.
3e. Make a factual hut general public anncuncemente -
A factual but general public announcement has the clemental
virtue of. being more in correspondence with the facts thin the cther
two epproaches. It would be in line with the over-all pelicy cf this
Government that, to the extent consistent with the national security,
the United States oublie must he informed onarene. eet affect
the security of the United States/Tewould wermit the Government
to off-set speculation and cerrett misinterpretaticn wherever it.
aay arise. It would retain the pattern cf previcus announcements
about United States atomic weaoons tests. It runs less risk of
deceiving cr confusing cither the United States public or cur
friends abroad, and would thus avoid the two extremes of un- ©
reasoning fear of the destructive power Uf medern wcoapons cr of a
relaxation of the necessary build-up of the strength cf the free
«i
such an announcement would not impel peceple who knew the
vorld.,
facts, to ecrrect, censcicusly or unccnscicusly, what they might
eonsider an inaccurate emphasis. It would alse give diminished
epportunity for the Soviet Unicon to make propaganda headway.
+ is suggested that an anncuncement be made along the Lines
of previcus announcements concerning United States atomic weapecns
tests, indicating progress in all fields cf development of ateamic
woapens, including thermonuclear. : It would be. desirahlec. to.create
the impressicn, beth at heme ond ahroad, that the ccneceot of the
family of atomic woapcens now boing accepted hy the public will have
added to it an additional mamher.
It would be doesirahle te avoid
the impression, which may well be incorrect, that a whele new order
of magnitude has been added to the destructive power cl weapons tobe ineluded in the United Statcs arsenal.
in this connection, it should he pointed out that research is
presently gcing fcrward into the possibility of develeping con-
trolled thermonuclear reactions which may turn cut to have non-mili-
tary applications. This is net a new idea. Seme theugnt was given
to this prohlom et Los Alamos as early as 192. it is known that
the Eritish heave been working on: these lines for some years.
It would be oessible, withcut
revealing classified infcrmation as to
processes and techniques, to state publicly ct an aporcpriate time
that werk was heing done on this aspect cf thermenuclear phenomena.
To do so weuld help to create the impression that the United States
was deveting effort to develop both the military and nen-military
*
1 Se}
3.4(b}