The physicists and the politicians: The pursuit of the international control of atomic weapons, 1943-1946

Thesis/Dissertation · Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1987

OSTI ID:5316945

Graig, I C

This study examines the activities of those individuals in the US who advocated a particular approach to the international control of atomic weapons in the first years of the atomic age. These individuals - primarily, though not exclusively, Manhattan Project scientists and administrators - believed that peace in the atomic age could best be ensured through a system of international control based on the free interchange of scientific information. This belief in the need for free international scientific interchange made their approach unique. Many of the leading advocates of this approach held positions high in the Manhattan Project hierarchy, and therefore played a role in the formulation of US atomic weapons policy. The active public lobbying by the postwar political organizations of Manhattan Project scientists put this approach before Congress and the American people soon after Hiroshima. Despite these activities, the idea of international control based on free scientific interchange was not accepted by certain key US policy-makers. US policy during this era was moving towards an effort to maintain the American atomic monopoly as a hedge against possible Soviet expansion in Europe and the Mediterranean.

• Research Organization: Virginia Univ., Charlottesville, VA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5316945
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING
POLICY AND ECONOMY
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
INTERNATIONAL CONTROL
GOVERNMENT POLICIES
HISTORICAL ASPECTS
INFORMATION DISSEMINATION
NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
POLITICAL ASPECTS
SCIENTIFIC PERSONNEL
ATOMIC ENERGY CONTROL
CONTROL
INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS
PERSONNEL
PROFESSIONAL PERSONNEL
WEAPONS
290600* - Energy Planning & Policy- Nuclear Energy