1559 



Besides the international conferences leading up to major treaties 

 (Antarctic, Test Ban, and so on) and the governmentally sponsored 

 scientific efforts like the lYQS, World Weather Watch, and Interna- 

 tional Biological Program — two categories of developments influenced 

 by the IGY — the past two decades have witnessed a number of other 

 major international and regional conferences in which science and tech- 

 nology have played important roles. These conferences, sponsored by 

 governments to help solve tough political problems, have dealt with such 

 matters as food (see Issue Three), population (also Issue Three), 

 health (Issue Two), the exploitation of ocean resources (Case Five), and 

 environmental programs (for citations see bibliography following this 

 final chapter). 



Have these, too, been influenced, in their organization and proce- 

 dures, by the successful patterns established in the IGY? Has a con- 

 scious effort been made, in planning and conducting them, to build on 

 the best experience of the IGY, other mainly scientific conferences, 

 and the mainly political treaty conferences? Would a systematic, 

 comparative studj^ highlighting the goals, methods, procedures, and 

 results of all these major conferences, beginning with the IGY, 

 conducted by a university or a private research foundation, be likely 

 to make a significant contribution in the interests both of scholarship 

 and of improved governmental policy formulation and planning? 



Much has happened to change the world in the short time since the 

 IGY. Whether or not most of the scientific knowledge gained in 

 1957-58 has been assimflated, would it be useful to "stop the clock" 

 and take fresh readings at IGY-plus-25, or 1982-83; i.e., hold a 

 second IGY? 



Should some new IGY follow the pattern of the first one in terms of 

 scientific leadership mth government support (but with minimal 

 interference)? Would it be desirable this time for governments to take 

 the initiative? Would this be feasible in today's world, with its increas- 

 ing trend toward independent behavior by nationalist states and by 

 regional or economic blocs pursuing special interests rather than global 

 cooperation? 



If governments take the initiative — or even if scientists retain it — 

 would it be feasible and productive to focus a large part of the scientific 

 effort on fields closely related to current human needs, the conscious- 

 ness of which has come so much to the fore since the time of the IGY: 

 e.g., energy, agriculture, exploitation of ocean resources, mineral 

 discovery, and preservation of the natural environment? 



CASE FOUR— THE MEKONG PROJECT: OPPORTUNITIES AND 

 PROBLEMS OF REGIONALISM 



Statement of the Case 



On April 7, 1965, in a nationally broadcast and telecast speech at 

 Johns Hopkins University, President Lyndon B. Johnson asserted 

 U.S. willingness to negotiate an end to the then-expanding conflict 

 in Vietnam, defended the U.S. policy of bombing North Vietnam, and 

 offered U.S. support for an extensive program of regional development 

 in Southeast Asia, including rehabilitation of Vietnam. 



The President singled out for particular attention the Lower Mekong 

 River Basin project, a major development enterprise undertaken in 

 the 1950s jointly by Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam with 

 the support of the United Nations Commission for Asia and the Far 



