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Chapter 2

Air Force Opposition to International Conventions on Space

The Air Force had a major impact on the evolution of outer space law during the 1950s through its close relationship to the Air Coordinating Committee (ACC).[1] Before Sputnik I, the United States had resisted the efforts of Professor Cooper and others to establish an international convention for outer space. US opposition was, in large part, due to the strong and particularly active role that the Air Force played within the ACC.

Early Air Force Actions Affecting Outer Space Law

The idea for creating the ACC emerged on 26 December 1944. In a memorandum, Assistant Secretary of War for Air Robert A. Lovett[2] recommended establishing an interdepartmental committee “to obtain the information and guidance necessary to make demobilization policies and procedures as effective as possible in preserving the productive capacity required for future national defense.”[3] On 27 March 1945, Acting Secretary of State Joseph C. Grew, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, Secretary of Navy James Forrestal, and Secretary of Commerce Henry A. Wallace signed the “Interdepartmental Memorandum Regarding Organizing of Air Coordinating Committee.”[4] On 19 September 1946, President Harry S Truman issued Executive Order 9781, Establishment of the Air Coordination Committee.

Under Truman’s executive order, the Air Coordinating Committee held the authority to establish US policy regarding international law affecting air and outer space. The ACC had authority to take its views directly to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as representing those of the United States.[5] Given that the ICAO had a Legal Committee, the ACC created a parallel Legal Subcommittee (later division). The purpose of the subcommittee was to “provide machinery to develop and coordinate the policies which would guide the positions to be taken by the US delegation to the Legal Committee” of the ICAO.[6] The Air Force, which only recently had been separated from the Army, was

  1. ↑ According to the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) histroy for January-June 1955, the Air Coordinating Committee (ACC) and the Airforce had a close working relationship. The ACC was eventually composed of representaives of the Department of State, Air Force, Post office, Navy, and Commerce as well as the Civil Areonautics Boats. It was tasked with assuring that the United States acheive "segments of the fedral executive branch to develop and present an integrated policy on the economic, technical legal and diplomatic problems relative to the production and operation of civil and military aircraft in foreign and domestic flight" Wlater H. Wager described the ACC as "holding the key to the United States air policy" and as being an effective instrument for the formulation of policy because "it works." Wager, "The Air Coordinating Commitee," Air University Quarterly Review 2, no. 4 (Spring 1949)
  2. ↑ Lovett, who would eventually become secretary of defense, had served since 1942 on the War Aviation Committee, the forerunner for the ACC, along with the assistant secretaries for air of the Navy and Commerce Departments and the chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board. See Wager, 18-19.
  3. ↑ Kenneth C. Royall, under secretary of war, to assistant secretary of war for air, Memorandum, subject: Air Coordinating Committee, 19 June 1946; and Wager, 21.
  4. ↑ Wager, 20.
  5. ↑ MATS History, vol. 1, January-June 1955, 4.
  6. ↑ ACC Document 51/29.13, 3 February 1948.
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