~148~ - American press, giving them away might not make the spectacular impression on Skeptical foreign statesmen that proponents promise, Whether "tellingeali" would be a quixotic gesture or an act of sublime qisdom is, however, almost beside the point. On one point alone has policy crystallized to such an extent that it is wilikely to be affected by further 2nhols ¢ That has been on the necessity fan ing "safeguards" ey public discussion, — before making revelations at least of engineering tedkntquos/in atomic energy production.” In his radio address of August 9, 1945, just after the first announcement had been made of the new weapon, President Truman emphasized that. "The atomic bomb is too dangerous to be loose in a lawless world. That is why Great Britain and the United States, who have the secret of its production, do not intend to reveal the secret until means have been found to control the bomb so as to protect ourselves and the rest of the world from the danger of total destruction.’ Sion, This sentiment has been reiterated in subsequent public discus~ Full revclation is clearly not politically feasible. Insistence that secrecy must be preserved until "means have been found to control the bomb" leads naturally, in the minds of those who believe that means of international control of perfect efficacy will not be found, to the "do nothing" course of action and to the abandonment even of the quest for common international action. been advocated, There are two grounds upon which a do-nothing policy has On the one hand, it is argued that the atomic age will be an age of plenty, that there will be so much for everybody that no one will covet 93. : . It has sometimes beon argued that the spirit of free scientific inquiry demands that there be no restristion on the diffusion of basic scientific knowledge, whatever policy is adopted regarding engineering processes and de= tails of weapon construction. General Groves has indicated that data in certain wide fields of basic research are soon to be "declassificd" and made generally available. However, when asked what he meant by "basic knowledge," he’ is reported to have replied "that he thinks of basic lmowledge as that which either is generally known or can be casily found out, The Army docs not intend to keep secret from American students facts which are openly taught in schools abroad," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists of Chicago, Décembor 2h, 1945, p. 2.