March 1, 1950 – Edward R. Murrow and The News – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
March 1, 1950 – World Peace, the Atomic Bomb, the Soviet Union – the Cold War. These were the issues at hand, this first day of March 68 years ago.
On Capitol Hill, Senator Brian McMann, chairman of the Joint Congressional Atomic Energy Committee made another dramatic bid for the setting up of World Control. This time, McMann called for a United Nations meeting in Moscow. But first, the Western powers would convene to draft a peace program, then present it for Russian consideration. “If they declined to have a UN meeting in Moscow”, Senator McMann was quoted as saying, then “all the world would know the meaning of their refusal”. The gist of his plea was for newer and faster efforts to control the Hydrogen Bomb and other weapons which threaten the world with annihilation. He did not indicate whether the United States should abandon its 1946 Baruch Plan. McMann said the “clock was ticking-ticking. And all the time to save civilization grows shorter”. The proposal was met with mixed response. Democratic and Republican colleagues expressed optimism, however the White House and Secretary of State Dean Acheson weren’t so optimistic. Mr. Truman said he still stood pat on the Baruch Atomic Control plan, and Secretary Acheson said he didn’t favor negotiating with the Russians “merely for the sake of negotiating”. However, some observers considered the McMann offer something of a trial balloon to get things rolling.
And the subject of Cold War and Atomic Bombs was still the topic of conversation around other areas of Capitol Hill. The House Armed Services Committee raised a grave question: Whether United States strategy should be based on Atomic Bombing. They called upon the nations highest Military authorities for early judgement – the consensus of opinion was that the destruction caused by unlimited Atomic bombardment would mean we couldn’t win the peace.
All this cheery news – and so much more greeted listeners of Campbell Soup‘s Edward R. Murrow And The News for March 1, 1950.
