wee ALCO Z A Li<ce 3/24/59 co Pr Release of Argus Scientific Results We regret that unknown persons gave out information prematurely and selectively to a single newspaper about the Argus experiments. This unauthorized step removed the decision on release from the orderly pfocezses of Government. It is clear that whoever made this information prematurely available did so without any authorization on the part of the Government. In my judgment it is not in the over-all interest of the United States i individuals to decide, on their own, whether and when restricted material should be made available to the press. On the one hand, the Argus experiments were of direct military interest. On the other hand, they offered a major opportunity to acquire considdrable basic geophysical data of importance to all scientists participating in the International Geophysical Year. It had been planned to make the scieytific data available to the scientific cormmunity. Because of the considerable quantity of data collected during some 250 passes of the Explorer IV satellite, the past half-year has been occupied with the reduction and evaluation|of these data in order to assess matters of military importance and to edparate out those of special scientific significance. Responsible scientists who had been advising on the project originally recommended the classification and restrictions on the publication of fhe information and were advising with Government officials about the material that could be appropriately made public and when it should be made public. There has been no withholding of fully evaluated scientific re sultd, |