In 1953, United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered a speech titled “Atoms for Peace” to the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. In the speech, Eisenhower mentioned nuclear warfare but mainly focused on the potential for peaceful used of nuclear energy. He announced new U.S. program to supply equipment and information to institutions and nations worldwide to assist in nuclear research. Eisenhower reassured the world that the U.S. was dedicated to peace and letting other countries choose their way of life. He mentioned the problem of nuclear stalemate and affirmed that the U.S. would be dedicated to using its creativity for constructive purposed and not destruction.
A propaganda campaign was launched by the U.S following the speech and it continued for years. Some analysts said that the main intention of the speech and the media campaign that followed was to counteract the public fear and horror triggered by the atomic bombing of Japanese cities. As the Cold War set in between the U.S. and Soviet Union and the Soviet Union developed its own atomic bomb there was increasing discussion of a possible nuclear war with the Soviets. The U.S. government was moving ahead with nuclear weapons development and some say that development of commercial reactor for power generation were supported because they aided the weapons program.
Another theory about the Atoms for Peace program is that it was aimed at our European allies. With fears of a Soviet invasion of Western Europe and the huge cost of defending Europe with conventional weapons and troop, the Eisenhower administration wanted to sell the Europeans on a cheaper nuclear defense shields against Soviet aggression. Convincing them that nuclear power was a safe economical alternative to convention fossil fuels for power generation would help in soothing their concern about U.S. nuclear weapons deployed in Europe.
In spited of the positive tone of the speech, the official position of the Eisenhower administration was that only a massive U.S. nuclear arsenal would deter the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union adopted the same policy with respect to the U.S. Under Eisenhower, the U.S. nuclear arsenal rose from about one thousand warheads to over twenty thousand. Although his speech did result in exploration of peaceful uses for atomic energy and the creation of a world wide system of nuclear reactors for commercial power generation, many countries that did not have nuclear expertise acquired it and, in some cases, went on to create nuclear weapons.
Ironically, the Atoms for Peace program helped both Iran and Pakistan develop nuclear research programs and nuclear reactors. Pakistan now has nuclear weapons and the world is worried that Iran will soon have them. In the end, it would have to be said that whatever the intent of that initial speech, the resulting impact that the program had on the world was to promote both the peaceful use of atomic energy and also to stimulate the creation of nuclear weapons in some belligerent countries that are destabilizing the international situation.
