ABSTRACT
Atoms for Peace was a policy of controlled cooperation, introduced in the wake of the failed policy of secrecy and denial. Even if the main concern of Atoms for Peace at the outset was coming to grips with the nuclear buildup of the superpowers, the question of the potential implications of uncontrolled nuclear growth could not have escaped the attention of the political leadership of the time. One can argue whether Atoms for Peace should have been structured in a fashion that would have resulted in incremental decisions about crossing particular thresholds. If Atoms for Peace was as poor an idea as some have claimed, then why are we not living in what Albert Wohlstetter termed "a nuclear-armed crowd"? As we contemplate the contributions and the importance of the regime, we are inevitably drawn back to questions of balance and opportunity, and to the value of conceptual approaches such as are embraced by Atoms for Peace.
