Before a coordinated plan can be developed, responsibility for the plan and for its execution must be assigned. In addition, a far more comprehensive survey of the Atoll must be accomplished. No assignment of responsibility for such a survey has yet been made. Presumably a large part of the rehabilitation effort (including cleanup) will oceur after the transfer to the Trust Territory Administration. However, it would seem highly desirable to have the nature, scope and details of the cleanup agreed before the transfer rather than to have to negotiate them later. Included in these agreements should be a common understanding of cleanup standards and criteria. "Our recent experiences with Eniwetok have demonstrated an urgent need for ageney-level coordination of future United States actions pertaining to that Atoll. ",... The thrust of the visit (to Enewetak by the Marshallese in May, 1972) as evidenced by a close-out meeting on May 20th was the urgency of an early return, the determination on the part of the Marshallese to determine their own destiny by drawing up their own specifications for rehabilitation, their dismay at the continuing use of their lands for a variety of apparently unrelated and uncoordinated purposes and, specifically regarding the(ir) lawyers, their clear intention to document in detail current and future United States actions for later use in behalf of their clients. (By a separate informal memorandum, this latter point has been brought to the attention of the General Counsel, HQ.) "Because there was no designated spokesman for U.S. Government interests at the May 20th meeting and because there were issues and questions of multi-agency concern, my representative who attended at the request of the Deputy High Commissioner accepted responsibility for two actions: "a, to convey to appropriate national level authorities the need for central U.S. Government coordination of all future actions pertaining to Eniwetok. "b. to convey to the same authorities the desire and the need of both the Marshallese and, in their behalf, the Trust Territory Administration for current and accurate information regarding United States actions and intentions. (In this connection, it is noted that there is in the tape recorded record of the meeting an acknowledgement by the Deputy High Commissioner that until March 1972 the Trust Territory Administration was not aware of the PACE Program, although quite substantial efforts on that program had then been underway at Eniwetok for some months.) "I believe that the conditions set forth in this memorandum strongly suggest the establishment at the Washington level of a single manager for all future United States actions pertaining to Eniwetok. I recommend that the Commission seek to have such a designation made at the earliest possible time in order that timely funding, planning, coordination and execution may replace the currently uncoordinated action-reaction cycle." (Miller, 1972.) A few weekslater, on 17 July 1972, the Assistant Secretary of Defense issued a memorandum to the Director, Defense Nuclear Agency (DNA), and the Chairman, AEC. In the memorandum, DNA was requested to initiate planning to identify the scope of work and the resources necessary for the Department of Defense (DOD) to accomplish the disposal of radioactive debris and other hazardous materials on the islands of Enewetak Atoll. The memorandum also authorized necessary coordination with the AEC, the military services and other governmental agencies to gather data for the cleanup task. It was planned that the DOD, with the technical support of the AEC, would conduct the cleanup. An initial interagency meeting was held 17 August 1972 at AEC/HQ. Topics discussed were of general nature and conclusions reached were only agreements in principle. However, conferees agreed that it would be appropriate during some part of the radiological survey (already planned to 34