43-18 4-53-98 5-15 UNITED STATES ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D. C. 6 409004 December 20, 1952 REGISTERED MAIL Dear Mr, Wadsworth: Reference is made to a draft of a proposed statement to be issued by your office to state and local civil defense direc- tors concerning the recent thermonuclear tests in the Pacific. In view of the fact that when the President approved the statement issued by the Commission following the test series he also directed that no other statement be made on this subject without his approval, I took up with the Special Committee of the National Security Council (represented by the Atomic Energy Commission, the Department of Defense and the State Department) the statement which you propose to issue. It was the feeling of the Special Committee that if anything more is to be said concerning the thermonuclear test and program, it should be said at the highest level, either by the President, the President-Elect or both, and that it should be done in such a@ manner as to implement foreign policy, our efforts to secure disarmament, etc. It was the feeling of the Special Committee that a statement by FCDA at this time would have a tendency to detract from the significance of such a statement by the President. Until, therefore, it is determined precisely how and when a high-level statement is to be inade, the Special Committee felt that no statement should be made by any of the Executive agencies. It was also appreciated that you do have a problem, in that you are doubtless receiving a substantial quantity of in- quiries from state and local civil defense officials, Would it not be possible for the interim period of the next month or so to respond to these inquiries by slinply stating that the FCDA has taken into account and is giving continuous study to the effects of increasingly large detonations. -.- I appreciate fully BEST COPY AVAILABLE es