May 29, 1963
MEMORANDUM FOR DR. WELSH
Subject: Conference with Frutkin — Fragments
I saw Frutkin (and his assistant Marvin Robinson) for more than 
an hour in his office on May 28. It was necessary to review the 
background and course of the meetings held last year because he 
was away at the time and now is very negative on the project.
Frutkin seems to feel that:
1. No public announcement is now needed;
2. An Executive Order or statement from the White House 
would scare people needlessly;
3. The problem is overseas and State would like to be able 
to point to NASA as the U. S. responsible agency (without a scary 
public announcement);
4. DOD and AF want to use NASA for a "cover" but have no 
intention of letting NASA do anything but return some pieces;
5. CIA and NASA get along fine and can do so in the future 
on this matter;
6. NASA should wait to see what the USIB settles on (and 
would like to have us pass Frutkin's comments on the DOD 
paper to AEC (at staff levels for information); and
7. Although NASA was drafting legislation, they (legal?) 
would oppose sending anything up to Congress in the foreseeable 
future because of the harmful debate it would touch off.
