1645 



in the executive branch; reporting procedures are inadequate for 

 review and evaluation; further obstacles to effective review exist in 

 the complexity and variety of the programs and the manner of their 

 administration in the executive branch, and in Congress in the fact 

 that the programs relate to a number of different committee 

 jurisdictions. 



Analysis of any governmental program area calls for attention to 

 such questions as: What are these programs for? What are they 

 accomplishing? But what gives the present issue special importance 

 is that it tends to raise the more fundamental questions: What> 

 in the large, are (or should be) U.S. purposes in today's world? How 

 should the U.S. Government organize itself to seek answers to this 

 question, and to take action accordingly? 



How the Issue Developed; U.S. Involvement 



As both this study and that on the Brain Drain (Issue Five) bring 

 out, since antiquity scientists have been traveling to other countries to 

 study and to teach — often under the sponsorship of governments. 

 However, the official educational exchange programs of the United 

 States are of recent origin. Before World War II they were small 

 and confined largely to Latin America. During the war, educational 

 and cultural exchange programs were replaced by informational 

 and propaganda efforts. The immediate postwar period saw U.S. 

 exchange and assistance activities characterized by mixed educational^ 

 cultural, and informational aims. Such activities on a large scale be- 

 came part of the 1945 occupation programs in Germany, Austria, 

 and Japan. Beginning in 1947, technical assistance under the Marshall 

 Plan had important educational and scientific aspects. The Point 

 IV Program, initiated in 1950, was designed to provide American 

 technical expertise to the developing countries.'^^ 



Since the late 1940s there has been an unprecedented expansion of 

 activities involving international communication and movement by 

 U.S. specialists, particularly in technical fields. At the private non- 

 governmental level, scientists exchange information through the 

 printed word, through channels increasingly provided by multina- 

 tional corporations, and through personal visits and correspondence. 

 Some Government programs send U.S. technical specialists abroad 

 on official missions designed to obtain or disseminate information in 

 support of national defense and security objectives or the maintenance- 

 of U.S. mstallations abroad. Other official programs give substance to 

 humanitarian objectives of U.S. foreign policy in such areas as de- 

 velopment aid and disaster relief. Still others promote internationally 

 sponsored cooperative research efforts. In all, they involve the move- 

 ment abroad of thousands of U.S. personnel and the expenditure of 

 hundreds of millions of dollars annually.'^^ 



Many of those millions, and some hundreds of the persons, are 

 involved in U.S. Government programs which support the activities 

 in foreign countries of nongovernmental scientist and technologists. 



»" See Chapter Four— "The Point IV Program: Technological Transfer as the Basis of Aid to Developing- 

 Countries"— in: U.S. Congress, House, Committee on Science and Astronautfcs, Technical Information for 

 Congress, prepared for the Sulicommittee on Science, Research, and Developm.ent by Genevieve J. Knezo, 

 Science Policy Research Division, Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, Washington^ 

 D.C., U.S. Government Printing Office, Apr. 25, 196'J (revised Apr. 15, 1971), pp. 61-96. 



'" A survey conducted in 1969 by HEW at the request of Congress found that 31 agencies of the Govern- 

 ment vi'ere administering 159 programs for tviro-way exchanges of scholars or for other foreign or international 

 education activities. These programs were authorized by 42 legislative acts and cost "somewhere between 

 $400 and $800 million annually. "(Knezo, Scientists Abroad, vol. 11, p. 889.) 



