Bernard Baruch (1870-1965)

the very same day the future president Donald Trump was born in Queens, New York, the so called Baruch Plan was proposed to the United Nations in that same city?

The plan was a proposal by the United States government to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission (UNAEC) during its first meeting. On June 14th, 1946. Written largely by Bernard Baruch but based on the Acheson–Lilienthal Report.

Somehow, you would think that countries had had enough of war, trouble and mistrust as the Second World War had just ended. But nuclear arms race was in full swing, and the Baruch plan aimed to stop this destructive cycle.

The United States, Great Britain and Canada called for an international organization to regulate atomic energy. The then U.S. President Harry Truman asked for a plan to be made. But Baruch’s version of the proposal was rejected by the Soviet Union for the Russians feared the plan would preserve the American nuclear monopoly.

The rejection of the plan led to the beginning of the Cold War arms race.

Not a good day to be born.