NRO-MOL_2015

164 The Dorian Files Revealed: a Compendium of the NRO’s Manned Orbiting Laboratory Documents
as a Nation”—and at the same time they terminate “the
most advanced surveillance system yet conceived.”
Noting that $1.3 billion had already been spent on MOL,
he declared that to “scuttle this high investment for
political expediency is unfair to the taxpayer and raises
new questions concerning our national security.” 46 A
trade journal editorialized two days later :
Someday the Department of Defense
is going to find that it needs a
manned military equipped space
station positioned so that it can
watch our adversaries 24 hours each
day. We will spend billions for
unmanned space-based detection and
monitoring systems and Earth and
space-based warning systems only to
find that in the long run it will
be more economical and reliable
to place manned systems in fixed
synchronous orbits over viewing our
adversaries... 47
These opinions, however, were in the minority. The
critics of defense expenditures were pleased to see a
major defense program ended. Also, the Administration
apparently hoped that the decision would reduce
some of the opposition to the President’s Safeguard
ABM program *** . Thus, Secretary Packard—when he
announced MOL‘s termination at a Pentagon press
conference—suggested to the correspondents that
its demise should satisfy the need for further major
reductions in the DoD R&D budget. Senator Thomas
J. McIntyre, chairman of the Senate Armed Services
Subcommittee on research and development, disagreed.
The cancellation of MOL, he said on 11 June, would
not avert Congressional efforts to make additional cuts
in the department’s $8.4 billion R&D budget.” At this
point,” he said, “I am not prepared to accept the idea that
terminating MOL is enough economizing on research
and development.” 48
Endnotes
1. Dev Concept Paper No. 59A, Manned Orbiting
Lab (MOL), signed by Foster, 4 Dec 68.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.; Ltr (C), Hornig to Nitze, 5 Dec 68.
4. Ltr (TS-DORIAN), Helms to Nitze, 6 Dec 68.
5. MOL Program Summary (TS-DORIAN), 2 Jan 70.
6. Memo (S-DORIAN), Stewart to Bleymaier, 14 Jan
69, subj: no subject.
7. Memo (TS-DORIAN), Stewart to McConnell, 12
Feb 69, subj: MOL Briefing to the Dep Sec Def.
8. Memo for the Record (TS-DORIAN/RUFF/
UMBRA), by Lt Col R. H. Campbell, 11 Feb 69, subj:
Briefing to Mr. Packard on MOL and VHR Imagery
Issues; Memo (TS-DORIAN), Stewart to McConnell, 12
Feb 69, subj: MOL Briefing to Dep Sec Def.
9. Ltr (TS-UMBRA), Mayo to Packard, 13 Feb 69,
w/atch, “The Relative Value of MOL for U.S. Force
Structure Decisions.”
10. See Critique, atch to above ltr.
11. Msg (S-DORIAN), 1018, Stewart to Bleymaier,
1921072 Feb 69.
12. Memo (TS-DORIAN/GAMBIT), Seamans to
Packard, 26 Feb 69, subj: MOL Prog Alternatives.
13. Ibid.
14. Memo (TS-DORIAN), I. Nevin Palley, Asst Dir
(Space Technology) to DDR&E, 10 Mar 69, subj: MOL
Prog Alternative Decision.
15. Congressional Record, House, 26 Feb 69, p.
H1249. The article was also printed in the Congressional
Record, Senate, 12 May 69, p S4886.
16. Memo for the Record (TS-DORIAN), by Col Ford,
5 Feb 69, subj: MOL Briefing, Congressmand Durward
Hall, Rep., Mo.
17. Memo for the Record (TS-DORIAN), by Col Ford,
12 Feb 69, subj: Briefing to Mr. Russ Blanford and Mr.
Earl Morgan, House Armed Services Cmte.
*** Mr. Nixon won Senate approval of his ABM plan by a margin of one vote,
on 6 August 1969.
18. Memo for the Record (TS-DORIAN), by Col
Donald Floyd, SAFLL, 5 Mar 69, subj: Briefing, Senate
Armed Services Cmte Staff Personnel.