Sec. 213.1  Background and purpose.

    (a) The National Security Council and the Federal Communications 
Commission have agreed upon a precedence system for the expeditious 
handling of messages and calls transmitted over Government and public 
correspondence facilities in all types of situations from peacetime to 
massive nuclear attack. Effectuation of that system requires that the 
Director issue a circular and that the Commission concurrently issue an 
order prescribing the standards, procedures, policies, and regulations 
that together, constitute this single integrated precedence system.
    (b) In conformity with that agreement the National Security Council 
is issuing this circular the purpose of

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which is to prescribe, on behalf of the President, that part of those 
standards, procedures, policies, and regulations which are within the 
cognizance of the NSC. No significance should be attached to the fact 
that slightly different terms are used in their circular from those used 
in the companion order of the FCC. Those differences result from 
differences in terms in the basic legal authorities of the director and 
the Commission rather than from an intent to denote a distinction in 
purpose or effect.