CHANCERIESTHE DIPLOMATIC ATLAS

South Africa Seeks Atomic Cooperation through Its Uranium Supply

12 July 1950 to 8 December 1950

Early in the Cold War, Washington valued South Africa's anticommunist alignment despite its system of racial rule. Uranium added a strategic interest to that relationship. [4] [1]

South African ambassador G. P. Jooste used a private meeting with Secretary of State Dean Acheson on 12 July 1950 to ask for a closer place in Western atomic cooperation. Research into extracting uranium from gold ores had encouraged his government to expect a major role as a supplier. Jooste said South Africa sought cooperation beyond extraction technology, while expressly disclaiming interest in information on making atomic weapons. [1]

Acheson asked the embassy to help accelerate answers on a uranium contract. His formal reply on 24 August treated that commercial negotiation separately from South Africa's wider request. Washington would discuss cooperation with Britain, but asked Pretoria to specify what assistance it wanted; work on the supply agreement was to continue meanwhile. [1] [2]

The procurement negotiations reached heads of agreement in Johannesburg on 23 November. When Interior Minister T. E. Dönges visited Acheson with Jooste on 8 December, he reopened the request for a special relationship, saying it had deliberately been kept out of the contract talks. He wanted the Atomic Energy Commission to identify what Washington could offer. [3]

Jooste approached London as well as Washington about wider atomic cooperation. [1] [2] [3]

Related Diplomats

  1. Gerhardus Petrus Jooste [1]

Sources

  1. Jooste asks Acheson for closer atomic cooperation

    Document 182, participants and complete memorandum, pp. 566-567

    Meeting datelines

    Participants and opening representations

  2. Acheson's reply on South African atomic cooperation

    Document 185, complete note

  3. Dönges and Jooste revisit atomic cooperation after procurement talks

    Document 199, participants, complete extract, and footnote 2 recording November 23 heads of agreement, p. 593

    Meeting datelines

  4. The End of Apartheid

    Early segregation and white minority government; 1948 National Party victory; Cold War policy; February 1990 unbanning and Mandela's release

Related Reading

Cite This Article

South Africa Seeks Atomic Cooperation through Its Uranium Supply. Chanceries Diplopedia. Record f59440206c260f0001ee. https://chanceries.org/research/history/south-africa-atomic-cooperation-1950/

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