Dear
Winston:1 I have pondered over your letter.2 You are quite right in your estimate of my grave concern at the steady increase in methods of mass destruction. Whether or not the specific possibilities of devastation that you mention are indeed demonstrated capabilities, the prospects are truly appalling.3 Ways of lessening or, if possible, of eliminating the danger must be found. That has been my principal preoccupation throughout the last year.
It was after many weeks of thinking and study with political and technical advisers that I finally reached the conclusions which we talked over at Bermuda and which were embodied in my eighth of December address to the United Nations Assembly.4 As you are well aware, that plan was designed primarily as a means of opening the door of world-wide discussion--with some confidence on both sides--rather than as a substantive foundation of an international plan for the control or elimination of nuclear weapons. But honest, open technical discussions on an internationally supported plan to promote peaceful uses of this new science might lead to something much more comprehensive.
Since last December, we have been following up this matter as actively as its technical character permits. Foster had two or more talks with Molotov when they were at Berlin.5 We have a draft plan which, after consultation with your people and those of two or three other countries, will, I expect, be transmitted to the Soviet Union through diplomatic channels, as agreed, probably next week.6
While there have been some indications that the Soviets might want to confuse the issues with extraneous political matters, on the whole it is encouraging that they so far seem prepared to accept businesslike procedures.
In its entirety the problem is one of immensity and difficulty, as you so graphically stated. But I repeat that I deem it important to make a beginning in an exchange of views, which, as you suggest, could open up new and more hopeful vistas for the future.
I doubt whether the project on which we are engaged would, at this moment, be advanced by a meeting of heads of government. In fact, I can see that such a meeting might inject complications. From our side, there is the question of France, which is very delicate at the moment.7 The Soviets have indicated that, if there were oral conversations, they would want to bring in the Chinese Communists.
My impression is that matters are in a reasonably good way, but that they require constant concern and vigilance and, I hope, frequent and intimate personal exchanges of views between the two of us.
With warm regard, As ever
