Hardtack series included Mr. Libbey saying that Jim Fisk, a member
of the President's appointed group to negotiate with the Soviets on
a weapon test inspection system,
announcement of such shots.
had called the day before regarding
Fisk had requested that the AEC make
no detailed announcements at least for the next several weeks since
negotiations about an inspection system would begin soon and the U.S.
may be able to use the possible release of further test information as
a bargaining point during the negotiations.
The Commissioners concurred
with the proposal that further consideration of release of any detailed
information about Hardtack tests be deferred for the time being.
A discussion of the proposal to be presented to the President to include
more tests in Hardtack included Libbey's remarks that he hav asked
not to be recorded as approving the additional shots for Hardtack since
he felt that the weapons labs had previous test data which had not yet
been analyzed and on which he felt greater emphasis should be placed
prior to more tests.
''He said one possible explanatinn for the
disappointing results from someof the tests to date in Operation Hardtack
may be because full use was int made of weapons information
available from other test series.''
Straus said:''He believed it quite
likely that Operation Hardtack may be the last test series held by the
U.S. before a weapons test moratorium is agreed to by the U.S.,
and the Soviet Union.
U.K.
Therefore, he now believed that any tests which
the labs consider important should be carried out without regard to
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