THE AMERICAN EMPIRE AND THE COMING OF CLASS WAR----Episode 10

TRUMAN MAKES THE TERRIBLE MISTAKE OF APPOINTING BERNARD BARUCH TO PRESENT THE INTERNATIONAL PEACE PLAN TO THE UNITED NATIONS 

   As you will recall, the Acheson-Lilienthal report was a proposal mainly prepared by Robert Oppenheimer. Under the plan, an international Atomic Development Authority was to be created to oversee the mining, refining, and utilization of all the world's atomic raw materials. The plan called for the denaturing of all fissionable matial nd making it available for peaceful uses. National activity in the so-called "dangerous areas" would be outlawed. The plan intentionally minimized the need for on-site inspections to increase the chances that the Soviet Union would accept it. 

Hopes for an international agreement were dashed, however, when Truman and Byrnes appointed Byrens's fellow South Carolinian , seventy-five-year-old financier Bernard Baruch, to present the plan to the United Nations. Paying off an old political debt, Truman empowered him to revise it as he saw fit. Baruch had bankrolled Truman when he trailed in his 1940 Senate reelection bid and desperately needed funds. All involved, including Acheson, Lilienthal, and Oppenheimer, were furious, knowing Baruch, an outspoken anti-Communist who viewed the bomb as the United States' "winning weapon," would reformulate the plan so that the Soviets would reject it out of hand. Lilienthal wrote in his journal , "When I read this news last night, I was quite sick. . . We need a man who is young, vigorous, nt vain, and who the Russians would feel isn't out simply to put them in a hole, not really caring about international cooperation. Baruch has none of these qualifications." Baruch's choice of fellow businessmen as advisors further infuriated those who had labored so hard to come up with a plan that would work. He decided not to include scientists because, he later explained, "I concluded that I would drop the scientists because as I told them, I knew all I wanted to know. It went boom and it kied millions of people." Vannevar Bush, who had served on the Acheson-Lilienthal Committee, dismissed Baruch's advisors as "Wall Streeters." He let Baruch know that he considered him and the rest of the crew completely unqualified for the job. Baruch announced that he would turn to General Leslie Groves [pro-war militarist] and the industrialists [ makers of defense products] for advice on technical matters. Facing widespread criticism, Baruch finally relented and asked Oppenheimer to come on board as chief scientific advisor. "Son't let those associates of mine worry you," he told the physicist. "Hancock id pretty 'Right', but [winking] I'll watch him. Searls is smart as a whip, but he sees Reds under every bed." He said they would have to begin "preparing the American people for a refusal by Russia." OPPENHEIMER DECLINED THE INVITATION. 

Baruch proceeded to amend the original proposal, larding it with inspections and other provisions that the Soviets would be certain to reject. Not only did Acheson and Lilienthal try to convince him to remove the provisions, Truman and Byrnes did too. Baruch remained adamant, threatening to resign if his plan was not adopted, and Truman, in a colossal failure of presidential leadership, backed down. On the eve of Baruch's submitting the plan to the United Nations on June 14, 1946, Byrnes admitted that appointing Baruch was "the worst mistake I have ever made." Even Truman later privately admitted that appointing Baruch was "the worst blunder I ever made." 

Soviet leaders waited ten days before lashing out at the U.S. proposal. Pravda charged that the Baruch plan was a "product of atomic diplomacy and reflects the obvious tendency toward world domination." The plan made it clear that the United States intends"to consolidate its monopoly" on the production of "atomic weapons." Pravda pointed out that the U.S. government had contracted production of bombs "to private monopolistic firms such as E. I. de Nemours, whose entire pre-war outlook was connected by a thousand threads to the German I. G. Farbenindustrie." The Soviets The Soviets submitted a counterplan of their own, which would ban production, stockpiling, and use of atomic weapons. Existing stockpiles would be destroyed within three months. 

        The U.S. Makes The Decision To Adopt
      Role of Bully and Master of the Universe

The U.S. decision to proceed with its July 1, 1946 atomic bomb test in the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands sent the Soviets another chilling message about U.S. intentions. The General Assembly of the Universalist Church denounced the tests as being "offensive to the very purpose of the Christian spirit." Ickes described the Bikini tests as "diplomacy by intimidation" and noted that if it were the Soviets carrying them out," Americans would find cause for deep concern about the future peace of the world." Raymond Gram Swing told his ABC Radio listeners that many Americans, including atomic scientists and members of Congress, has protested the decision. "On the one hand we're training ourselves in the use of this very weapon. So we strive to save civilization, and we learn how to wreck it, all on the same weekend." The Soviets, predictably, responded in similar fashion. Pravda's Boris Izakov wondered why the Americans would go to such lengths to improve their bombs if they were serious about disarmament.

THERE WAS A MADNESS TO THE UNFOLDING NUCLEAR ARMS RACE. MORE ABOUT THE MADNESS PRESENTLY.