First proposals

Motivated by concerns regarding the ongoing use of outer space as a testing ground for the development of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs), President Eisenhower proposed, in a January 13, 1958 letter to Nikolai Bulganin, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, that both nations agree to use outer space for peaceful purposes only. He regretfully recalled his earlier failure to achieve cooperation on Atoms for Peace, and hypothesized that had the Soviet Union only agreed to join the US in transferring control of atomic energy to international management, the apparently irreversible nuclear arms race would have never begun. While it may have been too late to achieve effective control over the destructive power of nuclear energy, he said, it was still possible to secure space for the benefit of all mankind.

 The USSR, however, was unwilling to de-link space from the larger strategic situation on earth and saw Eisenhower's proposal as an attempt to gain unilateral strategic advantage. They claimed that the primary aim of the US proposal was to prohibit the development of ICBMs. This would leave them unable to launch a counterstrike against the US if it were to initiate an attack from American military bases on foreign territory. Russian counterproposals to prohibit the use of space for military purposes and provide for international scientific cooperation were thus coupled with calls for the liquidation of bases in foreign territories. The United States did not make this concession, and the issue remained at an impasse. There was simply not enough trust between the two nations to come to an agreement.

Excerpts from letters between Eisenhower/Bulganin/Khrushchev