Exploration and exploitation of the mineral 

 resources of the ocean depths may offer equally 

 significant opportunities to benefit all nations and 

 promote international peace and order. In these 

 vast areas of untold riches few, if any, national 

 economic interests have been vested, nor have the 

 nations of the world as yet any fixed political 

 positions or attitudes on the legal-political frame- 

 work within which such exploration and exploita- 

 tion should be conducted. There is the oppor- 

 tunity, therefore, to design a framework that will 

 eliminate international conflict from this area of 

 human endeavor. To realize this opportunity, 

 President Johnson has warned: 



Under no circumstances must we ever allow the 

 prospect of rich harvest and mineral wealth to 

 create a new form of colonial competition among 

 the maritime nations. We must be careful to avoid 

 a race to grab and to hold the lands under the high 

 seas. We must ensure that the deep seas and the 

 ocean bottoms are, and remain, the legacy of all 

 human beings. ' 



In light of the objectives proclaimed by Con- 

 gress and the President, it would be ironic if 

 the oceans provided a new dimension for the 

 nuclear arms race. In signing the nuclear non- 

 proliferation treaty on July 1, 1968, President 

 Johnson pointed out that it committed the nuclear 

 powers "to move forward towards effective 

 measures of arms control and disarmament."* The 

 President, therefore, saw the treaty as the founda- 

 tion for "additional measures to halt the nuclear 

 arms race"' and took this occasion to announce 

 that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and 

 the United States had agreed "to enter in the 

 nearest future into discussions on the limitation 

 and reduction of both offensive strategic nuclear 

 weapons delivery systems and systems of defense 

 against ballistic missiles."^ 



President Johnson's Remarks at the commissioning 

 of the new research ship, the "Oceanographer," July 13, 

 1966, 2 Weekly Compilations of Presidential Documents 

 930-31 (1966). 



President Johnson's Remarks in Washington, D.C., 

 July 1, 1968, before the signing of the nuclear nonpro- 

 liferation treaty. The Minneapolis Tribune, July 2, 1968, 

 p. 29. 



'^Ibid 



^Ibid. 



Consistent with the obligations the United 

 States is to assume under the nuclear nonprolifera- 

 tion treaty, the United States Representative to 

 the Legal Working Group of the United Nations 

 Genera] Assembly's Ad Hoc Committee to Study 

 the Peaceful Uses of the Sea-Bed and Ocean Floor 

 Beyond the Limits of National Jurisdiction intro- 

 duced a draft resolution, on June 28, 1968, 

 requesting the Eighteen-Nation Disarmament Com- 

 mittee of the United Nations "to take up the 

 question of arms limitation on the sea-bed and 

 ocean floor with a view to defining those factors 

 vital to a workable, verifiable and effective inter- 

 national agreement which would prevent the use 

 of this new environment for the emplacement of 

 weapons of mass destruction."' The President 

 reiterated this request in a message to the 

 Eighteen-Nation Disarmament Committee on 

 July 16, 1968.*° 



Furthermore, on August 23, 1968, Mr. David 

 H. Popper, United States Representative to the Ad 

 Hoc Committee informed it that the United States 

 "supports the adoption of a General Assembly 

 resolution declaring that the seabed and deep 

 ocean floor should be used exclusively for peaceful 

 purposes," with the understanding that "the test 

 of whether an activity is 'peaceful' is whether it is 

 consistent with the United Nations Charter and 

 other obligations of international law." Mr. Popper 

 pointed out that the United States had previously 

 supported, in the Space Treaty of 1967, the use 

 exclusively for peaceful purposes of the moon and 

 other celestial bodies, with the same under- 

 standing. He explained further: 



. . . considering that the term 'peaceful purposes ' 

 does not preclude military activities generally, 

 specific limitations on certain military activities 

 will require the negotiation of a detailed arms 

 control agreement. Military activities not pre- 

 cluded by such agreements would continue to be 

 conducted in accordance with the principle of 



Draft Resolution of United States on Preventing the 

 Emplacement of Weapons of Mass Destruction on the 

 Sea-Bed and Ocean Floor, United States Mission to the 

 United Nations, Press Release U.S.U.N.-107 (68), June 

 28, 1968. The draft resolution was presented by Mr. 

 Leonard C. Meeker, the State Department's Legal Adviser. 



* "Message from the President to the opening of the 

 18-Nation Disarmament Committee Meeting in Geneva, 

 July 16, 1968. 



VIII-3 



