ABSTRACT
President Dwight Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace proposal was developed and delivered to the United Nations in an atmosphere of grave danger and even greater hopes. Following in the immediate aftermath of the United States (US) policy of nuclear secrecy and denial, the evident failure of which was denoted by the entry of the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union into the "nuclear club," Eisenhower's proposal electrified the world. The president's proposal received virtually universal approbation, and the pursuant Atoms for Peace policy provided the basis for the development of nuclear cooperation, trade, and nonproliferation policy in the noncommunist world. Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace program has been praised without reservation for its boldness and has been viciously denounced for its shortsightedness. Atoms for Peace, of course, is not a single event, or decision, or program which can be identified with one person, agency, or even nation. It was a complex event which transcends the 1950s, Eisenhower's party, and US' national interest.
