NATIONAL SECURITY ACTION MEMORANDUM NO. 183

MEMORANDUM TO:    Secretary of State
                                        Secretary of Defense
                                        Director of Central Intelligence
                                        Administrator, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
                                        Director, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency
                                        Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission
                                        Director, Office of Science and Technology

(SUBJECT: Space Program of the United States)

The President desires that the space program of the United States be forcefully explained and defended at the forthcoming sessions of the UN Outer Space Committee and the General Assembly.  The Department of State is requested to consult with the Department of Defense, CIA, NASA, AEC, ACDA and the Office of the Science Adviser to develop positions which meet the following objectives:

 1.  To show that the distinction between peaceful and aggressive uses of outer space is not the same as the distinction between military and civilian uses, and that the U.S. aims to keep space free from aggressive use and offers cooperation in its peaceful exploitation for scientific and technological purposes.

2.  To build and sustain support for the legality and propriety of the use of space for reconnaissance.  This position should proceed from the approved recommendations of the report submitted on this subject on June 30, 1962.

3.  To make it plain that neither U.S. nuclear tests nor other U.S. experiments in space were undertaken without a proper sense of scientific responsibility, and that, in the case of the nuclear tests, these were a response to previous Soviet tests.

4.  To demonstrate the precautionary character of the U.S. military program in space.

5.  To show that U.S. policies for communication satellites are fully consistent with cooperative international arrangements.

                                                                                                                                           McGeorge Bundy