Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, United Nations and General International Matters, Volume XI

306. Minutes of a Meeting of the Operations Coordinating Board, Executive Office Building, Washington, September 21, 1955¹

Washington, September 21, 1955

PRESENT

• Mr. Herbert Hoover, Jr., Under Secretary of State—Chairman
• Mr. Nelson A. Rockefeller, Special Assistant to the President
• Mr. Allen W. Dulles, Director of Central Intelligence
• Mr. Theodore C. Streibert, Director, U. S. Information Agency
• Mr. John B. Hollister, Director, International Cooperation Administration
• Mr. Gordon Gray, Alternate for Mr. Reuben B. Robertson, Jr., Deputy Secretary of Defense
• Mr. James S. Lay, Jr., Alternate for Mr. Dillon Anderson, Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
• Admiral Paul F. Foster, for Admiral Lewis L. Strauss, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission
• Mr. C. Dillon Glendinning, Acting Director, Office of International Finance, Department of the Treasury
• Mr. Elmer B. Staats, Executive Officer, Operations Coordinating Board, and their Assistants

[Here follows discussion of agenda items 1–3.]

Agenda Item 4—OCB Guidance Requested by OCB Working Group on Antarctica (NSC 5424/1)

(Mr. Felix Wormser, Assistant Secretary of the Interior; Dr. Thomas Nolan, Acting Director, Geological Survey, Department of the Interior; Admiral George Dufek, Capt. Jerrold Ketcham, Cdr. Charles Snay of the Department of Defense; Dr. Alan Waterman, Director of National Science Foundation, and Mr. Neil Carothers, III, National Science Foundation, were present for this item.)

(a) Noted statement by the Department of the Interior of Interior’s proposed program with respect to Antarctica.²

(b) Acted as follows with respect to the recommendations in the Executive Officer’s memorandum for the Board, “OCB Guidance Requested by OCB Working Group on Antarctica (NSC 5424/1)”, dated September 13, 1955:³

(1) Compilation of Maps

Agreed that the compilation of maps (as distinguished from the aerial photographs from which the maps may be derived) could best be performed by the Department of the Interior. Agreed further to support a request by the Department of the Interior for legislative authority and appropriations to undertake mapping no later than FY 1957 and that the request by the Department of the Interior to the Bureau of the Budget should be coordinated through the OCB Working Group on Antarctica, in order that activities of all agencies participating in the Antarctica program may be properly related, including the activities of the Department of Defense and the National Science Foundation. Also noted the urgency of the immediate initiation of the mapping program and urged the Department of Defense to make available FY 1956 funds in an amount up to $200,000 for transfer to the Department of the Interior for this purpose.

(2) Expedition on Knox Coast in Calendar 1955

Concurred in the State–Defense recommendation that an expedition to the Knox Coast should not be made this year.

(3) Proposed Fiscal Year 1957 Plans of the Department of Defense for the Antarctica Program

Noted a presentation of the Department of Defense FY 1957 Antarctica program and agreed that the program presented satisfies the operational requirements on Defense on NSC 5424/1 without specifically concurring as to the amount of funds, personnel and/or details of other logistical support.⁴

[Here follows the remainder of the minutes.]

1. Source: Department of State, S/S–OCB Files: Lot 62 D 430, OCB Minutes. Secret. Drafted on September 23.
2. The proposed program referenced here was presumably presented orally. In a memorandum of September 13 to the members of the Operations Coordinating Board, OCB Executive Officer Staats reviewed the proposal by the OCB Working Group on Antarctica that the Department of the Interior be designated the appropriate agency to prepare maps from existing and future photographs and mapping data. It was observed that very few of the photographs and mapping data assembled by U.S. expeditions, particularly those in the late 1940’s, had been used to make maps with U.S. place names.
3. See footnote 2 above.
4. The texts of the Department of Defense presentation under reference here and accompanying memoranda by OCB Executive Officer Staats are not printed.