1005 



Brown also noted that Soviet and Eastern European attitudes 

 toward the scientific exchange programs reflected the American 

 presence in Southeast Asia: 



... A resolution of the Vietnam situation will make possible a significantly 

 greater level of cooperative scientific activities with the Soviets, who are not 

 disposed to consider major new departures at the present time.^'* 



Similarly, Professor Byrnes reports that the conduct and success of 

 American exchange programs with Eastern European countries is 

 directly influenced by Soviet foreign policy domination of the Com- 

 munist bloc States : 



We have apparently reached a plateau in our exchanges with the Soviet Union 

 and some of the countries of Communist Europe, after a peak of interest in 1963 

 and 1964. In fact the invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968, which crushed 

 high hopes for explaining exchanges with that country and with some of the other 

 countries of Eastern Europe, may mark a sharp demarcation of possibiUties for 

 peaceful exchanges of all kinds with the Soviet Union and its associated states.*" 



One of the more important cooperative aspects of the exchange 

 programs is the provision for the staff of American and foreign 

 academies to hold joint meetings to acquaint scientists with scientific 

 research activities in the other country and to permit discussions to 

 plan the number and content of subsequent exchanges. Brown 

 reported one instance among several of cancellation of conferences of 

 this nature, in reaction to American presence in Indochina : 



. . . The NAS was informed by the Hungarian Embassy in Washington that 

 the Hungarian Academy of Sciences has "indefinitely postponed" sending its 

 [delegation] to the U.S. for a two-week visit, during which time it was anticipated 

 that negotiations would be completed on an exchange program between the two 

 Academies. This information was confirmed by Hungarian Academy President T. 

 Erdey Gruz in his letter of May 14 to Dr. Handler noting that this was a post- 

 ponement "because of the present international situation", apparently referring to 

 the presence of American troops in Cambodia.*'* 



As of early 1972 only one meeting of this nature had been held by the 

 American and Soviet Academies since inception of the program. And 

 despite continuing overtures and negotiations by the NAS, Soviet 

 scientists had been disinclined to hold another : 



Our exchange agreement [with the Soviet Union] also provides for meetings of 

 members of the two academies to discuss exchange matters broadly at the policy 

 level and related matters of mutual interest. Only one such meeting has been held, 

 in Moscow in Spring 1967 but a second is anticipated this year in the United 

 States. This forum offers the opportunity for frank exchange of views out of the 

 public limelight in an effort to convey to each other our estimates of values and 

 needs as regards scientific cooperation, whether within the formal exchange 

 program or more broadly.*'* 



No firm response has been received [from the Soviet Union in response to the 

 Academy invitation for a second meeting] and the NAS therefore considers the 

 question pending.*20 



<" "Report of the Foreign Secretary to the Annual Meeting of the NAS, Apr. 23, 1968," p. 4. 



♦" Byrnes, op. cit., p. 3. 



<i8 National Academy of Sciences, OflBce of the Foreign Secretary, "Status Report of Scientific Exchange 

 under the Memoranda of Understanding Between The National Academy of Sciences and the Academies 

 of Sciences of Eastern Europe, April 1, 1970-June 30, 1970," Report No. 17, July 1, 1970, p. 9. 



<" International Cooperation in Science and Space: Hearings, op. cit., p. 152. 



«« NAS Report of Exchange Activities, 1 May 1969-30 April 1970, p. 2. In: "Proposal for the Continuation 

 of the Program for Exchange . . . ," May 28, 1970, op. cit. 



