The Film & More|
Interview Transcripts | Bibliography | Primary Sources
Truman's Statement on Detection of Soviet Atomic Test
September 23, 1949
A specially equipped U.S. weather plane flying off the coast of Siberia picked
up very high levels of radioactivity on September 3, 1949. After analyzing the
data, scientists estimated that the USSR had detonated an atomic bomb at 0000
Greenwich Mean Time on August 29. They were off by only one hour. According
to one nuclear physicist, President Truman delayed publicly announcing the
test, until members of the detection committee personally signed a statement
saying they really believed the Russians had the bomb.
I believe the American people to the fullest extent consistent with the
national security are entitled to be informed of all developments in the field
of atomic energy. That is my reason for making public the following
We have evidence that within recent weeks an atomic explosion occurred in the
Ever since atomic energy was first released by man, the eventual development of
this new force by other nations was to be expected. This probability has
always been taken into account by us.
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 come abreast of our present theoretical
knowledge in time." And, in the three-nation declaration of the President of
the United States and the Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom and of Canada,
dated Nov. 15, 1945, it was emphasized that no single nation could, in fact,
have a monopoly of atomic weapons.
This recent development emphasizes once again, if indeed such emphasis were
needed, the necessity for that truly effective and enforceable international
control of atomic energy which this government and the large majority of the
members of the United Nations support.
(back to Primary Sources)