TLS as president, two pages, 8 x 10.5, White House letterhead, June 25, 1955. Letter to Lewis Strauss, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, in full: “Under date of June 22, 1955, you informed me that the Atomic Energy Commission had recommended that I approve a proposed agreement between the Government of Pakistan and the Government of the United States for cooperation concerning the peaceful uses of atomic energy. The agreement recites that the Government of Pakistan desires to pursue a research and development program looking toward the realization of the peaceful and humanitarian uses of atomic energy and desires to obtain assistance from the Government of the United States and United States industry with respect to this program.
I have examined the agreement recommended. It calls for cooperation between the two Governments with respect to the design, construction, and operation of research reactors, including related health and safety problems; the use of such reactors as research, development, and engineering tools and in medical therapy; and use of radioactive isotopes in biology, medicine, agriculture, and industry. The agreement contains all of the guarantees prescribed by the Atomic Energy Act. No restricted data would be communicated under the agreement, but the Commission would lease to the Government of Pakistan special nuclear material for use as reactor fuel.
Pursuant to the provisions of section 123 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 and upon the recommendation of the Atomic Energy Commission I hereby
1) Approve the within proposed agreement for cooperation between the Government of the United States and the Government of Pakistan concerning the civil uses of atomic energy,
2) Determine that the performance of the proposed agreement will promote and will not constitute an unreasonable risk to the common defense and security of the United States, and
3) Authorize the execution of the proposed agreement for the Government of the United States by appropriate authorities of the United States Atomic Energy Commission and the Department of State after the proposed agreement has been submitted to the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy of the United States Congress and a period of thirty days has elapsed while Congress is in session.
It is my hope that this agreement represents but the first stage of cooperation in the field of atomic energy between the United States and Pakistan, and that it will lead to further discussions and agreements relating to other peaceful uses of atomic energy in Pakistan.” In very fine condition. A spectacular presidential letter on significant scientific and military matters that helped to define the postwar world order.
With the Atoms for Peace program, Dwight D. Eisenhower established a new world order of American dominance in atomic energy and nuclear technology and enhanced American world leadership during the Cold War. Subsequently, he also launched Pakistan on the path toward securing ‘the bomb’ for itself. In this important letter, Eisenhower authorizes the cooperation agreement between the United States and Pakistan to share American nuclear know-how and materials. It provides for cooperation in developing and constructing nuclear reactors for research in medicine, biology, agriculture, and industry, including the leasing of American nuclear material for use as reactor fuel. Because of recent discoveries in the West, the United States largely controlled the world uranium market.
An unintended but perhaps predictable by-product of this program was Pakistan’s development of the atomic bomb. Through Atoms for Peace, Pakistan sent scientists to America to study nuclear science and become leaders in the field. After the 1965 war with India, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto vowed that if India developed the bomb then Pakistan would follow suit, asserting that ‘Pakistan will eat grass or leaves, even go hungry, but we will get one of our own…we have no other choice!’ Bhutto became prime minister after Pakistan’s defeat in the December 1971 war, and he ordered the nation to embark on a nuclear weapons program. In the years since, both India and Pakistan have developed the bomb. In 2004, the founder of Pakistan’s nuclear program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, acknowledged that he sold nuclear technology to North Korea, Libya, and Iran in the 1980s and 1990s.
The Atoms for Peace program was one of the greatest accomplishments of the Eisenhower administration. Speaking before the United Nations, Eisenhower warned the Soviet Union that the United States had built up a tremendous nuclear arsenal and would not hesitate to use it in event of an atomic attack. But then he stated,
‘The United States is instantly prepared to meet privately with such other countries as may be principally involved, to seek an acceptable solution to the atomic armaments race…It is not enough to take this weapon out of the hands of the soldiers. It must be put into the hands of those who will know how to strip its military casing and adapt it to the arts of peace…The United States pledges before you—and therefore before the world—its determination to help solve the fearful atomic dilemma—to devote its entire heart and mind to find the way by which the miraculous inventiveness of man shall not be dedicated to his death, but consecrated to his life.’
Eisenhower energetically embarked on his plan to coordinate the international development of peaceful uses of atomic energy, ensuring that the United States maintained control of the supply of fissionable material while at the same time promoting research and development and inhibiting the expansion of Soviet influence. Thus, Eisenhower transformed the Atomic Age from an era of mistrust, fear, and danger, into a time of less expensive energy, medical breakthroughs, and technological advance to better the human condition.
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