TOPACRES
'
Now as to his second point, the President said he found
The President next expressed his great concern about the
difference of views of the experts in this field. There was the
Teller article in Foreign Affairs referred to earlier by Mr. Cutler,
which doubted the effectiveness of any inspection system. On the
other hand, Dr. Rabi was at the same time urging 4 cessation of
nuclear testing provided there was an adequate inspection system.
Apparently Governor Stassen believes in the opinion of one group
of scientists and Admiral Strauss follows the views of another
group. It was clear to the President, however, that we should
never make any inspection proposals which precisely delineate any
areas we are going to accept as being open to Soviet inspection,
because as soon as you agree on a certain area as subject to inspection, the Soviets will attempt to expand these areas. Accordingly, said the President, he found himself in agreement with the
Joint Chiefs of Staff in the matter of Governor Stassen's proposals on zones of inspection.
The President then alluded to the date of September 1958
when, if the Stassen proposals were adopted, nuclear testing would
cease for 24 months.
This would include the period when the Atomic
Energy Act could have been changed and Operation HARDTACK would be
concluded. These two matters are at the moment prerequisite to making any new proposals.
The President said that he had yet another point.
tary Dulles had spoken of the significance of outer space.
Secre-
Was he
talking about outer space in connection only with ballistic missiles?
Or was he speaking of other matters, such as satellites and the exploitation of outer space for peaceful purposes? Secretary Dulles
replied that the proposals which we had put forward at London dealt
with outer space above the atmosphere. The President said that such
& proposal would include not only ballistic missiles but also vehicles sent into outer space for peaceful purposes. We should
clarify this distinction.
Finally, said the President, on the supposition that we
made the changes that Governor Stassen was suggesting in our August
1957 position on disarmament, through what channels would our proposalis for change be put forward? Certainly we could not proceed
ot
- 10 -
-
;
:
ete
ee ke
Medes
Ae
© SHFIEL
os
himself in agreement with Governor Stessen and Ambassador Lodge
with respect to the importance of world public opinion. Much of
this public opinion is very uninformed in the area of disarmament.
What the world wants is easy answers to the disarmament dilemma,
and we must be clear that this opinion on the necessity for disarmament steps is steadily growing stronger and insisting on results. Even in confidential talks at the NATO meeting, the President said that he encountered very strong insistence that something
must be done to advance disarmament.