On January 24, 1946, the United Nations General Assembly passed its first resolution. This resolution, entitled Resolution 1, created the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission (UNAEC) and tasked it with making proposals for “the elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons.” The United Nations declared that atomic energy should be used “for peaceful purposes.”
On June 14, 1946, the United States representative to UNAEC, Bernard Bauch, presented the Baruch Plan. This plan proposed that the United States would destroy its atomic arsenal on the condition that the United Nations impose controls on atomic development that would not be subject to a United Nations Security Council veto. The plan would only allow atomic energy to be used in peaceful manners. The plan was passed by the Commission but was not agreed to by the Soviet Union.
UNAEC submitted three different extensive reports to the Security Council. On November 4, 1948, the General Assembly passed a resolution that expressed deep concern at the impasse that they had reached on the subject. Still, nothing more was done. The next year, 1949, UNAEC became inactive. It was officially disbanded in 1952.
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