Harold Stassen by Kaplan Lawrence S

Author:Kaplan, Lawrence S.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Published: 2017-02-27T16:00:00+00:00

After Geneva

On July 28, less than a week after the Geneva summit adjourned, Eisenhower appointed Stassen US deputy representative on the UN Disarmament Commission, where he could apply his passion for Open Skies to a new venue. The president’s draft letter to Stassen outlining the terms of his appointment noted that he would serve as US representative at the forthcoming subcommittee meeting, where he would be under Ambassador Lodge’s direction on matters relating to his work with the United Nations. But the letter also noted that on matters relating to negotiations with other governments, Stassen would be under the direction of the secretary of atate.44 The latter directive was obviously intended to bolster Dulles’s amour propre.

Stassen’s proposals to the UN Disarmament Commission—ostensibly preliminary but, as usual, ambitious—provoked Dulles to respond with a series of reservations. He squelched Stassen’s recommendations for immediate action. “There are as of now no known inspection procedures,” he asserted, “which could provide adequate support for an agreement to eliminate atomic weapons.” Moreover, no actions should be taken before coming to a consensus with Britain and France. Consequently, consideration of any decisions would be “premature.”45

It was unlikely that Dulles expected Stassen to follow his advice. He had not done so in the past, and it was quickly obvious that Stassen would again go his own independent way. Stassen was heartened by the areas of agreement he perceived in the Soviets’ behavior at Geneva. He was convinced that the United States enjoyed a sufficient lead in nuclear weapons to permit bold initiatives. The point was to get started and allow momentum for change to build. The odds against success never restrained him.46

He wasted little time in letting the Soviets know that the United States would be open to partial measures to implement the Open Skies proposals. He disregarded the concession for “reserved and inactive status,” pending further studies of inspections, the secretary of state thought he had extracted. Instead, Stassen informed Secretary of Defense Charles Wilson that he was proceeding to implement the NSC decisions of June 30, which were essentially his own interpretations of the administration’s plans for developing feasible methods of inspection. He would “actively seek an international system for the regulation and reduction of armed forces and armaments.” He had his special task forces in place to implement his plans.47

Not surprisingly, Stassen moved swiftly prior to the August 29, 1955, meeting of the subcommittee to invite the chargé d’affaires and the first secretary of the Soviet embassy to meet informally with him. He suggested that the first meeting of the subcommittee dispense with ceremonial and procedural matters and begin substantive discussion. He reminded them that both President Eisenhower and Premier Bulganin “had found merit in the concept of reciprocal visits and technical exchanges between the USSR and the U.S.” Acting on the basis of this apparent imprimatur, Stassen made specific reference to the “creation of a panel of technical panels of experts to test the various methods of inspection which might be employed in the control of arms and armed forces.

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