INITIAL WORLD REACTION TO PRESIDENT EISENHOWER'S UN ADDRESS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80R01443R000200050005-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 13
• Document Creation Date: November 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 6, 1998
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: December 10, 1953
• Content Type: BRIEF

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INITIAL WORLD REACTION TO
PRESIDENT EISENHOWER'S UN.ADDRESS
Initial Soviet reaction to President
Eisenhower's proposal for an atomic pool for
peaceful purposes suggests that the Kremlin
will reject the offer. Moscow seized upon the
President's omission of any reference to the
banning and control of atomic weapons, thus
indicating that the USSR will continue to
oppose any plan which does not meet the con-
ditions outlined in the Soviet disarmament
proposal before the UN.
Western reaction to the speech has been
generally favorable and has expressed the hope
that the new approach would break the present
impasse.
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Communist:
USSR: Andrei Vishinsky told the UN
General Assembly's closing session that
without an unconditional ban on atomic weapons
"the assurance that atomic energy can be used
for peace cannot be guaranteed." Radio Moscow
commentators added that the President made a
"eulogy of a policy of force," that he
"actually came out with a threat of atomic
warfare ... to scare his listeners ... rather
than to have them hope that the danger of
such war can be eliminated."
East Berlin: A Home Service broadcast
quoted a New York comment that "owing to the
steadily growing influence of the world peace
movement, President Eisenhower felt compelled
in the UN General Assembly to announce what
amounts to the end of the US policy of atomic
blackmail toward the USSR and all peace-loving
countries the world over."
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Czechoslovakia: A Prague broadcast
asserted that President Eisenhower supplemented
the Bermuda communique of the three Western
powers - "which is full of contradictions - by
a statement characteristic of US atomic policy!'
Poland: The Warsaw Home Service broad-
cast a short summary of the President's
address and added that."UN circles stress that
his speech completely ignored the essential
problem: the prohibition of production and
use of atomic and hydrogen weapons."
Italy: An Italian Communist-directed
Cominform broadcast summarized the speech and
commented that President Eisenhower failed to
say whether the US would support an immediate
ban on atomic weapons as called for in the
Soviet disarmament proposal.
London: The Daily Worker called the
speech a "blackmailing threat against the
Soviet Union."
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Paris: Communist Humanite said that
"behind the great words one recognizes a new
version of the Baruch plan for US control of
world atomic energy."
New York: The Daily Worker commented that
the President's proposal "not only dodged the
question of banning production of atomic and
hydrogen weapons, but ignored the question of
inspection and control, and proposed an
agency which, in view of the State Department's
dominant role in the UN, would give Wall
Street trusts a monopoly over the world's
uranium resources. Such a scheme was the
heart of the Baruch plan ...."
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Western World
UN: Non-Orbit diplomats in the UN,
including the representatives of Lebanon,
Syria, Iraq and Turkey praised the initiative
taken by the President to make atomic energy
work for peace.
The Indian UN representative,
V. K. Krishna Menon remarked that the speech
was "very important" and added that the
success of the plan "depends on how people
join in it." A delegate from Pakistan
remarked that he could not see how the plan
could be carried out.
. Yugoslavia: Radio Belgrade reported that
almost all Yugoslav papers stress that the
speech has met with approval and that it
represents a contribution to the creation of
a better atmosphere in the field of disarma-
ment and control of atomic weapons.
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Britain: In Britain, as in the rest of
Europe, the general official reaction to the
President's 8 December speech is that it will
be most interesting to see the Soviet Union's
reaction. The Times said editorially that the
speech "suggested a first practical step which
could be taken without agreement on a full-
scale plan of disarmament." The Manchester
Guardian cautioned that unless the proposed
international agency has a monopoly of fis-
sionable materials,-"it would offer no new
safeguard to the world." "Informed British
sources" are quoted as saying that Britain
would leap at the chance to take part in the
UN atomic agency, and that the President's
proposal would revive faith in the United
States' wisdom and ability to lead the world.
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Thus the luckless President pursues his
stumbling career."
Canada: The Canadian trade minister Laid
that his country fully supported the Presi-
A London Daily Mirror columnist, one
of the United States' most consistent and
severe critics, alleged that Sir Winston
Churchill talked the President out of making
"the biggest scare speech in history."
Critical British comment on the speech came
from the Daily Mirror columnist "Cassandra,"
who said that the speech was instigated by
C. D. Jackson in a psychological warfare move
and that "Jackson's advice seems to range from
advocating blatant demagoguery in Korea to
vulgar muscle-bulging at the United Nations.
dent's proposal. Another government official
said that Canada would be able to make a
major contribution to the proposed agency
since all Canadian atomic research has been
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France: Foreign Minister Bidault stated
that the President's suggestion was very
warmly welcomed by France. French diplomatic
and political observers consider President
Eisenhower's proposals as a new method of
approaching the problem. They noted, however,
that he avoided any reference to complete and
immediate banning of atomic weapons,as well as
mention of a control organization.
Daniel Mayer, Socialist Chairman of
the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs Com-
mittee, said he saw signs of hope in
Eisenhower's speech since the President had
given up "certain parts of the Baruch plan
which have been systematically refused by the
Soviet Union for seven years."
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West Germany: There has been little
reaction thus far to President Eisenhower's
UN speech in West Germany. The German Press
Service reports that Bonn government circles
have hailed the speech as a "considerable step
forward," and have welcomed the President's
remarks on the peaceful exploitation of
atomic energy.
The press service observes that the
speech will have a calming effect in Europe.
Austria: Most Austrian newspapers of
9 December appeared too early to report the
Eisenhower address. The independent Die
Presse is reported to have carried excerpts of
what it calls "Eisenhower's dramatic appeal
for atomic disarmament" and a "laudatory"
editorial on the speech is printed by the
influential Socialist paper, Arbeiter Zeitung.
Text of the latter is not yet available.
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Italy: In Italy, the rightist press
praised President Eisenhower's 8 December
speech as an "appeal to the world to impede
atomic war." Leftist papers have said that
it was "merely a disguise for failure and
crisis of the m.id-ocean club meeting," and
that "the United States, having lost its
atomic monopoly, makes an equivocal proposal
for international control."
The independent Turin daily,. La Stampa,
commented that the main significance of the
speech lies not so much in the technical sug-
gestions made, but in the fact that
"Eisenhower considered it necessary to expound
the extreme gravity of the atomic threat by a
personal statement to the forum of the United
Nations."
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India: The press welcomed President
Eisenhower's speech and expressed hopes for
easing world tension and for reassuring all
nations that they have no cause to fear.
Greece: It was emphasized that President
Eisenhower's speech before the UN had given
rise to both fear and hope and that the ful-
fillment of the hope depended entirely upon
the Soviet Union. In another Greek paper the
President's address was described as one of
historic importance and his proposal as the
most positive offer of peace since the termina-
tion of World War II.
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China: Agency France-Presse reported
from Taipei that Nationalist officials regard
the address as a "new step on the road of
appeasement."
Nationalist officials in general tend
interpret as "appeasement" any statement of
policy which seems to them to reduce their
prospects for returning to control of mainland
China.
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