The United Nations Atomic Energy Commission (UNAEC) was founded in 1946. The U.N. General Assembly first met on 10 January of that year, and on 24 January it adopted its first resolution, calling for the peaceful use of atomic energy and the elimination of weapons of mass destruction.

Bernard Baruch was the U.S. representative to the Commission, and on 14 June 1946 he presented a proposal, the Baruch Plan, that the United States (at the time the only state possessing atomic weapons) would destroy its atomic arsenal on condition that the U.N. imposed controls on atomic development that would not be subject to U.N. Security Council veto. These controls would allow only the peaceful use of atomic energy. The plan was passed by the Commission, but not agreed to by the Soviet Union who abstained on the proposal in the Security Council. Debate on the plan continued into 1948, but by early 1947 it was clear that agreement was unlikely. In 1949 the UNAEC decided to adjourn indefinitely.