President Dwight D. Eisenhower launched nuclear power globally with his 1953 Atoms for Peace speech and subsequent initiatives but he was firmly one side of the “public power versus private power” debates that roiled American politics. As one author put it forty years ago:
When dedicating the McNary Dam on the Columbia River, Eisenhower expressed his opinion of additional public power projects: “The federal government should no more attempt to [supply all the power needs of our people] than it would assume responsibility for supplying all their drinking water, their food, their housing and their transportation.”
Munson, Richard. 1985. The Power Makers: The Inside Story of America’s Biggest Business … And Its Struggle to Control Tomorrow’s Electricity. Rodale Press, 106
