All of the following documents provided details on which the discussion of policy on pages 176-179 are based

Management of Advent (March 1961): including TAB F—Memorandum from the Acting Secretary of Defense of the Army and the Secretary of the Air Force, subject, Program Management of Advent (15 September, 1960); and TAB G—Recommended Action: Memo for Signature of Sec­retary of Defense.

The problems in the Advent program were spelled out by, among others, Harold Brown, DDR&E, on May 22, 1962, in a memo for the secretary of defense, Robert McNamara. In an appendix, Brown states categorically that the contractors management of Advent (General Electric) was poor. He also wrote, “During 1961 and until February 28, 1962, USAAMA (Army Advent Management Agency) decided to gamble on the contrac­tors to realize first a March and then a June firing date. The rate of expenditures rose to twice the amount allowable on the basis of available funds and the whole project went out of balance; training, ground equip­ment and operational control rooms were fully engineered before the spaceborne equipment was out of the breadboard stage; schedules were manipulated to a point where the completion date of the first flight arti­cle was set ahead of the engineering test model” (John Rubel’s papers).

Memorandum for John H. Rubel, Deputy Director of Defense Research & Engineering, from Ralph L. Clark, Assistant Director for Communica­tions, dated January 17, I960. A number of policy documents on commu­nication satellites are attached. These are: Briefing paper for Mr. Gates, subject: Cabinet paper CP60-112—Communication Satellite Develop­ment, December 19, 1960; Draft policy presented by ODRE to the unmanned spacecraft panel of the AACB; Summary of Cabinet Paper CP60-112/1, December 23, 1960; Briefing paper by Clark and Nadler setting out their concerns with the Cabinet Paper; draft of a policy state­ment prepared by the service secretaries summarizing the DoD’s role and interest in communication satellites (John Rubel’s papers).

Memorandum for Members of the Unmanned Spacecraft Panel: State­ment of NASA Program Philosophy on Communication Satellites. November 21, 1960 (НАС archives).

The NASA Communication Satellite Program, February 9, 1961 (John Rubels papers).

“United States Policy Toward Satellite-Based Telecommunications,” cir­culated among a small group by John Rubel in April 1961 (John Rubel’s papers).

Informal Notes of the Interim Steering Committee for Satellite-Based Telecommunications Policy, second meeting, held in the Pentagon, 11 May, 1961. Appendix В was:“DoD Position on what Technical Charac-

teristics and Capabilities DoD Desires from a Commercially Operable Satellite-Based Telecommunication System”. Appendix C: Industry – Department of Defense Cooperation in Satellite-Based Telecommunica­tions (John Rubel’s papers).

A memorandum dated September 6, 1960, records a meeting at AT&T’s headquarters on that day. The meeting discussed a request from NASA for information about Bell System’s plans for satellite communication and research. Memo gives AT&T’s policy views. The views were laid out in a letter of September 9 to T. Keith Glennan, which said that satellites should be operated by commercial companies, not government, and that enough information existed from Echo 1 for Bell to want to proceed immediately to work on active repeaters. (Box 85080203, AT&T archives).

AT&T was clearly fighting for a comprehensive role in satellite commu­nication, as numerous documents in AT&T’s and NASA’s records show. For example; on March 10, 1961, Jim Fisk, head of BTL, sent a letter to Richard S. Morse, assistant secretary of the Army, expanding on an infor­mal proposal sent by Bell to Morse on March 3. Even though the letter refers to Bell’s ideas for an experimental, not operational, program, the proposal’s completeness, with all the control that it would have ceded to AT&T, might reasonably have raised concerns in government over the extent of the control that the monopolistic AT&T would yield over something as vital as international communications.

Fisk wrote, “Bell Systems’ interest is simply stated: communication satellites promise a natural extension of the present microwave common – carrier networks and a natural supplement to present overseas radio and cable circuits.”

Specifically, Fisk proposed that Bell should design, construct, and pay for the fixed ground stations in the U. S.; arrange for foreign ground sta­tions with overseas common carrier partners; design, construct and pay for repeaters, providing frequencies for specific military uses as well as common carrier uses; accommodate the experimental requirements of the other common carriers on terms mutually agreeable; provide systems engineering assistance to the Department of Defense from the develop­ment of transportable or mobile ground terminals; provide systems engi­neering assistance to the Department of Defense to adapt the low-orbit satellite repeaters into synchronous orbit repeaters when the orbiting, ori­entation, stabilization and station keeping problems of that satellite are solved; cooperate with the Department of Defense in the initial launch operation, and share the costs of launching, as may be agreed; work with other Department of Defense contractors on portions of the program of primary military interest to insure efficient planning and to insure system compatibility.

The tensions between NASA and AT&T at both policy and technical levels are also well documented. A letter from Fred Kappel, the presi­dent of AT&T, to James Webb, the administrator of NASA, written on April 5, 1961, says, “It has come to my attention that an article that The Wall Street Journal carries… that NASA has yet to receive any firm pro­posal from any company.” Kappel goes on to write, “In view of the events which have taken place during the past few months, this state­ment… is of deep concern to me. The specific events to which I refer are as follow.” Over four pages, Kappel itemizes approaches made by AT&T to NASA (George Washington University, passed to me by David Whalen).

The Department of Justice’s concerns about the antitrust implications of AT&T’s plans for an operational communication satellite system are men­tioned in various places. One source is a memo for Alan Shapley from James Webb, NASA administrator, dated August 12, 1966. In this memo Webb also makes the point that the RCA proposal (Relay) was clearly the best for the “experimental and research requirements of NASA, although not necessarily the best for the first step toward an operational communi­cation satellite as desired by AT&T” (NASA History Office).

A memorandum for the record by Robert Nunn of December 23, 1960, describes a meeting between himself; John Johnson, NASA’s special coun­cil; and Attorney General Roberts. They were discussing a paper on com­munication policy to be submitted to the White House. December 1960 was, of course, the eve of the Kennedy administration. The policy ques­tion at stake was private or public promotion of communication satellites. All acknowledged that AT&T might be the only company capable of owning and operating an operational system of communications satellites. Roberts said, “Whatever we do, we cannot act as though NASA is putting AT&T into a preemptive position…” And he said,“. . . we cannot assume. . . that when all is said and done AT&T will emerge owning and operat­ing a system. . .Nunn explained/4 … the feeling in the White House apparently favors taking a position on principle which the succeeding administration will be obliged to overturn if it does not concur. Rogers said that this was unrealistic. Their aim was to find a way of supporting the White House’s stance in favor of the private sector without “seeking to nail down the conclusion concerning what the government will or will not do in future.”

A memorandum for the special assistant to the administrator at this time spells out AT&T’s dominance of international communication. The voice segment (cable and radio) was operated exclusively by AT&T. Some nine­teen companies competed for telegraph traffic (NASA History Office).

A number of policy documents and internal ODR&E memos point out that the solar minimum of 1964 to 1966 would reduce radio communica­tion circuits by up to two-thirds. These include a letter from Jerome Wiesner, who wrote on July 7, 1961, to Robert McNamara urging him to give his personal attention to the strengthening of the Defense Com­munications Agency.

The cooperation between NASA and the DoD with respect to which organization would develop which satellites (at least at the highest levels) is apparent in a letter from James Webb to Robert McNamara, secretary of defense. On June 1, 1961, Webb wrote, “I also wish to take this oppor­tunity again to make clear my firm intent that you are kept informed of activities concerning communication satellites and that your views and interests are kept in mind at all times.” At lower levels, and even within the separate organizations, relationships were not always so open. A memo from James Webb to Hugh Dryden, dated June 16, 1961, says, “I think it important that we not ever indicate that some of our military friends, par­ticularly those down the line in the services, may not have had full access to all the information, documents, and so forth relating to the kind of decisions that Mr. McNamara, Mr. Gilpatric, and I have made on the big program” (David Whalen from NASA History Office).

The issue being discussed at this time was NASA’s involvement in synchronous altitude, or 24-hour; communication satellites. The succeeding agreements that NASA and the DoD had, first that NASA should develop only passive satellites and then that it develop only medium-altitude satellites was explained to me by John Rubel.

Letter from James Webb, NASA administrator, to the director of the Bureau of the Budget, dated March 13, 1961. On communication satel­lites, Webb wrote, “This proposal specifically contemplates that this Administration should reverse the Eisenhower policy under which $10 million of the NASA active communication satellite program would be financed by private industry In my view this would not be in the public interest at this stage in a highly experimental research and development program” (David Whalen, NASA History Office).

A memorandum, dated April 28, 1961, for John A. Johnson, NASA gen­eral council, from James Webb, on the subject of a letter to Fred Kappel, president of AT&T, gives Webb’s view that government should not reach a hasty decision about its policy on experimental programs, such as com­munication satellites, without thoroughly considering all possible interest groups (David Whalen from the NASA History Office).

Memorandum for the associate administrator, dated May 16, 1961, con­cerning expansion of the active communication satellite program, by Robert Nunn. The memo discusses the policy issues and the public ver­sus private development of operational communication satellites.

Summary of the Comsat Bill:

Comsat stock was issued on June 2, 1964. There were ten million shares at $20 per share. The net proceeds to Comsat were $196 million. Half the capital was raised from individuals and half from 150 communications companies.