127. Editorial Note
In a statement of May 7, 1966, President Johnson expressed the need for a treaty governing the exploration of celestial bodies. He outlined the essential elements of such an outer space treaty, including a provision that “no country should be permitted to station weapons of mass destruction on a celestial body. Weapons tests and military maneuvers should be forbidden.” (Statement read by Robert Fleming, the President’s Deputy Press Secretary, at a news conference in San Antonio at 11 a.m. on May 7; Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966, Book I, pages 487-488) This statement was quoted in a May 9 letter from Arthur J. Goldberg, U.S. Representative to the United Nations, to Kurt Waldheim, Chairman of the U.N. General Assembly Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, requesting an early convening of the Legal Subcommittee of the Committee on Outer Space to consider the U.S. proposal. (Documents on Disarmament, 1966, pages 276-277) On May 11, Ambassador Goldberg gave a U.S. outline of points for inclusion in a celestial bodies treaty to Nikolai T. Fedorenko, the Soviet Representative to the United Nations. (Ibid., page 304)
On June 16, Soviet Deputy Representative to the United Nations, Platon D. Morozov, transmitted to U.N. Secretary-General U Thant the “Soviet Draft Treaty of Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, the Moon, and Other Celestial Bodies” for consideration by the U.N. General Assembly. (Ibid., pages 347-350)
[Page 317]A June 16 letter from Arthur Goldberg to Kurt Waldheim (ibid., pages 350-351) quoted the U.S. outline, transmitted the text of the “U.S. Draft Treaty Governing the Exploration of the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies” (ibid., pages 352-355), and suggested that the Legal Subcommittee of the U.N. General Assembly’s Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space convene on July 12 to consider this subject, a suggestion to which the other members subsequently agreed.