3. A choice between the quick and the dead

Abstract

‘A choice between the quick and the dead’ looks at the immediate aftermath of World War II. Truman recognized that maintaining a US monopoly on nuclear technology would be impossible and focused on international agreements to control its uses. The scientific processes governing nuclear technology and energy were the same for benign as for malign uses; the two could not be separated. Presidential adviser Bernard Baruch’s proposal for an international agreement was the first of what would become hundreds, if not thousands, of multilateral and bilateral discussions on arms-control measures. Baruch’s plan was rejected by the Soviet Union, while the US refused disarmament without controls.