A Scheme of ‘Control’: The United States and the Origins of the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group, 1974–1976*

Abstract

India's nuclear test in May 1974 created a predicament for US nuclear diplomacy. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's immediate response was low-key, but he became worried about the spread of nuclear capabilities to the ‘next country’. Abandoning his previously dismissive stance toward the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Kissinger concluded that Washington had to work with allies and even cold-war adversaries to check proliferation. He approved a number of initiatives, one of which was to co-ordinate the nuclear-export policies of major states, the United States, the Soviet Union, Canada, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, and West Germany. To make that possible, during 1974–5, Kissinger supported a complex diplomatic effort to create what became a major institution in the non-proliferation regime, the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG), and a set of guidelines for regulating the export of nuclear equipment, materials, and technology.