********************************* Number: 3045 Name: SPACE_63.TXT Address: N.GANT Date: 930429 Approximate # of bytes: 4921 Number of Accesses: 5 Library: 3 Description: When President Kennedy made his famous U.N. speech on Sept. 20, 1963, he called for a joint lunar mission with Russian participation. The Honorable Albert Thomas, Democrat of Texas, questioned the legality of his proposal. The President wrote back to him with this letter, which explained U.S. space policy in accordance with the 1958 National Aeronautics and Space Act. This letter is in the NASA archives at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Keywords: SPACE POLICY, KENNEDY, JOHNSON, NASA, LUNAR MISSION --------------------------------- File: SPACE_63.TXT File Ready. 7 Bit Text. Press to skip, ownload, or uit. ?d ** Turn on Capture File ** Press ?4 THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON September 23, 1 963 Dear Al: I am very glad to respond to your letter of September 21 and to state my position on the relation between our great current space effort and my proposal at the United Nations for increased cooperation with the Russians in this field. In my view an energetic continuation of our strong space effort is essential, and the need for this effort is, if anything, increased by our intent to work for increasing cooperation if the Soviet Government proves willing. As you know, the idea of cooperation in space is not new. My statement of our willingness to cooperate in a moon shot was an extension of a policy developed as long ago as 1958 on a bipartisan basis, with particular leadership from Vice President Johnson, who was than the Senate Majority Leader. The American purpose of cooperation in space was stated by the Congress in the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, and reaffirmed in my Inaugural Address in 1961. Our specific interest in cooperation with the Soviet Union, as the other nation with a major present capability in space, was indicated to me to Chairman Krushchev in Vienna in the middle of 1961, and reaffirmed in my letter to him of March 7, 1962, which was made public at the time. As I then said, discussion of cooperation would undoubtedly show us "possibilities for substantive scientific and technical cooperation in manned and unmanned space investigations." So my statement in the United Nations is a direct development of a policy long held by the United States Government. Our repeated offers of cooperation with the Soviet Union have so far produced only limited responses and results. We have an agreement to exchange certain information in such limited fields as weather observation and passive communications, and technical discussions of other limited possibilities are going forward. But as I said in July of this year, there are a good many barriers of suspicion and fear to be broken down before we can have major progress in this field. Yet our intent remains: to do our part to bring those barriers down. At the same time, as no one knows better that you, the United States in the last five years has made a steadily growing national effort in space. On May 25, 1961, I proposed to the Congress and the nation a major expansion of this effort, and I particularly emphasized as a target the achievement of a manned lunar landing in the decade of the 90's. I stated that this would be a task requiring great effort and very large expenditures; the Congress and the nation approved of this goal; we have been on our way ever since. In the larger sense this is not merely an effort to put a man on the moon; it is a means and a stimulus for all the advances in technology, in understanding and in experience, which can move us forward toward man's mastery of space. This great national effort and this steadily stated readiness to cooperate with others are not in conflict. They are mutually supporting elements of a single policy. We do not make our space effort with the narrow purpose of national aggrandizement. We make it so that the United States may have a leading and honorable role in mankind's peaceful conquest of space. It is this great effort which permits us now to offer increased cooperation with no suspicion anywhere that we speak from weakness. And in the same way, our readiness to cooperate with others enlarges the international meaning of our own peaceful American program in space. In my judgement, therefore, our renewed and extended purpose of cooperation, so far from offering any excuse for slackening or weakness in our space effort, is one reason the more for moving ahead with the great program to which we have been committed as a country for more than two years. So the position of the United States is clear. If cooperation is possible, we mean to cooperate, and we shall do so from a position made strong and solid by our national effort in space. If cooperation is not possible -- and as realists we must plan for this contingency too -- then the same strong national effort will serve all free men's interest in space, and protect us also against possible hazards to our national security, Let me thank you again for this opportunity of expressing my views. With warm personal regards, Sincerely signed JOHN F. KENNEDY The Honorable Albert Thomas House of Representatives Washington, D. C. Download complete. Turn off Capture File.