War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Interview with Gordon Arneson, 1986

Item Information

Title:
War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Interview with Gordon Arneson, 1986
Description:
Gordon Arneson was Secretary of the Interim Committee on Atomic Energy under the Secretary of War, (1945), a member of the United States delegation to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission, (1946-1948), and a special assistant to the undersecretary (1948-1950) and then the secretary of state (1950-1954). He was sometimes called the State Department's "Mr. Atom." In the interview he discusses the United States' development and deployment of nuclear weapons. He starts by describing the War Department and the Interim Committee on Atomic Energy during World War II, including personal recollections of Henry Stimson. He explains their attempts to work cooperatively with the Soviet Union, despite many people's reservations, and their discussions on how best to demonstrate America's nuclear capabilities, which ended with the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He describes international collaboration in the development of nuclear weapons, particularly with the British, and how those relationships fell apart in the post-war years. He touches on a number of other topics, including the U.S. policy of containment after World War II, followed by the hurried development of a hydrogen bomb in response to the first Soviet nuclear tests; the role of American military capabilities in State Department planning after the war; the Berlin crisis of 1948; and others.
Author:
Arneson, Gordon
Date:
March 2, 1986
Format:
Film/Video
Location:
WGBH
Collection (local):
American Archive of Public Broadcasting Collection
Series:
WGBH > War and Peace in the Nuclear Age
Subjects:
Matthews, H. Freeman, 1899-
Bradley, Omar Nelson, 1893-1981
Sherfield, Roger Mellor Makins, Baron, 1904-
Baruch Plan (1946)
MAUD Report (1941)
United States. Atomic Energy Act of 1946
World War II
Nuclear weapons
Nuclear Energy
Great Britain
United States
Soviet Union
International Relations
Korean War, 1950-1953
Stimson, Henry L. (Henry Lewis), 1867-1950
Byrnes, James F. (James Francis), 1882-1972
Marshall, George C. (George Catlett), 1880-1959
Compton, Arthur Holly, 1892-1962
Oppenheimer, J. Robert, 1904-1967
Groves, Leslie Richard
Gordon, Lincoln
Kennan, George F. (George Frost), 1904-2005
Truman, Harry S., 1884-1972
Gromyko, Andrei Andreevich, 1909-1989
Acheson, Dean, 1893-1971
Lilienthal, David Eli, 1899-1981
U.S. Atomic Energy Commission
Teller, Edward, 1908-2003
Nitze, Paul H.
Fuchs, Klaus
Harriman, W. Averell (William Averell), 1891-1986
Hiroshima-shi (Japan)--History--Bombardment, 1945
Nagasaki-shi (Japan)--History--Bombardment, 1945
Berlin (Germany)--History--Blockade, 1948-1949
Hydrogen bomb
Attlee, C. R. (Clement Richard), 1883-1967
Extent:
00:00:00
Link to Item:
http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-7p8tb0xv3t
Terms of Use:
Rights status not evaluated.
Contact host institution for more information.
Publisher:
WGBH Educational Foundation