Office of the Historian

70. Memorandum From the President’s Special Assistant for Telecommunications (O’Connell) to Secretary of Defense McNamara1

Washington, July 10, 1964.

SUBJECT

  • DOD Comments on Draft International Agreements to Establish a Global Commercial Communications Satellite System

This confirms information which has been conveyed to you informally concerning a meeting of interested Government departments to consider the subject matter on July 8, 1964.2 At that meeting a consensus was reached that the Department of Defense recommendations for changes in the Draft International Agreements were of such nature as to make them non-negotiable with the other signatories of the proposed international agreements. It was therefore concluded that these proposed changes should not be introduced into the negotiations preparatory to the international meeting scheduled for July 21, 1964.

As a part of the record, I am attaching memoranda from the Department of State and the Federal Communications Commission expressing [Page 134] their concern over the introduction of proposals for changes of such importance into the international negotiations at this time.3

J.D. O’Connell 4
  1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Subject File, Communications (Nat’l Communications System, COMSAT, etc.), Vol. 1 [1 of 2]. No classification marking.↩
  2. Not found.↩
  3. Not attached.FCC objections to the proposed changes are in a July 8 memorandum from Chairman of the FCC Henry to O’Connell. (Johnson Library, National Security File, Subject File, Communications (Nat’l Communications System, COMSAT, etc.), Vol. 1 [1 of 2]) A handwritten note attached to the first page reads: “Mr. Bundy: FYI. This is largely for the record in view of DOD’s decision to give up on the shared system. However, it is a clear statement and FCC deserves credit for not hiding behind State. LBJ.” The State Department’s objections, also apparently written for the record, are in a July 10 memorandum from Thompson to O’Connell. (National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Records of the Department of State, Central Files, 1964–66, TEL 6)↩
  4. Printed from a copy that indicates O’Connell signed the original.↩