Eisenhower Library, Eisenhower papers, Whitman file
No. 432
Prime Minister Churchill
to President Eisenhower
top secret
[London,] undated.
Received March 29, 1954.
Received March 29, 1954.
My Dear Friend: There is widespread anxiety here about the H-bomb and I am facing a barrage of questions tomorrow about the [Page 1019] March 1 explosion.1 Our instruments here record a second explosion in the series mentioned in our private talks at Bermuda on 26 instant.
- 2.
- I am well aware of all your difficulties in view of the McMahon Act, etc., and of the efforts you are making to obtain greater freedom to give us the information and I shall do my utmost to safeguard our common interests as they are developing. It would be a great help to me if I could say that in return for the facilities we accorded to American aircraft at the Australian experiments the American authorities had agreed to our sending aircraft to collect samples of debris at very great heights.
- 3.
- I should also like to say that apart from this act of reciprocity we have no information as yet of the results of the experiment but we hope it may be possible within the limits of existing United States legislation to give us a report of what occurred.
- 4.
- I shall of course repulse all suggestions—and there are many—that we should protest against the continuance of your experiments. I have to speak at 3.30 p.m. G.M.T. Tuesday 30.2 The Prof is also telegraphing to the Admiral.3
Winston
- On Mar. 1, 1954, the United States had begun a series of hydrogen bomb tests in the Bikini–Eniwetok area of the Marshall Islands.↩
- President Eisenhower replied to this message on Mar. 29 saying that he understood that Admiral Strauss had already been in touch with Ambassador Makins and that the first two questions raised by the Prime Minister had been covered satisfactorily. (Eisenhower Library, Eisenhower papers, Whitman file)↩
- Lord Cherwell and Admiral Strauss, respectively.↩