While I would agree that the internet in it's present form did not exist at the end of 1969, I think this article shows that the basic principles of the internet (packet switching) *were operational* in the interconnection of computers at UCLA (in los angeles), Stanford in (palo alto, CA), SRI (in nearby menlo park) and a fourth computer at the University of Utah (Salt Lake City):
https://www.internetsociety.org/internet/history-internet/brief-history-internet/#f5
I quote:
"Thus, by the end of 1969, four host computers were connected together into the initial ARPANET, and the budding Internet was off the ground."