Click on the link here for Audio Player – CBS Radio/UN Radio – Memo From Lake Success – October 29, 1949 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection
News for this October 29 in 1949 had much to do with the comings and goings from Conference Room 5 at the United Nations temporary headquarters at Lake Success, New York. Topic for discussion was Atomic Energy and what was going to be the plan for regulating, monitoring and inspecting this new source of energy and destruction. And further evidence the Cold War was alive and well and galloping along were proposals and counter-proposals on the Atomic Energy question.
During this broadcast, part of the series Memo From Lake Success, a portion of a Press Conference given by Soviet Ambassador Andrei Vishinsky points out just how contentious the subject was. The Soviets were adamant about their proposals. The Soviets were adamant in rejecting the U.S. proposal. The U.S. was adamant about rejecting the Soviet proposal. And around and around it went, as it had the previous three years.
Stuck somewhere in the middle of all this were the other allies, among them Canada. An interview with Canada’s Secretary of State for External Affairs, Lester B. Pearson revealed a sense of frustration, and that the best the talks were doing up to that point was to clarify positions of disagreement.
So the subject of Atomic Energy and what to do about it continues, even to this day. The names are faces are different. The members of the Nuclear club have increased.
As General Assembly President General Carlos Romulo put it – “Agreement will be found – because it must be found”.
Still working on it, going on sixty-four years.
