The first atomic bombs were detonated in 1945. The Baruch Plan of 1946 served as the first proposal to control the spread and use of this awesome new power. President Harry Truman's original announcement about the bomb included a promise that it would not be used only for destructive purposes. In the words of the Baruch Plan, "Science, which gave us this dread power, shows that it can be made a giant help to humanity, but science does not show us how to prevent its baleful use. So we have been appointed to obviate that peril by finding a meeting of the minds and the hearts of our peoples. Only in the will of mankind lies the answer" (Baruch Plan, presented to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission on June 14, 1946).

Background

At the end of World War II the United Nations passed a resolution to create a commission...