-156more conducive trol. to agreement upon provisions for inspection and ultimately con- So far as they go, these first steps seem unexceptionable. Can they be criticized as so timid as to bewholly inadequate? Could a forthright American leadership have secured agtgenent + a bolder program? Con- trary to common belief, the American voreuanan, Vetted in pressing for a fundamental solution to the control problem is not overwhelmingly strong. The present United States monopoly in the manufacture of atomic bombs may even be a wealness for the purpose of these negotiations, The other nations of the world already have that protection against the bomb which comes from its being in the sole possession of a*war-weary and non-ageressive country. While it would be clearly in the American interest to get an effective limitation scheme adopted before the Soviet Union or any other country was producing bombs, there seems to be no equivalent advantage cn the other side unless the limitation proposal is accompanied by an American willingness to scale down or share or turn over to the United Nations Organization its ow stockpile and possibly even to destroy its installations for the manufacture of bombs 20 At some future date American willingness to sacrifice its own stockpile may be greater than it is at present. Or successful production of the bomb by some other country may increase that other country's willingness to see all producers of the bomb including the United States and itself brought under control. In the light of the present apparent inability of American officials to secure agreement of a more far-reaching character, critics should be slow to condemn the rather modest start made toward the solution of the control problem during the first six months after the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima. Only those Americans who are able to demonstrate the desirability of immediate des- 10h. As has been shown in a preceding chapter, a proposal to turn the control of a stockpile of bombs over to some organ of the United Nations Organization is in fact a variant of proposals either to retain or to share the existing stockPile. See Chapter IV, supra.