Message to the Congress Transmitting Annual Report Under the Communications Satellite Act.

To the Congress of the United States:

Accomplishments of the past year under the Communications Satellite Act of 1962 have brought mankind to the threshold of a full-time global communications service to which all nations of the world may have equal access, from which all nations of the world may derive their share of the benefits.

Our Space Technology is opening new doorways to World Peace. Within the grasp of the world's peoples is the potential for completely new, heretofore unimagined ways of peaceful cooperation for expanding world trade, for enhancing educational opportunities, for uplifting the spirit and enriching the lives of people everywhere.

Fifty-five nations of the world have joined the INTELSAT consortium and pledged their collective efforts toward establishing a single, global communications system which can advance the social, political, cultural and economic interests of all.

Our nation has stated in the past and it reaffirms its policy of making available as promptly as possible the vast benefits of this new technology to its own people and to the people of all nations.

This policy is deeply rooted in the belief that nations can come closer together and world peace can be obtained if all the peoples of the world are given the opportunity for understanding the interests, the problems, the cultures and the aspirations of one another.

We will continue in full partnership with our international neighbors to seek an environment in which all nations--in particular the developing nations of the world--can obtain high-quality communications with all others.

There has been consistent effort and effective progress at all levels of our Federal agencies and of our committees in Congress on behalf of achieving the aims of the Communications Satellite Act. Under Section 404(a) of the Act, I am transmitting to Congress a report of this progress.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON

The White House

March 17, 1967