278. Memorandum From the Executive Secretary of the Department of State (Eliot) to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger)1 2
Subject:
- Proposed Negotiation Staff Work on U.S.-Soviet Docking Mission
NASA-Soviet Academy discussions have been approved, probably beginning April 4 in Moscow, to assure that the Soviet side understands and accepts the principles of organization, management, scheduling, and operation which are required if the President is to have a viable option for a joint announcement in May on a space docking mission.
To make certain that there is in fact an understanding on such principles, NASA believes the April 4th meeting should end with the two sides initialing a statement of the principles which would apply if the project is eventually given a go-ahead. The statement would refer to and attach several entirely technical and managerial draft documents as exemplifying the kind and level of detail which the parties agree must be developed jointly by them. (The attached draft indicates the sort of statement which would be initialed.)
An agreement on principles would not constitute an agreement to conduct a mission nor would it commit the President in any way. There is adequate precedent for such an initialed agreement inasmuch as there are now three sets of agreed documents on the rendezvous and docking subject since October 1970. (A joint working group is meeting in Houston this week on technical [Page 2] questions of docking mechanisms; it will sign a fourth set of technical recommendations which will not be made public until after confirmation around June 1 by NASA and Soviet Academy principals.)
Approval has previously been requested for the NASA delegation to Moscow to be headed by the Deputy Administrator Dr. George Low. It is recommended that the delegation be authorized to initial a statement of principles such as is described above.
Executive Secretary
- Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Files 1970-73, SP 1-1, US-USSR. Secret. Drafted by O. E. Anderson (NASA); concurred in by Jack Matlock, Director of the Office of Soviet Union Affairs and Richard T. Davies; and cleared in draft by Webber (SCI/SAM). Parker Borg signed for Eliot. A typewritten notation on the memorandum reads: “Memo from Gen. Haig to Mr. Eliot received 4/3/72.” A report of the NASA delegation to Moscow, April 4-6, is printed in Logsdon (ed.), Exploring the Universe, Vol. II, External Relations, Document I-46. Attached but not published were the draft principles. On April 3 Haig sent a memorandum to Eliot, approving Low’s statement in Moscow of draft principles for a possible U.S.-Soviet space docking mission, but with the understanding that it would not commit the United States to such a mission. (Ibid.)↩
- The Department informed Kissinger of its requirements for US-USSR technical discussions to ensure that a viable agreement on a joint space docking mission would be ready by the May 1972 summit.↩