Foreign Relations of the United States, 1947, General; The United Nations, Volume I

501.BC Atomic/6–1147

Memorandum by Mr. William T. Golden ¹ to the Secretary of State

Washington, 9 June 1947.

Subject: Meeting with Professor Einstein.²

1. On Friday afternoon, June 6, 1947, I spent 2½ hours with Professor Albert Einstein at his home in Princeton, New Jersey, pursuant to his indirect request to the Secretary, referred by Mr. Benjamin V. Cohen, to have a representative come to his home for discussion of a matter to be communicated to the Secretary.

2. Summary: The topic that concerns him and his views regarding it may be summarized as follows:

(a) The world is heading for an atomic war. Our monopoly, if we have one, cannot be maintained for more than a few years. The premium on surprise attack is greater with the atomic bomb than ever before. When two sides have the bomb, one or the other will surely use it, from nerves or fear if not from policy. The devastation from atomic warfare will be fully up to the popular conception.

(b) The United Nations has been ineffectual and there is every indication that it cannot control the situation.

(c) The only way of averting an atomic war within a few years, say 2 to 10, is through an effective supra-national World Government to which military power will be transferred.

(d) The destruction of civilization can be averted only if the United States takes the lead in establishing a World Government. He hopes for bi-partisan political leadership for such a scheme.

3. The Interview: Professor Einstein spoke with deep feeling but with almost childlike hope for salvation and without appearing to have thought through the details of his solution. The field of international politics is clearly not his métier. He recognizes that World Government would be difficult of accomplishment but says that no matter how remote the chance, every effort should be made to achieve it since otherwise all will be lost.

4. Certain specific points which he made are listed below:

(a) Russia will surely develop an atomic bomb.

(b) If an effective World Government is not established, an atomic war is a certainty within a few years since the premium on the attack has become so great that one side or the other will shoot first, from fear or from nerves if not from policy. This is inevitable.

(c) For civilization to survive, it must have an effective supra-national World Government. The United States of America must be the leader if a World Government is to be established. Military power must be turned over to the World Government. All countries should be invited to join. If Russia does not join, proceed without her. If the World Government is strong, Russia will join eventually, but even if she does not join, she would not be so foolish as to attack so strong a group. And the group will not attack Russia, either, because it will be so strong it need have no fear. When I suggested that the measure of power today is the possession of the “A” bomb and that therefore the United States, even by itself, would meet his definition of a strong “group”, he replied that this monopoly cannot last for any appreciable period of time and that intangible matters of public sentiment and moral regard were also important.

(d) Non-members of the World Government would be invited to send observers to its councils so that they could assure themselves that they were not being plotted against. He felt that security problems could be handled somehow or other and that anyway secrets are transitory.

(e) Delegates to the World Government should be elected directly by the citizens of the nations, not appointed by the Governments. He stressed this point and returned to it several times. Perhaps the number of votes of each country should be in proportion to the number of professional men (or college graduates or some other such standard of intellectual hegemony) rather than the total population. He merely cited this as a possibility, pointing out that the idea was not original with him, and he did not urge it.

(f) It pains him to see the development of a spirit of militarism in the United States which follows from our experiences in the last war. The American people are tending to become like the Germans—not, he hastened to add, the Nazis but those of the Kaiser. He says that Americans are beginning to feel that the only way to avoid war is through a Pax Americana, a benevolent world domination by the United States. He pointed out that history shows this to be impossible and the certain precursor of war and grief. There can be no lasting enforced peace. The benevolent despot becomes a tyrant or a weakling; either way his structure crumbles.

(g) The German people have been ruined by their military spirit which stems from Bismarck.

(h) He would like the United Nations to govern Palestine. This would be an excellent chance for it to assume authority and re-establish its tarnished prestige.

(i) He referred to the Catholic church in connection with political longevity and pointed out that it is the outstanding and only historically durable organization.

(j) In reply to my question, he expressed the opinion that the atomic bomb would surely have been devised even if it had not been for the stimulus of World War II. The war accelerated it but it would have come within, say, 10 years anyway.

5. Professor Einstein’s manner was warm and completely informal. He seemed to speak from emotion rather than from reasoned conclusions and it was surprising, though perhaps it should not have been, that, out of his métier of mathematics, he seemed naive in the field of international politics and mass human relations. The man who popularized the concept of a fourth dimension could think in only two of them in considerations of World Government.

William T. Golden

1. Of the office of Mr. Lewis L. Strauss, Member of the United States Atomic Energy Commission.
2. Theoretical physicist; discoverer and exponent of the theory of relativity.