Presidents at Peace: Dwight Eisenhower and Atoms for Peace
On December 8, 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower addressed the UN General Assembly in New York, and delivered an address which became known as his "Atoms for Peace" speech. In the address, Eisenhower advocated for the use of nuclear energy not as a weapon of war, but as an instrument for peace.
The speech was part of a media campaign called "Operation Candor". It's goal was to inform the American public on the risks and hopes of a nuclear future. It part of Eisenhower's Cold War strategy of containment. The speech opened a media campaign that sought to balance fears of continuing nuclear armament with hopes of peaceful use of uranium for future nuclear reactors. Eisenhower was attempting to bring comfort to a terrified world after the horror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and of the nuclear tests of the early 1950s.
The speech also had a strategic purpose with U.S. allies in Europe. Eisenhower wanted to make sure that the European allies would go along with the shift in NATO strategy from an emphasis on conventional weapons to cheaper nuclear weapons. Western Europeans in turn wanted reassurance that the U.S. did not intend to provoke a nuclear war in Europe. The speech was intended to give that sense of reassurance. Eisenhower later said that he knew the Soviets would reject the specific proposal he offered in the speech.
In the speech, Eisenhower said:
"It is with the book of history, and not with isolated pages, that the United States will ever wish to be identified. My country wants to be constructive, not destructive. It wants agreement, not wars, among nations. It wants itself to live in freedom, and in the confidence that the people of every other nation enjoy equally the right of choosing their own way of life."
Prior to Eisenhower’s Atoms for Peace speech the state of atomic development in the world was a secret for the general public and the media. In World War II the allies had signed a secret pact known as the Quebec Agreement of 1943, which kept atomic development kept under wraps. Eisenhower’s speech was important because it brought the atomic issue, which had been kept quiet for “national security”, into the public eye. Eisenhower asked the world to support his goal of taking a horrible weapon and repurposing it to make the world safe.
Eisenhower was not exclusively committed to using nuclear weapons for peaceful purposes. He believed that having a massive atomic weapon base would deter the Soviet Union and so he had his Department of Defence ready to strike at any time. During his time in office the nuclear holdings of the US rose from 1,005 to 20,000 of such weapons.
However Atoms for Peace opened up nuclear research to civilians and countries that had not previously possessed nuclear technology. Eisenhower wanted a nonproliferation agreement throughout the world and a stop to the spread of military use of nuclear weapons. Although the nations that already had atomic weapons kept them, very few other countries developed similar weapons. The Atoms for Peace program also created regulations for the use of nuclear power and through these regulations have stopped other countries from developing weapons while allowing the technology to be used for positive means.
Today, if one visits the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum in Abilene, Kansas, inside the chapel where the Eisenhowers have been laid to rest, one can see excerpts from the Atoms for Peace speech etched on the surrounding marble. Here's a quote from another of Eisenhower's speeches which is equally eloquent on the subject of peace:
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
The speech was part of a media campaign called "Operation Candor". It's goal was to inform the American public on the risks and hopes of a nuclear future. It part of Eisenhower's Cold War strategy of containment. The speech opened a media campaign that sought to balance fears of continuing nuclear armament with hopes of peaceful use of uranium for future nuclear reactors. Eisenhower was attempting to bring comfort to a terrified world after the horror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and of the nuclear tests of the early 1950s.
The speech also had a strategic purpose with U.S. allies in Europe. Eisenhower wanted to make sure that the European allies would go along with the shift in NATO strategy from an emphasis on conventional weapons to cheaper nuclear weapons. Western Europeans in turn wanted reassurance that the U.S. did not intend to provoke a nuclear war in Europe. The speech was intended to give that sense of reassurance. Eisenhower later said that he knew the Soviets would reject the specific proposal he offered in the speech.
In the speech, Eisenhower said:
"It is with the book of history, and not with isolated pages, that the United States will ever wish to be identified. My country wants to be constructive, not destructive. It wants agreement, not wars, among nations. It wants itself to live in freedom, and in the confidence that the people of every other nation enjoy equally the right of choosing their own way of life."
Prior to Eisenhower’s Atoms for Peace speech the state of atomic development in the world was a secret for the general public and the media. In World War II the allies had signed a secret pact known as the Quebec Agreement of 1943, which kept atomic development kept under wraps. Eisenhower’s speech was important because it brought the atomic issue, which had been kept quiet for “national security”, into the public eye. Eisenhower asked the world to support his goal of taking a horrible weapon and repurposing it to make the world safe.
Eisenhower was not exclusively committed to using nuclear weapons for peaceful purposes. He believed that having a massive atomic weapon base would deter the Soviet Union and so he had his Department of Defence ready to strike at any time. During his time in office the nuclear holdings of the US rose from 1,005 to 20,000 of such weapons.
However Atoms for Peace opened up nuclear research to civilians and countries that had not previously possessed nuclear technology. Eisenhower wanted a nonproliferation agreement throughout the world and a stop to the spread of military use of nuclear weapons. Although the nations that already had atomic weapons kept them, very few other countries developed similar weapons. The Atoms for Peace program also created regulations for the use of nuclear power and through these regulations have stopped other countries from developing weapons while allowing the technology to be used for positive means.
Today, if one visits the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum in Abilene, Kansas, inside the chapel where the Eisenhowers have been laid to rest, one can see excerpts from the Atoms for Peace speech etched on the surrounding marble. Here's a quote from another of Eisenhower's speeches which is equally eloquent on the subject of peace:
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."