198 HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



Attached to General Phillips' letter, as he indicated, were his 

 notes on the deficiencies uncovered at North American. At one point, 

 this comment was made under the heading of "Summary Findings": 



There is no evidence of current improvement in NAA's management of these 

 programs of the magnitude required to give confidence that NAA performance will 

 improve at the rate required to meet established program objectives. 



As the hearings were getting underway, Webb and General 

 Phillips called on Teague and persuaded him that it would not be in 

 the best interests of NASA's frank and confidential relationships with 

 their contractors to release publicly the notes which General Phillips 

 had prepared. When Representative Ryan first raised the issue in the 

 committee hearing with North American's president, J. L. Atwood, 

 on April 11, the response was evasive: 



Mr. Atwood. The Phillips report to whom? 

 Mr. Ryan. Has not that been discussed with you? 



Mr. Atwood. I have heard it mentioned, but General Phillips has not given 

 us a copy of any report. 



Representatives Wydler and Rumsfeld joined Ryan in efforts to 

 pry the Phillips report out of either North American or NASA. Wydler 

 had this exchange with Dale D. Myers, vice president of North Ameri- 

 can: 



Mr. Wydler. Do I understand that no one in North American Aviation has ever 

 seen General Phillips' report? 



Mr. Myers. We will have to identify the date or something that will give us 

 an opportunity to check on it. 



Mr. Wydler. I have read about the report. You mean you never have heard of 

 this report? 



Mr. Teague. Will the gentleman yield to the Chairman? 



Mr. Wydler. Yes. 



Mr. Teague. I have asked about the Phillips report. It is my understanding 

 this is nothing more than a group of notes that General Phillips kept in the audit 

 management of working with North American. There really is no Phillips report. 

 You will certainly have a chance to ask General Phillips if he has a report. 



In the Senate hearings, Senator Walter Mondale (Democrat of 

 Minnesota), tipped off by Jules Bergman of ABC (who had seen a 

 copy of the Phillips report at NASA Headquarters), unsuccessfully 

 attempted to obtain a copy for the Senate committee. Although a 

 month later NASA did supply a copy to that committee on April 12, 

 Webb instructed his subordinates to stonewall requests for the report. 

 Nevertheless, Teague asked NASA to sketch in the background of the 

 report. On the evening of April 12, Teague at one stage of the hearings 

 turned to the NASA witnesses and said: 



Gentlemen, will you tell Mr. Wydler what the Phillips report is? 



