The Baruch Plan
was a proposal by the
United States
government, written mainly by
Bernard Baruch,
to the
United Nations
Atomic Energy Commission
(UNAEC) in its first meeting in June
1946 to:
a) extend between all nations the
exchange of basic scientific information
for peaceful ends;
b) implement
control of
atomic energy
to the extent necessary to ensure its
use only for peaceful purposes;
c) eliminate
from national armaments atomic weapons
and all other major weapons adaptable to
mass destruction; and
d) establish
effective safeguards by way of
inspection and other means to protect
complying States against the hazards of
violations and evasions
The US agreed
to turn over all of its weapons on the
condition that all other countries
pledge not to produce them and agree to
an adequate system of inspection. The
Soviets rejected this plan on the
grounds that the United Nations was
dominated by the United States and its
allies in Western Europe, and could
therefore not be trusted to exercise
authority over atomic weaponry in an
evenhanded manner. Although the Soviets
showed increased interest in the cause
of arms control after they became a
nuclear power in 1949, and particularly
after the death of Stalin in 1953, the
issue of the Soviet Union submitting to
international inspection was always a
thorny one upon which many attempts at
nuclear arms control were stalled.
When the
Soviet Union
refused to sign onto the Baruch Plan,
the U.S. embarked on a massive
nuclear weapons
testing, development, and deployment
program.
Bertrand Russell,
in his
1961
book Has Man a Future?, described
the Baruch plan as follows:
- The United
States Government ... did attempt
... to give effect to some of the
ideas which the atomic scientists
had suggested. In 1946, it presented
to the world what is now called "The
Baruch Plan", which had very great
merits and showed considerable
generosity, when it is remembered
that America still had an unbroken
nuclear monopoly. The Baruch Plan
proposed an International Atomic
Development Authority which was to
have a monopoly of mining uranium
and thorium, refining the ores,
owning materials, and constructing
and operating plants necessary for
the use of nuclear power. It was
suggested that this Authority should
be established by the United Nations
and that the United States should
give it the information of which, so
far, America was the sole possessor.
Unfortunately, there were features
of the Baruch Proposal which Russia
found unacceptable, as, indeed, was
to be expected. It was Stalin's
Russia, flushed with pride in the
victory over the Germans, suspicious
(not without reason) of the Western
Powers, and aware that in the United
Nations it could almost always be
outvoted. The Baruch plan is often
questioned on whether it was a
legitimate effort to achieve global
cooperation on nuclear control.
