Speech at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory

Susan Eisenhower Delivers Keynote Address at the Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory

LIVERMORE, CA, November 13, 2003 - Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) held a two-day concluding conference of the "Atoms for Peace After 50 Years: The New Challenges and Opportunities" Project. Susan Eisenhower delivered a keynote speech "Eisenhower: The Vision," addressing the legacy of President Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" fifty years after the landmark Presidential address to the UN was delivered.

In the keynote speech opening the LLNL "Atoms for Peace After 50 Years" Conference, Susan Eisenhower analyzed the historic context in which President Eisenhower worked on the speech. In 1953, just months after the Soviet Union tested the hydrogen bomb, Dwight D. Eisenhower was convinced that global destruction would be inevitable if urgent action to curb the nuclear threat was not taken. Susan Eisenhower also emphasized the strategic importance of the address, which was "a vision, and not a blueprint."

Susan Eisenhower underlined the importance of the "Atoms for Peace" speech and reminded the audience that in the speech, Dwight D. Eisenhower called for the establishment of the International Atomic Energy Agency with a purpose of protection of fissionable nuclear materials and using them for peaceful purposes. Susan Eisenhower also described how the speech provided a boost for the domestic nuclear industry as President Eisenhower wanted to give the Americans "a certain knowledge" that the taxpayers' hard earned dollars would not be spent for destructive purposes alone and that there could be economic and social benefits from this pioneering [nuclear] research." She further stressed the need for a new contemporary vision, which would allow the United States to advance further in securing nuclear weapons and promoting peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

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