Page:The Air Force Role In Developing International Outer Space Law (Terrill, 1999).djvu/57

 chief of staff for development, testified that he favored “summary destruction” of such satellites. His testimony was directly contradicted by the testimony of Deputy Secretary of Defense Donald Quarles, who shortly thereafter stated, “I can only express the Defense Department’s view of it, that, if they did place  in orbit a satellite that had such reconnaissance possibilities, we would consider that it was inoffensive in the sense that (they were) in outer space where (they) could do us no harm and we could not object to it.” Clearly, General Putt’s position was diametrically the opposite of the Eisenhower administration’s goal of achieving freedom of passage in outer space particularly for spy satellites. The fact was that the Eisenhower administration was pursuing a “far more sophisticated, secretive, and  complex path than many at the timeappreciated” and had no intention of racing the USSR into space. Air Force leaders opposed the Eisenhower administration’s prohibition against the deployment of space based weapons and viewed the limitation as “dangerous and self-defeating.” Following the Sputniks, the US military perceived that it was caught in a dilemma between Eisenhower’s  space-for-peace  policy and its perceived traditional obligation to protect the United States. Hence, in a February 1958 press conference, President Eisenhower assured the nation