Hamilton DeSaussure.[1] Ironically, Major DeSaussure had been Cooper’s student, having been a member of the first class to graduate from McGill University’s Institute of Air and Space Law.
At the June 1956 ICAO meeting, as a result of the recommendations of the Air Force and others, the US “took the position that international discussion was at that time premature.” Generally, the US sentiments were shared by other nations and Cooper’s proposal was tabled.[2] However,
the [Legal] Commission [of the ICAO] noted the growing interest among jurists in the problems concerning “Outer space.” [The Commission] considers that these problems fall essentially within the province of the functions of the Organization and that, at a suitable time, they might be included in the general work program of the Legal Committee.[3]
In its 1956 Annual Report to the President, the ACC related that its Legal Division had formulated the US position for discussions regarding the legal problems of outer space in preparation for the ICAO meeting in Caracas. The ACC reported: “Among other things in its position, the United States delegation strongly opposed inclusion of the topic ‘Legal Problems beyond Air Space’ in the work program of the ICAO Legal Committee on the ground that there is insufficient knowledge at the present time of the practical problems for which a solution may be necessary.”[4]
Air Force Actions before and after Sputnik
In January 1957, during his State of the Union message, President Eisenhower expressed a willingness to accept an international agreement to control missile and satellite development for use in outer space. He linked this position to his space-for-peace and disarmament proposals.[5] Later that month, during a disarmament debate, Henry Cabot Lodge, US ambassador to the United Nations (UN), reconfirmed such US willingness. Lodge noted that several nations were proceeding to launch objects into outer space and that some form of international control needed to be established.[6]
Shortly after Eisenhower’s State of the Union address, in an air intelligence report entitled “The Legal Status of Outer Space and the
- ↑ Author’s notes no oral interviews with Will H. Carroll and Maj Hamilton DeSaussure.
- ↑ Goldsen and Lipson, 2.
- ↑ Report and Minutes of the Legal Commission Document, 1956 International Civil Aviation Organization 7712, A10-LE/5, 6.
- ↑ Annual Report to the President, Air Coordinating Committee, 1956.
- ↑ “Text of President Eisenhower’s Annual Message to Congress on the State of the Union,” New York Times, 11 January 1957.
- ↑ Maj Howard J. Neumann, “Outer Space and the Soviet Union,” Air Intelligence Report, 18 February 1957, 2.
