GEMINI AND APOLLO 



199 



Answering, General Phillips read to the committee a carefully 

 prepared statement explaining his review of North American's opera- 

 tions in 1965. The atmosphere became tense between Ryan and Teague 

 with the following bitter exchange: 



Mr. Ryan. General Phillips, did the notes which you handed to Mr. Atwood 

 in December of 1965 relate to workmanship? 



General Phillips. As I recall, in regard to their manufacturing — — 



Mr. Teague. The Chair can advise General Phillips he can answer whatever he 

 wants to. If I were in your position and asked that kind of question, I wouldn't 

 answer. If you want to, you can. * * * 



Mr. Ryan. I object to the instruction by the chairman to the witness. 



Mr. Teague. You can object all you want. The chairman will make his ruling 

 and he has made it. * * * 



General Phillips. May I check with counsel? 



Mr. Ryan. Did the lawyer also write the statement, General? 



General Phillips. I didn't ask him. 



Dr. Mueller. Mr. Ryan 



Mr. Ryan. My question, with all due respect, was addressed to the general 



Mr. Teague. Would the gentleman submit his request in writing, and I will 

 transmit it to the agency for what answers they think are appropriate? 



NASA, however, continued to refuse to submit either the notes 

 or the report to the House committee. In response to a question by 

 Representative Rumsfeld, Mueller told the committee that there 

 was no correlation between the findings of the Phillips report and the 

 findings of the Apollo Review Board. Aside from some criticisms of 

 slipshod quality control, Mueller's general conclusions are sustained. 

 This makes Webb's strong resistance to release of the report even more 

 puzzling, in the opinion of this writer. One can only speculate that 

 Webb felt that publication of the many deficiencies in North Ameri- 

 can's performance would undermine confidence in NASA's ability to 

 administer the space program, plus the ability and competence of 

 North American as a prime contractor. There were also suggestions 

 that Webb was still sensitive about the fact that North American had 

 not been given the highest rating by the Source Evaluation Board in 

 bidding for the first big Apollo contract. 



On the closing day of hearings, Fuqua touched on a problem 

 which concerned every member of the committee, in these remarks to 

 Webb : 



I think the committee has gone out of its way to cooperate with NASA in every 

 way. I am getting the feeling that maybe you haven't really cooperated with us in 

 not providing us with the information about some of these management problems 

 that you have with the various contractors. I would certainly hope in the future, 

 with both of us sharing some of the blame, that we can try to work more closely 

 together, and the committee can be more closely informed about the problems. 



