ABSTRACT
Existing explanations of why the Atoms for Peace program was initiated and promoted underemphasize what was first and most rationed in the program's history—its nuclear arms control objectives The program's original arms control objectives—to establish an international nuclear fuel bank that would eventually help reduce US and Soviet nuclear weapons stockpiles and encourage nuclear control—were surprisingly specific and persistent in the program's public presentation. The first concerned atomic disarmament directly—the pooling idea would be used as a new gradual approach to atomic arms control. As Jackson, Dulles, Eisenhower, and Strauss later explained, the plan could well lead to atomic disarmament even though its initial dimensions would be quite modest. Dwight D. Eisenhower's strategy of moving toward arms control with the Soviet Union was not to make bold or purely propagandistic proposals, but to propose minor or partial agreements and steps that would establish the conditions and trust essential for more significant control agreements.
