Deep Freeze: The United States, the International Geophysical Year, and the Origins of Antarctica's Age of Science

Epilogue: Science and Peace, Continuity and Change

Science leaders pressed to continue the IGY in Antarctica, which required that the many players—with their differing issues, varying means, and complex interrelationships—agree on new organizational mechanisms. Diplomatic leaders were concluding that an internationalized Antarctica might best serve their own and others’ interests . And seizing this moment could perpetuate the informal IGY moratorium on political squabbling over territorial claims even as Cold War suspicions, covered over for the IGY with wary resolve (and remarkable success), persisted. Delicate, protracted secret talks yielded the pathbreaking Antarctic Treaty of 1959, which, even with its limitations and potential pitfalls, has held and grown. The polar It was in the coldest of all the continents that there was the first memorable thaw in the cold war. —Laurence M. Gould, 19601 S C I E N C E A N D P E A C E , C O N T I N U I T Y A N D C H A N G E E P I L O G U E 355 356 S C I E N C E A N D P E A C E , C O N T I N U I T Y A N D C H A N G E south continues to reveal its secrets as science programs have broadened and matured and essential support functions have evolved. The continent has become more comfortable, clean, diverse, and visited. In early December 1956, seven months before the International GeophysicalYear officially began, the United States National Committee (USNC) cabled the CSAGI (special international committee created to plan and implement the IGY) Bureau in Brussels to urge a one-year extension of the Antarctic program —to enhance the scientific and financial return on investment. Despite scientists’ enthusiasm, though, the twelve participating nations divided on the issue at the Fourth Antarctic Conference in Paris in mid-June 1957. Australia stood against any pretext for lengthening Soviet occupation of its claimed territory. Britain, in support, opposed extension, as did Chile. New Zealand reserved its position pending review of current results, tying its decision to the value of the science to humanity. France and Japan tentatively approved but doubtedthatadditionalgovernmentfundingwouldbeforthcoming.TheUnited States, USSR, Argentina, and Belgium favored carrying on. South Africa was “noncommittal.” The absent Norway had earlier been negative. Yet a suggestion that convener Georges Laclavère head up Antarctic affairs after the IGY was greeted with warm applause. Then, in September, at an ad hoc Antarctic meeting in Stockholm, Mikhail Somov, who had led the Soviets’ 1955–1957 Antarctic expedition, “electrified the group by calmly announcing that the USSR intended to continue all of their present and proposed stations.” With that, chief scientist Harry Wexler went on, “the last bit of opposition, if there was any, collapsed.”2 Thereupon invited by the parent International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) Bureau, most of the twelve states and five international scientific unions sent delegates to The Hague, Netherlands, in February 1958 to establish a Special (becoming Scientific in 1961) Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). Gould grandly announced “large-scale scientific operations,” with South Pole the top U.S. priority. All Soviet stations would “probably continue,” Somov said, later growing more expansive. Others voiced more modest, generally downsized goals; several asked for financial and logistical help. They all agreed to promote new efforts in geology, biology, cartography, physiology, and oceanography and defined Antarctica as bounded approximately by the Antarctic Convergence. They elected Laclavère president and adopted a constitution that directed SCAR to formulate and coordinate post-IGY polar science programs to be implemented, as in the IGY, by the members’ national committees with government funding. They entitled countries active in polar research (and the unions) to one “permanent” scientific delegate and planned for dues 357 S C I E N C E A N D P E A C E , C O N T I N U I T Y A N D C H A N G E (a sliding scale based on the number of wintering personnel). SCAR began in expectation that Antarctic science would enjoy a long life.3 In early August 1958, at the fifth CSAGI meeting in Moscow, the international community acted formally to prolong the IGY ideal, as proposed by the Soviet National Committee, whose members thirsted for prestige at home and opportunities to interact abroad. “It was more difficult, in Moscow, to get a newpolicydecisionthantogetmoremoneyforresearch,”wroteWalterSullivan, so the Soviets favored keeping the...