International: Faces to the Sun

Silver-haired Elder Statesman Bernard M. Baruch was visibly proud of his role. As U.N. Secretary Trygve Lie handed over the temporary chairmanship of U.N.’s Atomic Energy Commission, Baruch prefaced his proposals with a touching passage: “I was moved,” he said, “in the afternoon — shall I say, in the late afternoon — of my life, to add my effort to gain the world’s quest, by the broad mandate under which we were created” (the January resolution of the U.N.’s General Assembly passed in London). He said: “All of us are consecrated to making an end of gloom and hopelessness. It will not be an easy job. The way is long and thorny, but supremely worth traveling. All of us want to stand erect, with our faces to the sun, instead of being forced to burrow into the earth, like rats.”

Progress. The main proposals offered by Mr. Baruch eloquently paraphrased the Acheson-Lilienthal plan published by the State Department this spring (TIME, April 8). The Acheson plan divides atomic work into activities “dangerous” and “nondangerous” to world security. An international Atomic Development Authority would take over the dangerous enterprises, leaving the nondangerous to the nations. The plan admits that the line between the two may shift with future developments; one of ADA’s prime functions would be to keep track of the shifting line.

The restriction of dangerous work to ADA would not only simplify that body’s inspection job, but would give a clear warning if any nation encroached on ADA’s field. ADA’s supply of raw material and fissionable output suitable for bombs would be strategically distributed, so that no one nation could gain an advantage by seizing ADA’s supplies and installations within its own borders. The Acheson planners concluded that it would be almost impossible for any nation to hide a complete bomb-making process from ore mine to finished weapon, or even to “re-nature” enough denatured material, in secret, to accumulate a dangerous supply.

Veto Trouble. Mr. Baruch said that if all goes well the U.S. will cease making bombs, “dispose of” existing bombs, and turn over its know-how to ADA. It will give up superiority in a gradual, step-by-step procedure if other nations sign the ADA charter—and if, in matters covered by the charter, they give up the one-power veto which now prevents penalizing any member of the Big Five unless all concur. Baruch proposed “condign punishments” for violations, which would be “stigmatized as international crimes.” and he said that punishment must not be avoided by means of a veto.

Bernie Baruch finished his speech in an atmosphere of warm approval and high moral earnestness, but in hole-&-corner discussions among the delegates much criticism was directed at the veto clause, on the ground that it was “unrealistic.”

Smooth Going. In the U.S., the middle-of-the-road press reaction was almost uniformly favorable. Even the isolationist New York Daily News, which would prefer a free atomic armament race, and devil take the hindmost, said that the Baruch plan was best, if there had to be a plan. The Daily Worker in New York and the Daily Worker in London both denounced it. The reactions of these Communist papers, however, was less important than that of Communist Andrei Gromyko, the Soviet delegate. Pressed for comment on Baruch’s proposals, Mr. Gromyko said: “So far matters are going smoothly. The speech was well written and well delivered. I have no comment on the substance.”

What was the substance of the Baruch plan? That if human beings made sense it would work; if they didn’t, it wouldn’t. The problem was not nuclear physics but human organization.