345 



accomplishments politically. The Soviets, it is claimed, maintain in 

 "what has come to be a fairly traditional propaganda line ... that 

 the United States uses space for military purposes." 179 The difference, 

 it is said, is that "the United States has never denied that it has 

 military space programs [whereas] the Soviets, seeking to maintain 

 their propaganda image as a 'peaceful' user of outer space, have, in 

 contrast, never made such admissions." 18 ° Furthermore, it is stated 

 that the Soviets have attempted to link "the militarization of space 

 with other foreign policy issues," including American involvement in 

 Vietnam. 181 



Thus, space exploration, although in essence primarily a scientific 

 and technological enterprise, inevitably is deeply involved in current 

 international politics. Space politics has become a matter of major 

 concern between the two great space powers, as a result of decades of 

 rivalry and confrontation. 182 The Soviet Government, on the one 

 hand, is said to see limited reason for cooperating only in those areas 

 which can (1) pay off in military strength, or (2) promise opportunity 

 for spectacular developments politically useful in shaping world 

 opinion. 183 Space exploration has provided the Soviets with a unique 

 instrument for achieving this political purpose of reaffirmation through 

 glorification; that is, using the glory derived from success in space to 

 reaffirm the legitimacy of the party and the state. 184 Space triumphs 



. . . have been used to affirm the glory of the Communist Party and the 

 Soviet state . . . [and] have been attributed to the workings of the Soviet sys- 

 tem. The foundations of the space program have been tied to Lenin and Leninism. 

 The pride in space accomplishments has been seen as a way of raising citizen 

 morale, and the resulting prestige of space successes has been exploited for what 

 political value it had. 18 * 



The United States, on the other hand, has generally sought to pre- 

 vent such total subjugation of its space activities to national and in- 

 ternational politics. In recent years as Soviet- American relations have 

 shifted gradually from confrontation to negotiation, as the cold war 

 has been appreciably decompressed, as American space activities 

 have far outdistanced Soviet efforts, and as a nuclear balance has been 

 achieved, rivalry in space has been reduced to the extent that joint 

 Soviet-American space flights are now in the realm of the possible. 

 Thus, the efforts begun during the IGY appear at last to be promoting 

 the kind of cooperation and good will hoped for by so many nearly 

 two decades ago. 



INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AND GOOD WILL 



Participants in the IGY, although scientists keenly aware of its 

 major scientific value, have nonetheless frequently been moved to 

 claim that the most valuable benefits of the IGY were not scien- 

 tific, but were those derived from the generating of international co- 

 operation and good will. Atwood, for example, has stated : 



I think that it is fair to say that the international significance of the program, 

 as its name bears out, has been of greater significance than even the very impor- 

 tant discoveries which have been made. At a time when we are torn asunder by 



i ? » Senate, Hearings on S. 880, p. 43. 



»» Senate, Hearing* on S. 880, pp. 43-44. 



'« Senate, Hearing* on S. 880, p. 44. 



"2 Senate, Hearing* on S. 880, p. 1. 



l » Senate, Soviet Space Program*; Organization, [etc.], p. 175. 



"* Senate, Soviet Space Programs, 1966-70, p. 15. 



183 Senate, Soviet Space Programs, 1966-70, p. xxl. 



