CONVERSATION WITH COLONEL ANDREW J. GOODPASTER, DR. JAMES KILLIAN AND DR. EDWIN

Created: 6/22/1956

OCR scan of the original document, errors are possible

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FQRHEllASI DATE: HUB 2OB7

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FOR THE RECORD

SUBJECT; Conversation with Colonel Andrew J. Goodpaster,

Dr. Jamoe Killian and Dr. Edwin Land, 6

At Dr. Killian'sccompanied him and Dr. Land to the White House at noon onune to brief Colonel Goodpaster on AQUATONE and to discuss current operations with him. No one else was present. Before the briefing was started, Colonel Goodpasterthat he had just returnedeeting with the President at Walter Reed Hospital and that the President had discussed AQUATONE with him. Colonel Goodpaster had with him the original copy of the memorandum entitled "AQUATONE Operational Plans" dateday (copy of which is attached) which had been handed to him by the DC! and General Twining at the beginning of the month. The President had read the paper and hadonghand notation upon it. Hiaof AQUATONE with Colonel Goodpaster had been related to the paper.

Colonel Goodpaster stated that the President's views were as follows:

general, he approved the courae of actionthe paper.

he was entirely willing that we shouldthe satellites without informing Chancellor Adenauerbut he emphasized that no longer run missions shoulduntil the Chancellor had been told of our plans.

agreed that the approach to the Chancellor shouldform recommended in the paper--that ia, ho should not formallyfor hia approval but merely told about tho projected longwhich would givehance to raise objections if he

President, Colonel Goodpaster said, had added aIn rather strong terms as to the policy to be followed Thia was to the effect that every effort should be made

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to obtain just aa quickly as possible coverage of the high priorityargets which were the real objective and justification of AQUATONE so that operations would not have to be continued for tooeriod of time. ointed out to Colonel Goodpaster that restriction ofto the Satellites was directly inconsistent with the policy dealred by the President. Goodpaster replied that in his view the President had no particular desire to reatrict us to these limited operationsthat he did not wish deeper penetration missions to be undertaken until after the project had been discussed with the Chancellor.

In concluding this phase of thesked Colonel Goodpasterorrect interpretation of what he had said was that after the projected conversation with the Chancellor we are free to proceed with deep penetration overflights, provided, of course, that the Chancellor raised no object ion and that our limited operations had gone well in the meanwhile. He Indicated that thla was his view.

The balance of the conversation waa devotedather full briefing of Colonel Goodpaster and discussion of various phases of the project primarily by Drs. Killian and Land. The main topic*were the following:

of equipment, with special emphasis on thehas been made to the newnd more reliable enginethe extremely high quality photography obtained in recent flightsU.S. withamera configurations.

enemy interception capability,igher altitude interception capability, and aurgency of making use of this reconnaissance system whileadvantage over interception still obtains.

Goodpaster's desire for periodic operationalwhen deep penetration missions are being conducted

whole question of the position to be taken by thethe contingency of the loss of an aircraft over enemy territory. xplained that arrangementsather pedestrianbeing worked out with the Department of State and other Drs. Killian and Land suggested consl derationuchby. involving admission that overflights were being

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conducted to guard against surprise attack. It waa left that wo would think further about this matter and perhaps auggeat aeveral alternative courses of action which would be discussed withIn the Department of State and amonghoice could be made on short notice.

(Signed) RICHARD M. BISSELL, JR. Project Director

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Original document.

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