ABSTRACT
As envisioned by President Eisenhower, the transformation of his Atoms for Peace proposal from vision to reality would require at the outset the establishment of an international nuclear bank into which nations would deposit fissionable material devoted to peaceful uses under the supervision of an international atomic energy agency. However, there were no other specific directives in Eisehnower's speech for carrying out his proposal. As a consequence, Hewlett argues, "in 1954 the Atomic Energy Commission and the Department of State faced the difficult task of devising specific programs to accomplish the broad objectives set forth in the president's speech. Caught in this policy vacuum the executive agencies faced the president's commitment with no clear understanding of his intentions and indeed without any determination that his proposals were feasible."
