Air Force Office of Scientific Research. As its 

 historian has written, "That something was 

 done in the end, however, was due less to the 

 inner appeal of basic research than to cir- 

 cumstances. Basic research found a niche for 

 itself in the Air Force during a general 

 organizational upheaval of the Air Force's R&D 

 activities" brought on by dissatisfaction with 

 the Air Force's technological arm, and "the 

 thrust of reform of Air Force technology 

 possessed enough momentum to carry basic 

 research with it." The director of the new 

 AFOSR knew that basic research as such had 

 lit tie appeal and deliberately kept his early 

 budget requests low. In this way he hoped to 

 avoid those large expansions and cuts which 

 made the budgeting of research so unpredict- 

 able. 37 



The legislation dedicating NSF to the promo- 

 tion of basic research raised questions as to the 

 role of AFOSR and that of other such agencies. 

 In 1954, however, the White House issued 

 Executive Order No. 10521 on the Administra- 

 tion of Scientific Research. This document 

 appeared to strengthen the part of NSF in the 

 support of basic research in the Government, 

 and caused some concern in AFOSR. In a 

 response which incidentally highlighted the 

 difficulty of defining "basic" research with any 

 precision, AFOSR simply redefined all its basic 

 research in terms of "exploratory" and "suppor- 

 ting" research. As its historian noted, "any and 

 all line items that smacked of ivy and ivory 

 towers were blotted out. In their place arose 

 such categories as electronics, materials, 

 propulsion, and what have you." 38 



The need felt by AFOSR to do basic 

 research — and to disguise it as "applied" — 

 underscored a continuing uncertainty as to the 

 real position of science vis-a-vis society. As 

 Warren Weaver wrote in his preface to a 



Symposium on Basic Research of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science 

 and cosponsors (1959), everyone was in favor of 

 science "but what is important about science; 

 what science really is; what scientific activities 

 are 'practical' and what visionary and 

 presumably lacking in significance; what kind 

 and amount of support society ought to furnish 

 to scientists; what balance there should be 

 between the support of basic science — the 

 untrammeled search for new knowledge for its 

 own sake — and of applied science — the search 

 for and the use of knowledge specifically needed 

 for recognized practical objectives; these are 

 puzzling and unanswered questions."' 9 The 

 papers delivered at the symposium itself 

 underscored the fundamental conflict: despite 

 Weaver's definition of basic research as "the 

 untrammeled search for new knowledge for its 

 own sake," the symposium resolved into an 

 attempt to demonstrate that it was to be 

 supported by the public not for its own sake but 

 for the sake of improved technology. 



While, as Weaver pointed out, the rela- 

 tionship between science and government was 

 still far from being clearly defined, that part of 

 the Federal budget that could be classified 

 under the heading of R&D grew rapidly during 

 the 1955-65 period.- 4 " In 1955 the Government 

 research and development commitment 

 amounted to $2,744.7 million (including R&D 

 plant). Of this total $2,084.2 million was 

 obligated by the Department of Defense and 

 another $372.9 million by the Atomic Energy 

 Commission. The budget of the Department of 

 Health, Education and Welfare (including the 

 National Institutes of Health) was $70.9 

 million. The budget of NSF stood at only $10.3 

 million. Just 10 years later, in 1965, total 

 obligations lor research and development, 



17 Nick * K i mi (ins. Sciem (.' and the Air Force: . \ Hislorj oj 

 the Aii 'orce Office o) Scientific Research (Arlington, 

 1966] ; | 

 Ibid p 



19 Woll'lr [ed.), xi. 



111 All statistical data, unless referenced to specific 

 documents, are from Science Indicators— 1974. Report oi 

 the National Science Board, 1975 [Washington, 1975] or 

 from Federal Funds for Research, DeveJopment, and Other 

 Scientific Activities publicnlions nl the Nntiun.il Science 

 Foundal ion. 



14 



RESEARCH IN THE UNITED STATES 



