Baruch Plan

The Baruch Plan was a proposal by the United States government, written mainly by Bernard Baruch, to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission (UNAEC) to: a) extend between all nations the exchange of basic scientific information for peaceful ends; b) implement control of atomic energy to the extent necessary to ensure its use only for peaceful purposes; c) eliminate from national armaments atomic weapons and all other major weapons adaptable to mass destruction; and d) establish effective safeguards by way of inspection and other means to protect complying States against the hazards of violations and evasions. When the Soviet Union was the only member State who refused to sign, the U.S. embarked on a massive nuclear weapons testing, development, and deployment program.

Related Topics:
United States - Bernard Baruch - United Nations Atomic Energy Commission - Atomic energy - Soviet Union - Nuclear weapons

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Bertrand Russell, in his 1961 book Has Man a Future?, described the Baruch plan as follows:

Related Topics:
Bertrand Russell - 1961

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:The United States Government ... did attempt ... to give effect to some of the ideas which the atomic scientists had suggested. In 1946, it presented to the world what is now called "The Baruch Plan", which had very great merits and showed considerable generosity, when it is remembered that America still had an unbroken nuclear monopoly. The Baruch Plan proposed an International Atomic Development Authority which was to have a monopoly of mining uranium and thorium, refining the ores, owning materials, and constructing and operating plants necessary for the use of nuclear power. It was suggested that this Authority should be established by the United Nations and that the United States should give it the information of which, so far, America was the sole possessor. Unfortunately, there were features of the Baruch Proposal which Russia found unacceptable, as, indeed, was to be expected. It was Stalin's Russia, flushed with pride in the victory over the Germans, suspicious (not without reason) of the Western Powers, and aware that in the United Nations it could almost always be outvoted.

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