JFK and joint US-Soviet space exploration
In Lobster 47, p.35, I noted a comment by Stephen Birmingham on the secrecy surrounding Kennedy’s desire to run a joint space programme with the Soviets. Alex Cox sent the following outline of US-USSR space negotiations during JFK’s term.
‘….. In fact, The New York Times reported that JFK raised the prospect of a joint lunar landing with Khrushchev at their 1961 meeting in Vienna (NYT 22 September 1963, p. 1)… Two years later in an address before the General Assembly of the UN he made it a formal proposal (Department of State Bulletin, 7 October 1963, pp. 532-533). Unquestionably the adoption of this proposal by the President was a considerable break with the past behaviour of this country regarding space co-operation. The Soviets must be held substantially responsible for no action being taken, since their response was not to respond…’ Don E Kash, The Politics of Space Co-operation, (Purdue University, 1967), pp.85-6
‘Kennedy apparently saw the joint manned lunar landing as a great symbolic effort… a way of putting a symbolic period at the end of a general agreement reducing Cold War tensions. Prior to the UN speech in September 1963, Kennedy had answered a question at a news conference in July of that year by saying:
“The kind of co-operative effort which would be required for the Soviet Union and US to go to the Moon together would require a breaking down of a good many of the barriers of suspicion and distrust which exist between the Communist world and ourselves. There is no evidence to suggest that those barriers will come down.” ‘ (Aviation Week, 30 September 1963, p.27)
‘Letters exchanged between President JFK and Premier Nikita Khrushchev in 1962 covered the possibility of US-USSR co-operation in space. As a result, a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, was arranged between a US delegation headed by Hugh L. Dryden, deputy administrator of NASA, and a Soviet delegation led by academician A. A. Blagonravov. The two men agreed to ask their respective governments to consider co-operation in meteorological satellites, geomagnetic satellites, and communications satellites.’ (Britannica Yearbook, 1963, p.757)
20 September 1963: JFK made a speech at UN, proposing joint US/USSR Moon Program.
12 November 1963: Kennedy issued NSA Memorandum #271 to NASA Administrator instructing him to personally develop ‘a program of substantive co-operation with the Soviet Union in the field of outer space…… including co-operation in Lunar landing programs………in this connection the channel of contact developed by Dr Dryden between NASA and the Soviet Academy of Sciences has been quite effective, and I believe we should continue to utilize it……….I would like an interim report on the progress of our planning by December 15.’
22 November 1963: Kennedy visited Dallas, Texas.