o AIR POUCH F'O T CO lFIDENT IAL M O Ll N G INO I C4TO A t' Amembassy DUBLI N TO '7 CJ CJ 0 _ 81 7 N O _---L_ _ _ _ _ __ October t 1_961 Ttl E D E PARTMBNT OF STATR WASHINGTON Emb Despatches 42 and 48 REF o fj ' 0- N #- _u _ F 'GR COM FR ' NT R ARJ Y C N A VY A I 0 I 0 N R E C 'O E p 0 T ER R R a6 O- _t ___ 6-' 'f FOR EI CN S ERV ICE DES PATCH FROM De partment lis e Ool y REP I ' R' SlI'J -Y EUR FE N E CU TAR TR XM OC USIA or 50' y L' 0' 0 I _ fh -- C%1s UY- I - tJ S p- 'N R E 'T 7 P 0 I m llM Q rEI 010 ra f 0 Article by tIT Aiken on Preventing Wider Dissemination of Nuclear Weapons SU BJECT r There are enclosed six copies of Issue 539 dated September 1961 of the Weekly Bulletin of the Department of External Affairs containing an article by the Minister for External Affairs Frank AIKEN entitled Can We Limit The Nuclear Club As stated therein the article is reprinted with permission from the Sept 1961 issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and the copyright is held by the Educational Foundation for Nuclear Sci ence Inc of Chicago The Embassy is aware that the Department receives at least one copy of the Weekly Bulletin and surmises that it may have already seen the article in the Bulletin of the Atomic SCientists but believes that it may be useful for the Department to have additional copies of this issue in view of its relevance to the Irish item on the prevention of wider dissemination of nuclear weapons intended for introduction as a resolution in the 16th session of the United Nations General Assembly The Department may wish to II forward several of the copies of the enclosure to the United States Mission to the United Nations In this article Mr Aiken describes the background to and purpose of earlier resolutions introduced by the Irish eg ation to the United Nations He sums up this purpose by stat Any proposal which is to be successful must provide against L double riskt independent manufacture by small nations and nuclear powers iving the weapons to smaller allies He makes clear l te on lpage 7 that in their proposals t e Irish delegati on i8 no seeking more than this insurance for their proposals would not revent the holdi ne of_ weap on e t r ory ortne- slUe s -art' n uclear nations as long as 'tlfe re'tJ gl contro1 - - -- -_ _ - -nucle l S1-wers _ - J The most interesting part of the paper is deemed to be Minister's attempt to rebut criticisms made of the Irish L 0 EPPrinc e ae h FORM e ponu FS 439 UO 81 -0- t DECLASSIFIED Authorily$ 9'9 b3 5 - F S- 4 l'Ol Q cm FI DENTIAL 2 Pag 013 En No -- _ De sp No 8' From - - DUblJ n n the past He admits that although it is unlikely that a smalleil vowe r could develop its own nuclear weapons unnoticed it is possible that a nuclear power c ould transfer weaTJ ons to its allies -in secret To t hi s objection he answers that it woUld be against the self-intere s t of a nuclear power to reduce its influence by sharing its nuclear weapons - even with one of its allies Even if a country saw a temporary dvantag in breaking its pledge he argues it would be d terred from 01ng so by the fear of suffering a major propaganda defeat f the v101a tion were discovered Furthermore the enormous dangers 1 - volved in placing other fingers on dangerous triggers would overwe gh any apparent temporary military advantage to a great power 1n lett1ng direct con trol over some of these weapons pass fro m its ovm hands It will be noted that this rebuttal skirts the question why an agreement is necessary if in any case it is against the interests of the nuclear powers to give their weapons to smaller allies The only argument which touches on this question is that a flagrant breaking of a Government's own free pledge is worse than a refusal to accept a resolution of condemnation after the event and that by breaking such a pledge the nuclear power concerned would run the risk of being pilloried Such an argument scarcely carries as much weight today following the resumption of nuclear testing by the Soviet Union on August 31 as it may have when Mr Aiken wrote his article In fact Mr Aiken appears to weaken the force of his own position by stating later page 7 that the danger coming from a breach of an agreement not to spread nuclear weapons would in no way be comparable to that of a breach of an agreement to destroy all nuclear weapons Such being the case and it obviously is it may be permissible to observe that the breach of an agreement not to disseminate would be regarded with far less horror than the breach of an agreement to destroy all nuclear weapons Hence in Mr Aiken's context of mere propaganda losses a breach of the former might be risked more readily than a breach of the latter A second objection that the value of any ban for prohibition is equal to the efficacy of the contro system which it establishes is answered by the Minister as followsl -But it would be foolish to become so preoccupied with the question of physical control measures that we lose sight of the fact that the keeping of a given agreement may be so clearly in the interests of all nations that fully effective IPhysical control measures are not necessar y In this sentence Mr ken appears to sum up the inherent weakness of his proposition that it is important and necessar y to obtain an agreement If the keeping of such an agreement were in fact 80 clearly in the interests of all nations it is difficult to Bee ths necessi for an agreement if the keeping of such an agreement were not so clearly in the interests of all nations then the need for control and inspection measures would seem to be very grsat L-sary The Minister's last argument 1s that an agrsement is also necesto dstsr from embarking on the development of nuclear weapons CONJIIDDTI AI f DECLASSIFIEJ Authority90 o3 _ vo '11t o Fs n o P g 3 of encl No _- Desp No 87 CONFI DENTIAL From 3 Dublin I-ti ose nations which now or soon will have the capability of develo ik auCh weapons on their own He simply expresses the belie that an agreement in accord with the Irish resolutions might pursuade such nations not to undertake a nuclear weapons program because of the assurances given that its neighbors will not press on with similar pro grams Considering the nature of the political regimes in power in some of these potential nuclear powers particularly Communist China such a belief seems to be a pious but wholly unrealistic hope For the Ambassadort o Edward P Prince First Secretary of Embassy 11-- EriClosuret Six copies Weekly Bulletin DECLASSIFIED 3 Authority90 6' - J L j COn'IDDTUL 0 '11 17 This document is from the holdings of The National Security Archive Suite 701 Gelman Library The George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington D C 20037 Phone 202 994-7000 Fax 202 994-7005 nsarchiv@gwu edu