Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, Regulation of Armaments; Atomic Energy, Volume XX

58. Telegram From the Department of State to the Consulate General at Geneva¹

Washington, August 20, 1955—11:35 a.m.

593. For Rabi, USDEL Peaceful Uses Conference. Following letter instructions signed Murphy August 19:

Begin text.

1. I am pleased inform you you have been designated Representative of US for purpose conducting Technical Atomic Energy talks with representatives USSR which are scheduled begin Geneva August 22, 1955.

2. Following instructions presented for your guidance as US Representative. I shall appreciate your communicating substance hereof to other members Delegation.

3. Objective this Government is explore in preliminary fashion, with representatives other nations taking part this study, technical safeguards which are feasible and necessary insure nuclear fuel can be made available for reactors under auspices IAEA without prejudice to security nations of world. No assumptions are to be made about agency itself except

A. An agency will come into existence.

B. Any nuclear installations under auspices of agency shall be previously made known to agency in complete detail, such detail to include following: reactor design and operation information; fuel element design; any auxiliary chemical processing plant or fuel element preparation plant design, and operation information; means of transfer fissionable material in any form to and from installation in question.

C. Some agency system of supervision will exist.

4. Main technical emphasis of meeting will be concerned with physical security of fissionable materials and detection any violation procedures established by agency.

5. These discussions are preliminary in nature and may or may not be followed by more comprehensive discussions. Present discussions are to be narrowly technical scope and are to be limited discussion agenda presented to USSR in US Government’s note April 14, 1955 accepted by USSR July 19.² Discussions should not be carried to point commitments and any discussion limitation on complete freedom of US in atomic energy field must be avoided. Any discussion of relationship agency to UN must be avoided.

6. Over-all problems of international control atomic energy, as well as problems relating to prohibition or testing nuclear weapons, are specifically to be excluded discussions.

7. There will be no discussion classified information or Restricted Data in any meetings attended by representatives USSR, Czechoslovakia, or France. In preliminary discussions involving US and UK and/or Canada, if necessary for proper coordinated planning, classified information may be discussed if commonly held.

8. You should obtain further instructions from Department in event above prove insufficient during course of study.

9. Upon completion talks you are requested prepare official report covering results study for submission to Secretary of State and Chairman AEC.³

10. You and your colleagues enter upon these important discussions with assurances my keen interest and wholehearted support. End text.

Deletion in paragraph 5 proposed Urtel 549⁴ received too late to obtain change before signature. Suggest any desired agreements re future meetings etc. be worked out ad referendum.

Word “control” in paragraph 6 garbled in transmission Urtel 542⁵ and correction received too late.

Following advisers designated: Davis, Staebler, English, Dodson, John Hall, Smith, William Hall, Robinson, Stevens.⁶ Stevens included as precaution view Urtel 394.⁷ Omission Zinn error here and will be corrected soonest.

Dulles

1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 398.1901–GE/8–2055. Confidential; Priority. Drafted and approved by Farley.
2. The U.S. aide-mémoire is printed as Document 20. Regarding the Soviet memorandum to the United States, dated July 18, not July 19, see footnote 2, Document 49.
3. See Document 61.
4. In telegram 549 from Geneva, August 19, Rabi and Strauss suggested the deletion of “Discussions should not be carried to point of commitments and” in paragraph 5, since the agreement to meet again might be considered a commitment. (Department of State, Central Files, 398.1901–GE/8–1955)
5. The corrected version of telegram 542 from Geneva, August 18, specified the addition of the words “control or” after “relating to” and just before “prohibition” in paragraph 6. (Ibid., 398.1901–GE/8–1855)
6. The members of the U.S. Delegation were Richard W. Dodson, Secretary, General Advisory Committee, AEC; Spofford G. English, Chief, Chemistry Committee, AEC; Walter H. Zinn, Director of Argonne National Laboratory, AEC; Francis B. Stevens, Special Assistant to the Director, Office of Eastern European Affairs, Department of State; W. Kenneth Davis; John A. Hall; William O. Hall; Howard A. Robinson; Gerard C. Smith; and I.I. Rabi. (Despatch 16 from Geneva, August 23; ibid., 398.1901–GE/8–2355)
7. Telegram 394 from Geneva, August 10, requested Stevens’ services through the technical talks in Geneva. (ibid., 398.1901–GE/8–1055)