Part 6

In December 1953, President Eisenhower, in a memorable address to the General Assembly of the United Nations, proposed the establishment under the aegis of the United Nations of an International Atomic Energy Agency “to serve the peaceful pursuits of mankind.” This proposal captured the imagination of people everywhere, and negotiations soon began as to the purpose, structure, scope, and program of such an organization. In October 1956 an 81-nation United Nations conference unanimously adopted a statute for the agency, which came into existence a year later with headquarters in Vienna, Austria. By the end of 1962 the IAEA had 78 member countries. Its most important work has been assisting some of the less developed nations of the world to begin programs for peaceful use of atomic energy.

Even before the international agency became an accomplished fact, the United States sought on its own to implement the spirit of President Eisenhower’s proposal. It initiated in 1955 an Atoms-for-Peace Program under which the United States has made bilateral agreements with some 40 nations for the sharing of information on peaceful uses of atomic energy and under which the United States has helped other nations to acquire nuclear reactors and materials for peaceful use.

Mention should also be made of the International Conferences on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy which the United Nations held in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1955, 1958, and 1964. The 1955 conference was particularly noteworthy in that it marked the first time that scientists had met on a worldwide basis to discuss atomic energy. At and following this meeting much information previously kept secret was made public.

Suggested References

Books

Atomic Energy, Irene D. Jaworski and Alexander Joseph, Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc., New York 10017, 1961, 218 pp., $4.95.

Atompower, Joseph M. Dukert, Coward-McCann, Inc., New York 10016, 1962, 127 pp., $3.50.

Atoms Today and Tomorrow (revised edition), Margaret O. Hyde, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York 10036, 1966, 160 pp., $3.25.

Basic Laws of Matter (revised edition), Harrie S. W. Massey and Arthur R. Quinton, Herald Books, Bronxville, New York 10710, 1965, 178 pp., $3.75.

Building Blocks of the Universe (revised edition), Isaac Asimov, Abelard-Schuman, Ltd., New York 10019, 1961, 380 pp., $3.50 (hardback); $2.70 (paperback) from E. M. Hale and Company, Eau Claire, Wisconsin 54701.

Elements of the Universe, Glenn T. Seaborg and Evans G. Valens, E. P. Dutton and Company, Inc., New York 10003, 1958, 253 pp., $4.95 (hardback); $2.15 (paperback).

Inside the Atom (revised edition), Isaac Asimov, Abelard-Schuman, Ltd., New York 10019, 1966, 197 pp., $4.00.

Introducing the Atom, Roslyn Leeds, Harper and Row, Publishers, New York 10016, 1967, 224 pp., $3.95.

Peacetime Uses of Atomic Energy (revised edition), Martin Mann, The Viking Press, New York 10022, 1961, 191 pp., $5.00 (hardback); $1.65 (paperback).

The Useful Atom, William R. Anderson and Vernon Pizer, The World Publishing Company, Cleveland, Ohio 44102, 1966, 185 pp., $5.75.

Secret of the Mysterious Rays: The Discovery of Nuclear Energy, Vivian Grey, Basic Books, Inc., Publishers, New York 10016, 1966, 120 pp., $3.95.

The Heart of the Atom: The Structure of the Atomic Nucleus, Bernard L. Cohen, Doubleday and Company, Inc., New York 10017, 1967, 120 pp., $3.95 (hardback); $1.25 (paperback).

The Questioners: Physicists and the Quantum Theory, Barbara L. Cline, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York 10003, 1965, 274 pp., $5.00.

The Atom and Its Nucleus, George Gamow, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey 07632, 1961, 153 pp., $1.95.

The Atomic Energy Deskbook, John F. Hogerton, Reinhold Publishing Corporation, New York 10022, 1963, 673 pp., $11.00.

Atomic Energy Encyclopedia in the Life Sciences, Charles W. Shilling (Ed.), W. B. Saunders Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19105, 1964, 474 pp., $10.50.

Atoms for Peace (revised edition), David O. Woodbury, Dodd, Mead and Company, New York 10016, 1965, 275 pp., $4.50.

Manhattan Project, Stephane Groueff, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, Massachusetts 02106, 1967, 372 pp., $6.95.

The New World, 1939/1946, Volume 1—History of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, Richard G. Hewlett and Oscar E. Anderson, Jr., The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, 1962, 766 pp., $5.50.

Sourcebook on Atomic Energy (third edition), Samuel Glasstone, D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., Princeton, New Jersey 08540, 1967, 883 pp., $9.25.

The World of the Atom, 2 volumes, Henry A. Boorse and Lloyd Matz (Eds.), Basic Books, Inc., Publishers, New York 10016, 1966, 1873 pp., $35.00.

Motion Pictures

Available for loan without charge from the AEC Headquarters Film Library, Division of Public Information, U. S. Atomic Energy Commission, Washington, D. C., and from other AEC film libraries.