126. Editorial Note
On February 2, 1962, President Kennedy was briefed on the recent Soviet test series. Seaborg’s account of the meeting reads as follows:
“From 4:15 p.m. to 6 p.m. I attended a meeting with the President in the Cabinet Room. Others present were: Secretaries McNamara, Gilpatric, Nitze; Drs. Brown and Johnson (DOD); General Lemnitzer (Chairman, JCS); Amory and Scoville (CIA); General Taylor, Bundy, Wiesner, Keeny, Carl Kaysen (White House) and General Betts.
“Scoville, Betts and Brown made presentations regarding the Russian progress on their tests, our underground and proposed atmospheric test program and our proposed effects program respectively.
“The President expressed some doubt that the arguments for the developmental tests are sufficient to justify carrying them on, and he wondered whether it wouldn’t be best to conclude the atmospheric test ban agreement, say for four years, with the USSR. I pointed out again that if the Russians broke such an agreement in about two years we would find the capabilities of our laboratories reduced even further because it is difficult to have a capability for testing in the atmosphere after such a long period of refraining from atmospheric testing. The President did, however, direct that the negotiations for Christmas Island be speeded up, and also asked that the proposed atmospheric test series be planned in such a way that weapons systems tests such as those for the Polaris and Atlas missiles could be carried out in the event they are authorized.” (Seaborg, Journal, volume 3, page 159)
A lengthy summary of the briefing by Keeny, which does not include any report of remarks by the President, is in the Kennedy Library, Nuclear Weapons Testing, 497th NSC Meeting, Keeny Report. See the Supplement.