THE US INSPECTION PROGRAM FOR ANTARCTICA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T01019A000100190003-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 18, 2002
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: November 29, 1963
• Content Type: MF

29 November 1963
MEMORANDUM FOR:.,Director of Central Intelligence
SUBJECT The US Inspection Program for Antarctica
1. As a result of US initiative the Antarctic Treaty was
negotiated in Washington, D.C. and signed on 1 December 1959 by twelve
countries) including the USSR. The Treaty entered into force on 23
June .1961. The principal objectives of the-Treaty are to restrict
the use of.Antarctica entirely to peaceful purposes and to continue
international scientific cooperation in Antarctic research through
an exchange of scientists and data. When it became clear that the
USSR would not depart from Antarctica after the termination of the
International Geophysical Year research program (1957-58), the US
initiated the Treaty as a device to obtain the right of surveillance
of USSR Antarctic stations and of any other unfriendly power that
may come to Antarctica in the future. The Treaty also set aside
all territorial claims -- including the troublesome Chilean,
Argentine and UK conflicting claims. In addition to the original
signatories) Poland and Czechoslovakia have acceded to the Treaty.
2. To ensure the use of :. Antarctica exclusively for peaceful
purposes, Article VII establishes for each adhering country (a) the
right of free and unlimited-unilateral inspection of all stations,
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Excluded from automatic
downgrading and
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interior of Antarctica). The.teams will depart on or about 31
installations, and equipment in Antarctica, (b) the right of aerial',
observation, and (c) the obligation to supply advance inforniition on
all expeditions to Antarctica, the stations to be operated, and the
military personnel and equipment to be utilized.
3. Model observance of the Treaty by the USSR served to defer
somewhat a US exercise of the right of inspection until this season.
By late 1962 US opinion began to form that a formal inspection ought
to be undertaken lest the right be lost through atrophy. A program
was developed this year. After approval by the President, the Secretary
of State, in accordance with Treaty provisions, advised all signatories
on 14 November 1963 of our intentions to inspect certain stations,
and announced the names of the US observers., The USSR took the
position that it saw little,need for such an inspection and itself
would not exercise its right because of the costs of such an under-
taking.
4. A US Observer Panel of 9 has been organized-into two teams,
one to visit two stations. each of Chile, Argentina, and the UK in
an area opposite to South America,'and the other to visit up to five
stations in eastern Antarctica, including two of the four Soviet
.year-round stations (Mirnyy, the main base, and Vostok deep in the
December 1964.
SECRET
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