Present at the creation

Abstract

In this chapter the author reflects on Dwight D. Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace speech, which proposed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and led to its subsequent successful negotiation. He highlights the development of the Euratom safeguards and the accommodation between Euratom and the IAEA on inspections, which was critical to European accession to the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The IAEA was formally established in 1957. The author had become a member of the staff of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in June 1954, and had worked at the AEC for two years by the time the meeting on the IAEA took place. Robert M. McKinney had a decisive voice in the early years of the IAEA's existence. He was an ally of Clinton P. Anderson, a senator from New Mexico who at various points was the chair of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy and therefore a very powerful man in nuclear affairs.