we are prepared to discuss regulation and control of all weapons of war would
in fact recapture moral ascendency for us and re-emphasize the basic issue
of
inspection, then it might be worth trying. I feel obliged to point out, however,
that such a move might have the opposite effect and obscure the issue."
(501.BC-
Atomic/6-2746)



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