Eisenhower Administration’s Atoms For Peace Policy (1953-1960)

In 1953, when Eisenhower Administration was just set up, the United States was faced with the necessity to modify the nuclear policies. There were various reasons for this modification, like:American nuclear monopoly was broken; the anti-nuclear movements emerged in the international community; the allies called for a resumption of nuclear cooperation with the United States; in order to expand the international atomic energy market, the American nuclear power enterprises wanted the government to relax the control of atomic energy. In this historical background, Eisenhower administration began to amend the nuclear policy, and formulated the Atoms for Peace Policy.The dissertation mainly discusses the background, the processes and the influences of the Atoms for Peace Policy. Through the detailed analyses of this policy, the author considers that the Atoms for Peace Policy was not just a simple transfer policy involving nuclear technologies and nuclear equipments, it actually was a whole strategy which included military, economic, diplomatic and propagandistic spheres. With the implementation of this policy, the United States basically achieved the expectant goals:the International Atomic Energy Agency was founded; the nuclear power enterprises of the United States gained huge economic profits from the growing world’s nuclear market; the forms of nuclear cooperation were also diverse, including regional modes, bilateral modes and multilateral modes; the international images of the United States were improved. However, with the gradual popularization of nuclear materials and nuclear technologies, the risk of nuclear proliferation increased, and many countries had the ability to develop nuclear weapons. As a result, the United States failed to prevent other countries from their military uses of atomic energy via the implementation of the policy. Since the 1960s, Eisenhower Administration’s Atoms for Peace Policy was replaced by the anti-proliferation policy of Kennedy administration. Despite these facts, bilateral agreements still continued to have an effect on American diplomacy, and the IAEA played a more and more important role in the field of atomic energy. Consequently, the policy played a pioneering role in promoting the peaceful uses of atomic energy.