318 HISTORY OF THE COMNflTTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



His colleagues in the Congress respected Chairman Miller. They 

 listened intently, and applauded vigorously as he interrupted debates 

 on any issue to announce the latest successes in manned or unmanned 

 space flight. 



Chairman Miller pioneered in building strong relationships with 

 leaders of science in other nations. He sponsored the establishment in 

 1971 of a new Subcommittee on International Cooperation in Science 

 and Space. He traveled more extensively than any other committee 

 member, and from Stockholm to Sydney, Rome to Romania, he was 

 always eager to board a plane to deliver an address and cement rela- 

 tionships with those interested in scientific development abroad. At the 

 age of 80, Chairman Miller made a special trip to the South Pole at 

 the special invitation of the National Science Foundation. And he 

 swelled with natural pride when the National Commission on Geo- 

 graphical Names in September 1972, designated an extensive range 

 of high plateau in Antarctica as "Miller Bluffs." 



Exactly one week after the Apollo 17 astronauts had splashed down 

 to mark the end of the last manned flight to the Moon in the Apollo 

 series, Chairman Miller wrote a farewell letter to NASA Administra- 

 tor Fletcher. He observed: 



The conclusion of the Apollo program leaves me with very mixed feelings 

 indeed. As I look back over the years to 1959, when the American people committed 

 themselves to the exploration of space, I am struck with a deep sense of quiet, pro- 

 found pride at what we have accomplished, especially in manned space flight. * * * 



The plethora of benefits of our program going directly to people today and to 

 generations to come are, to me, immeasurable, but nonetheless real. And they are 

 rooted in almost every discipline — medicine, geology, geodesy, astronomy, plane- 

 tary physics — the list is much too long to enumerate. It is results such as these that 

 vindicate and highlight the faith in the promise given to the American people at 

 the very beginning of the space program in 1959. * * * 



I depart from the Committee on Science and Astronautics with boundless pride 

 and satisfaction with the signal success of the relationship between NASA and the 

 Congress. I will watch in the years to come for even greater results that will un- 

 doubtedly come from that warm, cooperative effort. 



TEAGUE SUCCEEDS MILLER 



With the beginning of the 93d Congress in 1973, Representative 

 Olin E. "Tiger" Teague moved up to assume the chairmanship of the 

 Science and Astronautics Committee, a position he held for six years 

 until his voluntary retirement from Congress. Following Chairman 

 Miller's defeat in the California Democratic primary in June 1972, 

 Teague slyly attempted to build up a little suspense over whether he 

 would give up the chairmanship of the Veterans' Affairs Committee 

 to move over to the more prestigious Science Committee. When it 

 became apparent that he would do so, he then predicted darkly that 



