BODY BLOW TO CASTRO

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP66B00403R000200170025-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 3, 2005
• Sequence Number: 25
• Publication Date: August 3, 1964
• Content Type: OPEN

1964
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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD - APPENDIX
I am hoping that every citizen in our
communities, as well as the Nation, feel that
they had had a great part in helping provide
the finances and know-how for our youth,
the Boy Scouts of America. And, at the
same time, our Scouts and leaders return to
their homes with added riches, new friends.
new skills, and a fresh sense of responsi-
bility that this Nation deserves the best they
can give in. payment for all that our Nation
Body Blow to Castro
EXTENSION OF' REMARKS
HON PAUL G. ROGERS
of FX ORThA,
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Monday,'Augusf 3, 1964
Mr. ROGERS of Florida. .Mr. Speak-
er, the recent action taken against Com-
muntst Cuba by the Organization of
America States ranks among the most
significant steps yet instituted against
Castro.
The real significance lies in the fact
that the action was taken by the free na-
tions of this hemisphere themselves, and
put each of those countries squarely on
record as against the Communist sys-
tem-In this hemisphere.
One of Florida's leading papers, the
Palm Beach Post, has recognized the im-
portance of the OAS sanctions and, in an
articulate editorial, aptly termed the
sanctions a "body blow" to Castroism.
I urge that the Palm Beach Post edi-
torial be included In the RECORD at this
point:
BODY BLOW TO CAS:tRO
Fidel Castro may rant till his beard
smolders but all his Invective will not
change the fact that Latin America is be-
ginning to recognize that he and the poison-
ous system he represents are inimical to the
peace and security of the Western Hemi-
sphere.
Foreign ministers of the Organization of
American States, meeting in Washington last
week, served notice that communism is un-
welcome in this part of the world and that
the Americas will not tolerate the Castro
brand of aggression.
The OAS voted sanctions against the Cu-
ban Communist regime that could result in
its downfall if .fully implemented. Member
states are bound by the agreement to sever
diplomatic relations with Cuba 'and suspen-
sion of all trade except food' and medicines.
The OAS also served 'notice on Castro that
military force may be used if aggression
against Latin American nations does not
cease.
Big question, of course, is the extent to
which these "mandatory" sanctions will be
honored by the signatory nations. Four
voted against the agreement-Mexico, Chile,
Uruguay, and Bolivia-the American nations
which still have diplomatic relations with
Cuba.
All of them, to some degree, are under
Communist Influence. Mexico, particularly,
has been reluctant to rile its Red elements
by breaking with Castro. But Mexico in-
augurates a new President in December and
the picture could change then.
In the meantime, Castro will find his water
out off in most of the other nations of South
and Central America, leaving him no alterna-
tive but to stew in his.own juice.
Editorial Comments on the "Ranger 7"
Historic Flight
EXTENSION OF REMARKS
OF
HON. JOSEPH E. KARTH
OF MINNESOTA
THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Tuesday, August 4, 1964
are rightly proud of the achievements of
Ranger 7. They have followed with in-
tense interest the details of this shot
and studied the historic photographs of
the moon's surface.
I would like to include in the Appen-
dix of the RECORD some representative
editorial comments from the Nation's
press on this great scientific and techni-
cal achievement:
[From the Washington (D.C.) Post,
Aug. 1, 1964]
Wow
Fie on those dullards who claim that the
frequency and predictability of space shots
has substituted routine for romance and
taken the excitement out of man's explora-
tions beyond the earth. The United States
has just bundled up six television cameras
into a capsule of numbing sophistication and
fired the whole package through almost a
quarter-million miles of uncharted vastness.
This package, known as Ranger 7, had as its
target a small body known commonly as the
moon. Its mission was to turn on those
cameras a thousand or so miles away, while
going at about 10 times the speed of sound,
and to transmit pictures of the moon's sur-
face back to earth as it plummeted into the
Sea of Clouds.
Well, sir, Ranger 7 did it. Everything
clicked in, snapped out, plugged on, kicked
off, turned up, and locked down precisely the
way the scientists and the computers had
figured. This was like, well, like taking pic-
tures of the moon. A few thousand frames
from the television cameras came silently
whirring back across a quarter-million miles
of uncertainty, their homecoming surer than
any pigeon's and their return as welcome as
any prodigal son's. We're not the boasting
sort, of course. We just think that an ab-
solutely fantastic and flabbergasting job has
been done, and we're thrilled.
[From the New York (N.Y.) Herald Tribune,
Aug. 1, 1964]
RANGER, RAVEN TO THE MOON
Odin, according to the old Norse mythol-
ogy, had two ravens, Hugen and Munin, who
scouted the whole world for him every day,
reporting on events that might interest the
lord of Valhalla. These winged legmen have
met their match; Ranger 7 has crossed the
seas of space to tell the world things hitherto
only guessed about the surface of the moon.
Everyone who has fired off a Fourth of July
rocket assembled a radio set, or taken snap-
shots with a box camera, has some appre-
ciation of the elements that went into Ranger
7's flight. Yet the vast power, the tremen-
dous intricacy and sophistication, of an ap-
paratus that can send itself to the moon,
crashland there accurately, and supply a
pictorial record of the unknown panoramas
unfolding before it, can still, in an age of sci-
entific miracles, evoke awe. It is as if the
world had a detachable eye that could be sent
roaming through space to observe its wonders.
Ranger 7's expedition is, of course, only a
prelude to a greater, more daring, venture,
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when man himself shall cruise to the moon
and, hopefully, bring back personal accounts
of the great, white satellite. How many
problems remain to be solved before some
human Hugen or Munin can make this voy-
age may be suggested by the fact that Ranger
7 was one success among a dozen American
attempts at lunar observation by missile.
And, after all, men cannot yet be sent back
to the earth by TV; a spaceship that can
encompass a trip back from the moon, with-
out the benefit of the elaborate ground in-
stallations used for launchings from Cape
Kennedy, will be something new under the
sun-and moon.
Nevertheless, what has already been ac-
complished offers promise of what is yet to
be. What the eye cannot see, the old adage
has it, the heart does not desire. Now the eye
is seeing the moon, in detail, and the heart
can aspire to it.
[From the New York (N.Y.) Times, Aug. 1,
1964]
LUNAR MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
In the few minutes that its cameras op-
erated yesterday morning, Ranger 7 obtained
and transmitted to the earth more detailed
information about the moon than man has
ever had before. Before the equipment on
this rocket performed its historic mission,
this planet's knowledge of its lunar satellite
had come primarily from telescopes. But
even the most powerful such instrument can
see far less clearly and precisely across the
nearly quarter million miles that separate
us from the nibon than could the cameras
on Ranger 7 taking pictures from a few hun-
dred or tens of miles away. During the last
quarter hour of its flight Ranger 7 was in
effect a mobile astronomical observatory
gathering and transmitting lunar data that
scientists have hitherto been unable to ob-
tain by any means at their disposal.
The immediate purpose of the Ranger
voyage was to gain information needed to
plan equipment for use in the effort to send
men to the moon. Until now the char-
acter of the lunar surface has been a subject
of heated dispute. There has been no prior
way to know in detail how regular or irreg-
ular that surface Is, nor whether the moon's
upper layer consists of hard rock or of a
more or less thick mantle of dust. Now a
major beginning has been made toward ob-
taining the vital data on these points.
Ironically, however, the Ranger 7 success
must again raise the question of how urgent
it is to send a man to the moon. Many
scientists who are dubious about the vast
sums being spent on Project Apollo have
pointed out that enormous amounts of in-
formation about the earth's nearest heavenly
neighbor can be obtained far more cheaply
by unmanned rockets like Ranger 7. These
can bring instruments to the neighborhood
of the moon, and can also land them softly
on the lunar surface to take samples of the
environment there, analyze it and radio the
findings back to this planet.
Ranger's pictures of the moon will properly
be made available to all nations and thus
will aid the scientists of the Soviet Union
and other lands as well as American re-
searchers. This is as it should be. It follows
the sound precedent the Soviet Union set
almost 5 years ago when it released the his-
toric pictures of the dark side of the moon
taken by Lunik 3. Proud as this country
has reason to be of Ranger 7's accomplish-
ment, we can only conjecture how much
more rapidly and cheaply its photographs
could have been obtained had Soviet and
American scientists been able to pool their
efforts and resources years ago, rather than
being required to pursue their efforts in com-
petitive-and costly-isolation. The case for
a unified international effort to reach the
moon as urged by Presidents Kennedy and
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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD -APPENDIX August 4
Johnson-la strengthened by every considera-
tion of the needless waste and duplication
that have marked humanity's space explora-
tion to date.
[From the Philadelphia (Pa.) Inquirer,
Aug! 1, 1964)
Basic STEP To THE MOON
There is a subdued quality about elation
of American space scientists over the
thoroughgoing success of the 13th try by the
United States to expand mankind's knowl-
edge of the surface of the moon, which is
understandable in the light of the disap-
pointments that have resulted from all our
previous efforts.
To be sure, Harris M. Schurmeier. Ranger
project manager, is said to have looked ec-
static. And Dr. William H. Pickering, Di-
rector of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena, much criticized for past failures,
has proclaimed that "this was a textbook op-
eration." But we like much better the reac-
tion of Kenneth Gatland, vice president of
the British Interplanetary Society, who called
the U.S. moonshot "a stupendous achieve-
ment."
That is exactly what it was, and nothing
that has gone before can take away from
its present and future Importance.
President Johnson's message of congratu-
lations to all who helped with this project
reflects the pride of the whole country. The
pictures transmitted back to the earth may
not provide all the answers we need to go
ahead full speed with preparations for land-
ing a piloted space vehicle on the moon's
surface, but they leave no room for doubt
that the necessary Information can be ob-
tained-and soon will be.
It isn't only the U.S. moon experiments
that have run into trouble, as President
Johnson pointed out. The Russians have
been as secretive about their moon failures
as about the actual space knowledge they are
accumulating. Our American space scien-
tists have no such secrets.
That may well be one reason why this
basic step, as President Johnson calls it, was
finally accomplished-before anything nearly
so Impressive could be announced from Mos-
cow. We expect that from this point on the
prowess of our space scientists will look bet-
ter an4 better.
One perfect shot In a baker's dozen may
not seem like so much to boast about, but
it isn't half bad for beginners, and the
United States Is only beginning in space.
The world hasn't seen anything yet. Wait
until that next moonshot.
[From the Chicago (I11.) Tribune, Aug. 1,
19641
ALL SYsrzss WERE "Go"
From every indication, Ranger 7 was a
brilliant success, Its close-up photographs
promise to teach us more about the sur-
face of the moon than we have learned from
all of our, previous shots combined. We can
all be justly proud of the many scientists and
technicians whose skill and care helped to
make the shot a success.
The six cameras of Ranger 7 made and
transmitted perhaps 4.000 photographs which
Harris M. Schurmeler, Ranger project man-
ager, said were "extremely good.'
"I think the public will be able to distin-
guish quite a few details," he said. "If the
pictures are sharply contrasted-with light
and shadow-we ought to be able to see
something the size of a few meters-say, the
size of a Volkswagen."
This is an amazing achievement. But
Ranger 7's success does not lie in any single
achievement. It was not the first rocket to
hit the moon; both Russian and American
spacecraft have done that before. It was not
the first shot to land with such precision on
the planned target; Ranger 6 did that last
February. Nor was it the first to take photo-
graphs of the moon and transmit them back
to earth; the Russians did that long ago.
But though Ranger 6 hit right on target,
its cameras didn't work. And while merely
hitting the moon is an achievement which
would have astonished our forefathers, there
Is no longer very much it can teach us that
we don't already know. And although the
Russian cameras worked, their rocket was
37,000 miles off course. While taking photo-
graphs from a spaceship a quarter of a mil-
lion miles away and transmitting them back
to earth Is another achievement which would
have seemed unbelievable a few years ago,
the Russian photographs were taken from
too great a distance to be of much use.
Thus the real achievement of Ranger 7
was that all of Its important instruments
worked and that they all worked at once.
This Is the Important thing in an endeavor
where the tiniest flaw in any one Instru-
ment can spoil the flight and result in an-
other $30 million fizzle.
When and if the time comes to send men
to the moon, there will be all the more
gadgets to go wrong and it will be all the
more important that none of them do so.
The odds that everything will work properly
will be more remote than ever, and the costs
will be greater thamever,
As President Johnson said, Ranger 7's
success Is "a basic step forward in our or-
derly progress" toward putting a man on
the moon. But let's not forget that word
"orderly," and let's also keep the moon
in Its proper perspective. Orderly progress
means that when we study the photographs
and other information gained from Ranger 7,
we must not ask simply how we are to put a
man on the moon; we must keep asking how
much more can be learned by putting a man
on the moon and whether It is as urgent and
important as the last two administrations
seem to think.
After all, there are a lot of ways to
spend up to $40 billion right here at home,
if it's going to be spent anyway, and many
of them would be more constructive than
reaching the moon.
(From the Washington (D.C.) Daily News,
Aug. 1, 19641
Tzasvxsneo THE MOON
Seldom has the speed of events in this
20th century age been so dramatized as by
America's successful picture-snapping lunar
robot.
Most of us can recall the day, not so very
long ago, when it was impossible to transmit
an Image even across a room. Yet here we
are televising the moon from its front yard-
a quarter-million miles from the earth.
The success of the Ranger mission not
only reflects the rapidity with which scien-
tific and technical knowledge is being accu-
mulated and exploited. It also represents a
significant milestone on a historic road to
manned exploration of the moon-the first
extraterrestrial object earthlings are destined
to set foot on.
The closeup pictures of the moon are
needed to help design the ship which some
day will ferry astronauts to the lunar sur-
face. For nobody down here really knows
how hard or soft or smooth or craggy it is
up there.
Getting closeups of the moon has not been
easy. The United States had to try five
times, over a period of 2% years, before it
succeeded. Many more attempts, to obtain
even more detailed data on the lunar sur-
face, will follow. And some more failures
are certainly In store.
Nor is this undertaking cheap. The Ranger
project Itself carries a price tag of about
$260 million, and It Is only part of the over-
all program to land men on the moon-a
program which will cost at least $20 billion
before decnde's end.
Since the late President Kennedy set a
manned lunar landing as the prime goal of
our space program, a goal endorsed almost
unanimously by Congress, there has been
some disenchantment-and growing discon-
tent.
But the United StatesIs so committed to
the moon program it would be difficult to
switch signals now, despite the second
thoughts many people may be having about
such an undertaking.
Actually, the lunar excursion is no mere
exercise in technical highjinks, It is a
demonstration of man's ceaseless, boundless
quest for knowledge-and one which, in the
end, is likely to pay off as well as similar past
voyages into the unknown.
(From the Washington (D.C.) Sunday Star,
Aug. 2, 19641
JOURNEY TO THE MOOX
It would be difficult to overstate the scien-
tific Importance of the flawless flight of
Ranger 7 our picture-taking mooncraft.
No single event of the space age to date
has unlocked so wide a door to the
fuller understanding of the universe around
us. It is not beyond the realm of possibility
that close analysis of Ranger's pictures by
the scientific community may provide price-
less clues to the nature of creation itself.
As a space spectacular (and these, too,
have a certain importance) Ranger 7's flight
occupies a place in the front rank, alongside
Sputnik I, the Vostok I flight of Yuri Gagar-
in, and the Venus fly-by exploit of Mariner
Z1. It Is interesting to note that two of these
four space headliners are Russian and two
American, which may be some measure of
the status of the "space race" today.
But there are other aspects of the flight
which are more worthy of mention than the
ballyhoo phase. There is, for example, the
matter of engineering management-the ty-
ing together of many advanced technologies
into a supertechnology that can give the
human race pictures, as from a low-flying
plane, of the mysterious, lifeless, and remote
surface of the moon. Just one facet of this
technological achievement, Ranger's tele-
vision camera and transmission system, is al-
most too marvelous for the average person to
comprehend.
To the capable and hardworking staff of
the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of California
Institute of Technology, which organized
and carried off this miracle of space science,
the Nation owes a profound debt of grati-
tude. JLP has taken its share of criticism
(more than its share, some people think) for
delays, failures, and cost overruns in the
Ranger program. The work of the week just
past vindicates the good judgment and good
management of Dr. William H. Pickering and
his JPL crew, which no insiders ever seri-
ously questioned.
Within minutes after Ranger's soul-satis-
fying crash on the sea of clouds Friday
morning, President Johnson was on the
phone to Dr. Pickering with a heartfelt
"Well done." Every American might well
echo the President's words. It will be a long
time before anything as rewarding as Ranger
7's journey happens in space again.
[From the New York (N.Y.) Times, Aug. 2,
19641
TRIUMPH FOR "RANGER 7"
Publication of the first sample of lunar
pictures taken by Ranger 7 confirms with
extraordinary force that this rocket's flight
has been one of the most successful and pro-
ductive experiments in scientific history.
The exquisite clarity of the closeups of the
moon's surface transmitted to earth assure
that this event will be recorded as the real
beginning of serious human exploration of
the moon from the neighborhood of that
satellite.
The full exploitation and analysis of new
information will take several years, but even
the first preliminary study has cleared up
major problems and dispelled previous igno-
rance on important matters. The principal
conclusion, of course, is that much of the
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