Digital National Security Archive (DNSA): U.S. Nuclear Nonproliferation 2, Part I: From Atoms for Peace to the NPT, 1954-1968

The chief value of this set is that it provides interested researchers with a comprehensive picture of the development over time of U.S. policy toward the proliferation of nuclear weapons and technology – an issue of continuing global importance. As discussed earlier, the collection documents such crucial developments as the U.S. attempts, starting in the mid-1950s, to establish an International Atomic Energy Agency that could institute safeguards to prevent the use of designated “peaceful” nuclear reactors for the production of fissile materials for weapons. The collection also documents the U.S. government’s monitoring of, and intelligence reporting on, suspect nuclear programs, including in France, China, India, and Israel, that developed outside of any safeguards system. Moreover, the collection covers the various phases of U.S. efforts to negotiate nonproliferation agreements from 1961 to 1968, including the impact of the various Irish resolutions from 1958 to 1961. All of these issues are critical to understanding the history of nonproliferation and the state of play in the current period.