From early in its development, ASCII was intended to be just one of several national variants of an international character code standard.
fɹʌm ˈɜːli ɪn ɪts dɪvˈɛləpmənt, ˈæski wʌz ɪntˈɛndᵻd təbi dʒˈʌst wˈʌn ʌv sˈɛvɹəl nˈæʃənəl vˈɛɹiənts əvən ˌɪntɚnˈæʃənəl kˈæɹɪktɚ kˈoʊd stˈændɚd.