The Bellman.
sell-out zone
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Statement by the President
I believe the American people, to the fullest extent consistent with national security, are entitled to be informed of all developments in the field of atomic energy. That is my reason for making public the following information.
We have evidence that within recent weeks an atomic explosion occurred in the U.S.S.R.
Ever since atomic energy was first released by man, the eventual development of this new force by other nations was to be expected. This probability has always been taken into account by us.
Nearly 4 years ago I pointed out that "scientific opinion appears to be practically unanimous that the esential theoretical knowledge upon which the discovery is based is already widely known. There is also substantial agreement that foreign research can come abreast of our present theoretical knowledge in time." And, in the Three-Nation Declaration of the president of the United States and the prime ministers of the United Kingdom and of Canada, dated November 15, 1945, it was emphasized that no single nation could in fact have a monopoly of atomic weapons.
This recent development emphasizes once again, if indeed such emphasis were needed, the necessity for that truly effective enforceable international control of atomic energy which this Government and the large majority of members of the United Nations support.
President Harry S. Truman
September 23, 1949
Text taken from Cantelon, Hewlett, and Williams (eds.) The American Atom: A Documentary History of Nuclear Policies from the Discovery of Fision to the Present, p. 112.
