BRACERS Record Detail for 28811
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Baruch Proposal and Threatening Russia.
"I have had endless trouble clearing up the misunderstanding concerning which you write. At the time when the Baruch Proposal for internationalizing atomic energy was before the world and the Russians had not yet decided whether to accept or reject it, I was very strongly in favour of the Baruch Proposal as an effective means of preventing nuclear war. I once suggested, tentatively and hypothetically, that the Russians should be invited rather forcibly to assent to the Baruch Proposal and that it should be pointed out to them that if they refused they risked (at that time) a war in which all nuclear weapons would be in the hands of their enemies. I am afraid that in one or two private letters I expressed myself somewhat more unguardedly. As soon as the Baruch Plan ceased to be practical politics, the whole of this point of view ceased to be relevant to the actual situation. The new circumstances required new opinions and a new outlook as new circumstances always do. My views during recent years are those expressed in the enclosed leaflet. I should be glad if you would show this letter and leaflet to Dr. Polya."