IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 31, 1954
407764
Statement by Lewis L, Strauss
Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission
The President has authorized me to make available those portions
of my report of yesterday to him, the publication of whigh would not
compromise information vital to our national security.
I have just returned from the Pacific proving Grounds of the
Atomic Energy Commission where I witnessed the second part of a test
series of thermonuclear weapons, I will describe it as well as Iam
able, but perhaps before doing so it would be appropriate to begin with
a short summary of the historical background.
We detected the test of an atomic weapon, or device, by the
Russians in August of 1949,
Realizing that our leadership was there-
fore challenged and that our sole possession of the weapon which had
been a major deterrent to aggression had been cancelled, it became
clear that our superiority would thereafter be only relative and dependent
upon a quantitative lead -- that is to say, upon our possession of greater
numbers of atomic weapons so long as that could be maintained, There
was, however, the alternative of a qualitative lead if we could make
a weapon of preater force -- greater than the fission weapons by a
degree of magnitude comparable to the difference between fisgion bombs
and conventional bombs, A theoretical method of accomplishing this
was known to our scientists,
In January 1950 the President directed the Atomic Energy GCom-
mission to undertake the necessary steps to see if this weapon, variously
called the hydrozen bomb, the Fusion bomb, and the thermenuclear bomb,
could in fact be made. As you know, thanks to the ingenuity of those
scientists and engineers who devoted themselves to the project, the
feasibility of the fusion reaction was demonstrated and a prototype was
tested at Eniwetok in Novem er 1952,
This test produced the largest man-made explosion ever witnessed
REPRODUCED AT THE DWIGHTD.
EISENHOWER LIBRARY
to that date, and from that point we moved into refinernent of design and
other development, In August of last year the Russians also testeda
weapon or device of a yield well beyond the range of regular fission
weapons and which derived a part of its force from the fusion of light
elements, There is good reason to believe that they had begun work
on this weapon substantially before we did,
The present series of tests has heen long in the planning, It is
conducted jointly by the Atomic Energy Commission and the Department
of Defense. A Task Force composed of the three armed services and
a scientific staff representing the Commission was established last
year in accordance with the procedure successfully followed in preceding
tests outside our continental limits. The Navy, Air Force, and Army
have successively supplied the commandfor the Task Forces,
Early this January, men and supplies began to move out tc the
Proving Grounds for this series. The first shot took place onits
scheduled date of March 1, and the second on March 26, Both were
successful, No test is made without a definite purpose anda
careful determination that it is directed toward an end result of major
importance to our military strength and readiness, The results which
the scientists at Los Alamos and Livermore had hoped to obtain from
these two tests were fully realized, and enormous potential has been
added to our military posture by what we have learned,
REPOSITOR
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