The Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists (ECAS) was founded by Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd in May, 1946, primarily as a fundraising and policy-making agency.
[2] The Committee was established in the wake of the "Szilárd petition" (July 1945) to United States president Harry S. Truman opposing the use of the atomic bomb on moral grounds, which was signed by 70 scientists who had worked on the Manhattan Project.
[14] Apart from fundraising, these programs aimed to garner backing for initiatives such as the Baruch Plan, which was presented to the United Nations in 1946 and proposed international control of the atomic bombs.
[16][4] In his "Open Letter to the General Assembly of the United Nations" of October 1947, Einstein emphasized the urgent need for international cooperation and the establishment of a world government.
[28][31] At the end of 1948, with the gradual deterioration of international relations, failure of the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission (UNAEC) in 1947 and escalating international tensions after 1947, committee recognized that:[32][33] "education of mankind toward a clear understanding of the implications of atomic energy, and full appreciation of the dangers and hopes inherent in new discoveries, is a long-range task which cannot be solved on an emergency basis.
"On the question of disposition of the funds, Einstein wrote Harrison Brown on June 12, 1951:[24] "When our committee was formed it was undoubtedly our purpose to use our influence to help achieve lasting security in the international field.
But I would prefer, according to Szilard's suggestion, to give the money to the Friends, for they have shown by their steadfast efforts through many years a truly supranational attitude, which was manifest long before the present difficult situation arose.
[citation needed] ECAS was active for four years, until 1950 when it was gradually disbanded, although most of the members continued to campaign against nuclear war, and participated in the development of the Constitution for the Federation of Earth[27] and the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.