The Commission’s [AEC] program is directed toward encouraging development of the uses of atomic energy in the framework of the American free enterpri… - Lewis Strauss
" "The Commission’s [AEC] program is directed toward encouraging development of the uses of atomic energy in the framework of the American free enterprise system.
About Lewis Strauss
Lewis Lichtenstein Strauss (January 31, 1896 - January 21, 1974) was an American government official, businessman, philanthropist, and naval officer. He was one of the original members of the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in 1946, and he served as the commission's chair in the 1950s. Strauss was a major figure in the development of nuclear weapons after World War II, nuclear energy policy, and nuclear power in the United States. During World War II, Strauss served as an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve and rose to the rank of rear admiral due to his work in the Bureau of Ordnance in managing and rewarding plants engaged in production of munitions. Strauss was the driving force behind the controversial hearings, held in April and May 1954 before an AEC Personnel Security Board, in which physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer's security clearance was revoked. As a result, Strauss has often been regarded as a villain in American history. President Dwight D. Eisenhower's nomination of Strauss to become U.S. secretary of commerce resulted in a prolonged, public political battle in 1959 where Strauss was not confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
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Additional quotes by Lewis Strauss
Until others in the world come to their senses, and join with us in banishing the awful spectre of nuclear war, we must be strong; we must have weapons fully as modern and as effective -- if possible more effective -- than the weapons which we know to be in possession of others who would destroy our way of life. At the same time, we must do all in our power to ensure the survival of the largest possible numbers of our population if war should be forced upon us. A major part of this latter effort is, of course, the responsibility of you who are engaged in civil defense.
Our civil defense efforts, as I mentioned a moment ago, have been faced with many difficult problems. These problems will continue and no doubt increase. As other nations develop and produce nuclear weapons of still greater efficiency and more destructive capabilities, our current planning for civil defense continuously requires revision lest it become outmoded. If we assume that an enemy can deliver an appreciable fraction of the weapons which we believe he can produce, the delivered cost of any one of those weapons may be almost insignificant compared with its potential damage. Also, an enemy is probably in a position to increase his destructive power of attack faster than we can hope to provide new and better civil defense measures to combat that increase. Civil defense, however efficiently organized it may be, simply cannot expect to keep ahead of the enemy's growing stockpile of more destructive, more diversified and presumably more effective nuclear weapons.