UNITED STATES
ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION
Washington 25, D. C.
No.
Tel.
730
So
50
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ST 3-8000
(Thursday, November 17, 1955)
Ext. 307
STATEMENT BY COMMISSIONERS STRAUSS, LIBBY,
VON NEUMANN AND VANCE
Commissioners Lewis L. Strauss, Willard F. Libby,
John von Neumann and Harold S. Vance issued the following
statement in response to inquiries raised by the address
in New York of Commissioner Murray, as released to the
press today.
"The remarks of Mr. Murray about security and classification of information are consonant with the views of
the Commission.
This was demonstrated by the recent Con-
ference in Geneva on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy
initiated by the Commission.
We have progressively declassified non-military information relating to atomic energy,
while intensifying security in vital defense areas.
"The recommendation which Mr. Murray makes as the
major theme of his address is one which he has long advocated.
A number of months ago, the Commission by formal
action rejected Commissioner Murray's motion to invite
foreign observers, among them Communist observers, to witness
tests of nuclear weapons in the Pacific.
The Commission has
never changed its position on this matter.
Mr. Murray's
proposal, therefore, is contrary to the best judgment of the
Atomic Energy Commission.
"It should be noted that Russian and other foreign
observers were invited to the tests at Bikini in 1946 where
they witnessed atomic explosions of previously unimaginable
destructive force.
This demonstration, however, did not
persuade the Soviet government of the need to join with us
and other nations in an effective system for the international
control of atomic energy in all its forms.
On the contrary,
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