Arneson, R. Gordon Papers

Secretary to the Interim Committee on Atomic Energy, 1945; Staff Member, U.S. Delegation to the U.N. Atomic Energy Commission, 1946-1948; Special Assistant to the Under Secretary of State, 1948-1950; Special Assistant to the Secretary of State, 1950-1954

The papers of R. Gordon Arneson include notes of the meetings of the Interim Committee on Atomic Energy, which advised the Secretary of War regarding use of the atomic bomb in 1945; a biographical manuscript; an Atomic Energy Commission report on the development of the thermonuclear weapons program; transcripts of interviews conducted with Mr. Arneson; and correspondence, printed materials, photographs, handwritten notes, and unpublished articles relating to Arneson and the U.S. atomic energy program.

Size: 5 linear inches (about 800 pages).
Access: Open.
Copyright: Nancy Long Arneson retained copyright interest in the book R. Gordon Arneson: Memories of the State Department's 'Mr. Atom', which is included in the collection. She donated her copyright interest in other writings in this collection to the United States government. Documents created by U.S. government employees in the course of their official duties are in the public domain. Copyright interest in any other writings in this collection presumably remains with the authors of the documents, or their heirs.
Processed by: Dennis Bilger and Randy Sowell (1999, 2012).

The papers of R. Gordon Arneson consist mostly of materials relating to the U.S. atomic energy program and Arneson's involvement with that program from 1945 to 1954. While a lieutenant in the U.S. Army in 1945, Arneson served as secretary to the Interim Committee on Atomic Energy, a special body appointed by Secretary of War Henry Stimson to provide advice on the use of the atomic bomb and the future development of atomic energy. Later, Arneson served in the State Department as a special assistant (first to the Under Secretary of State, and subsequently to the Secretary of State) dealing with atomic energy matters. In this position, he worked during the Truman and Eisenhower administrations with Secretary of State Dean Acheson and Acheson's successor, John Foster Dulles.

Among the significant documents in this collection are notes of the meetings of the Interim Committee on Atomic Energy from May 9 to July 19, 1945; these notes were prepared by Lieutenant Arneson in his capacity as the committee's secretary. Also of interest is R. Gordon Arneson: Memories of the State Department's 'Mr. Atom', a biographical memoir written by Arneson's widow, Nancy Long Arneson, which appears in the collection as both a typewritten manuscript and in its completed, published form. Other materials in the collection include a lengthy report by the Atomic Energy Commission examining the background of President Truman's decision to proceed with the development of a thermonuclear weapons program in 1950; transcripts of interviews conducted with Mr. Arneson; and correspondence, printed materials, handwritten notes, and unpublished articles relating to Arneson's career, President Truman's decision to use the atomic bomb against Japan, and the geopolitical aspects of developments in the field of atomic energy after World War II. The collection does not include Arneson's official correspondence from his years in the State Department. The Arneson papers are organized into a single series, a Subject File, which is arranged in alphabetical order by folder title.

A small accretion, mostly consisting of photographs and printed materials, was added to the collection in 2012. The accretion was filed under "Atomic Energy Program and R. Gordon Arneson . . . ."

Other relevant materials at the Truman Library include the transcript of an oral history interview with R. Gordon Arneson.