In May 1958, as the final months of the International Geophysical Year drew near, President Eisenhower sent to eleven other nations* an invitation that was also a warning. Along with the U.S., the eleven had all sponsored IGY research projects in the Antarctic, and seven of them had longstanding territorial claims upon the vast (5,500,000 sq. mi.) continent. Without some kind of international agreement, wrote the President, the Antarctic might well become a dangerous source of "political rivalries." Last week, after a series of secret preliminary meetings, the world's first Antarctic conference opened in Washington—and paradoxically enough, the international...
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