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of the National Security Council. Secretary McElroy pointed out that
the Department of Defense supported the views of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff in opposition to Governor Stassen's proposals. .
Thereafter Mr. Cutler called on Admiral Strauss, who said
that he would limit his comments on the Stassen proposals to those
aspects which concerned nuclear weapons; he would not speak on inspection zones or force levels, in which fields he was not an expert.
Admiral Strauss then proceeded to indicate to the Council what the
cessation of nuclear testing would mean to the United States and the
USSR nuclear weapons programs. He noted in particular that the proposed 2i-month suspension of nuclear testing would have rather se-
vere repercussions on our present programs to achieve small "clean"
nuclear weapons.
While we would be in a position, even if nuclear
testing were suspended for 2: months beginning in September 1958, to
stockpile nuclear warheads for our ICBM and our IRBM missiles, such
@ cessation of testing would very adversely affect our program for
developing peaceful uses of hydrogen explosions.
After a similar description of the estimated effects of
the test cessation on the Soviet programs, Admiral Strauss went on
to comment on the effect of a 2i-month suspension on our laboratortes. He said that the work in our laboratories would certainly lose
momentum as a result of the cessation, but they would not suffer a
serious setback if testing were renewed at the end of two years as
the result either of a failure of the Soviets to follow the rules of
the game or as the result of a more comprehensive disarmament agreement.
After reading a message from Ambassador Thompson on the
subject of the attitude of the USSR toward disarmament, Admiral
Strauss stated that in his opinion the principal wealmess of Governor Stassen's proposal for a revision of our August 1957 disarmament proposal, lay in the fact that it constituted a retreat from
what the United States had originally regarded as a sound position.
Speaking personally, and not presenting the views of the Atomic Energy Commission, Admiral Strauss said he felt that such a retreat
was unfortunate. Finally, said Admiral Strauss, both Dr. Teller
and Dr. Lawrence felt that several score of inspection stations
would be required to monitor testing in the Soviet Union, rather
than the eight or twelve which Governor Stagsen ‘proposed as requisite to detect clandestine nuclear testing within the Soviet Union.
Mr. Cutler next called on Ambassador Lodge, who had come
from New York in order to attend the Council meeting on this subJect. Anbassador Lodge pointed out that he was speaking as one who
was in daily touch with world trends in the disarmament field, but
that he could not be a spokesman for the technical considerations
governing this question. He had to assume that our massive
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