Remarks Regarding the Soviet Union

I believe the American people, to the fullest extent consistent with national security, are entitled to be informed of all developments in the field of atomic energy. That is my s. reason for giving you for publication the following information: - RECORDS is SERVICET We have good reason to believe that within recent weeks an atomic explosion occurred in the U.S.S.R. The Soviets have been working on atomic weapons for a considerable period, and from the high priority they have given this effort it was to be expected that they would reach the point of having a weapon to test by this time. Nearly four years ago I pointed out that"Scientific opinion appears to be practically unanimous that the essential theoretical knowledge upon which the discovery is based is already widely known. There is also substantial agreement that foreign research can coue abreast of our present theoretical knowledge in time." And, in the Three-Nation Declaration of the President of the United States and the Frime Ministers of the United Kingdom and of Canada, dated November 15, 1945, it was emphasized that no single nation could in fact have a mmopoly of atomic weapons. Our basic policies have consistently taken this certainty into account. Therefore these policies would not be affected by the testing of an atomic weapon in the Soviet Union.