The problem of the disposition of existing stocks of fissionable
materials was given little consideration because it was too hot to
handle. From the very beginning Russia insisted that all atomic bombs be
destroyed, and she left no doubt that she meant the destruction of the
fissionable materials with which bombs could be quickly assembled. Even
before the H-bomb, such destruction might have meant suicide to nations
that complied, since they would have been at the complete mercy of
noncomplying nations. The advent of the H-bomb makes all talk of such
destruction, wholly apart from the waste of a priceless, irreplaceable
natural resource, completely unrealistic, as any such act would be
tantamount to abdication, a prelude to a super-Munich by the free
nations. Denaturing, which makes fissionable materials temporarily
useless for bombs, is also out of the question, since it would take a
long time to reconcentrate them, giving nations with a hidden stock of
nondenatured material a tremendous advantage that might well mean the
difference between survival and annihilation for a nation that acted in
good faith. All this also applies to the destruction of stocks of
deuterium and tritium.