The Atomic Diplomatic Policy Of Truman Administration To Great Britain

This article aims to reveal the characters of the atomic diplomatic policy of the Truman Administration to the Great Britain, and tries to analyze the factors which generated this policy.This article comprises seven chapters. Chapter one expounds that the American policy was to cooperate with Britain in developing nuclear weapons during World War II. The atomic agreement with Britain signed by Roosevelt Administration made Truman Administration could not break off the atomic cooperation with Britain easily .And the deliberate limitation in joint project by Roosevelt's advisers lay the foundation of limited cooperation policy of Truman Administration. Moreover, the unequal status in the joint project confined the relationship of Anglo-American in atomic field after World War II.The two to seven chapters deal with the evolution of the atomic diplomatic policy of Truman Administration to Great Britain, analyze the causes and all of events.This article argues that in Truman Administration, though the United States assisted Britain in many fields, gave insufficient help in the field of atomic energy. After the World War II ,in order to maintain atomic weapon monopolization, the Truman Administration intended to break off the atomic cooperation with Britain, but the important role of Britain in meeting the uranium need of American nuclear program and the special relationships between them, forced Truman Administration to give up such tentative policy. Then they put forward a limited cooperation policy, which called for cooperation with Britain in getting uranium supplies, but declined to exchange atomic information with them, especially the know-how of atomic weapons.But it couldn't be reckoned that the Truman Administration was willing to keep up this policy. The confrontation with the Soviet Union and the loss of monopolization in atomic weapon urged Truman Administration to reconsider the policy. In order to gain the support of Britain, they devised an all-round cooperation policy in the field of atomic energy in 1949, not only in raw materials supplies, but also in exchange of atomic information completely, including the secret of atomic weapons. But because of the restriction of Atomic Energy Act of 1946, the opposition of the Congress and the conflicts between Department of Defense and Atomic Energy Committee, the new policy could not be into execution. Therefore, Truman Administration had to continue the limited cooperation policy in the rest of time.As a result, the atomic diplomatic policy adopted finally by Truman Administration was determined by many factors: the international situations, the nuclear program's need of raw materials, the legislation of the Congress, and the conflicts among departments of the state. The whole matters displayed the fragility of the Anglo-American special relationships which was affected by the cold war and American national politics.