1158 



normal part of their national life. A group of experts associated with 

 OECD concluded a 1968 report on American scientific policies with a 

 judgment that supports and gives historical perspective to this gen- 

 eralization. American scientific and technical enterprise, they de- 

 clared, is deeply rooted in American tradition and history and from 

 the beginning of the republic has been one of the mainsprings of 

 American society.^^" 



Thus, the combination of resources, infrastructure and scientific 

 spirit has made the United States the leader of world science and 

 technology .^^^ International recognition of American leadership is 

 manifest in practical achievements in science, technology, and medi- 

 cine and also in the form of prestigious awards, such as Nobel Prizes, 

 won by Americans.^^^ 



It was this intellectual climate and the accompanying rewards for 

 creative attainments that produced a magnetic "pull" so powerful 

 that Professor Brzezinski could conclude : "America's professional at- 

 traction for the global scientific elite is without historic precedent in 

 either scale or scope." ^^^ 



SCIENTIFIC-TECHNOLOGICAL CIVILIZATION : SOURCE OF "PERMA.NENT DRAW" 



The West's scientific-technological civilization, particularly that of 

 the United States, exerts a "permanent draw," stimulating the move- 

 ment of scientists, engineers, and physicians from the LDCs and less 

 advanced countries to the more advanced. For the United States the 

 "pull" of its unique civilization has been compelling. 



Sources on brain drain reiterate themes already discussed in show- 

 ing the allure of industrial America. A discontented former American 

 student from Taiwan, suffering from insuflficient reference material 

 and a lack of stimulation from professional colleagues in Taipei, 

 asked a former professor to find employment for him in the United 

 States, preferably in a metropolitan area. He complained that a 



320 Brzezinski, op. clt., pp. 28-29. Professor Brzezinski quotes from the OECD report : 



"Since the first hours of the Republic, the right of citizens to the 'pursuit of happiness,' 

 formulated In the Declaration of Independence, has been one of the mainsprings of American 

 society ; it Is also the foundation of a social policy inspired by the prospect of new benefits 

 Issued from the scientific and technical enterprise. How can one fall to hope that these 

 benefits, which have In fact contributed so much to national defense or the race for world 

 prestige, will make an essential contribution to the achievement of other great national 

 goals? It is this propulsion which has given science, the mother of knowledge, the appear- 

 ance of a veritable national resource. The enterprise is Indissolubly linked to the goals of 

 American society, which Is trying to build its future on the progress of science and tech- 

 nology. In this capacity, this society as a whole is a consumer of scientific knowledge, which 

 is used for diverse ends : in the last century, to increase agricultural productivity and to 

 facilitate territorial development, and then to back the national defense effort, to safeguard 

 public health and to explore space. These are activities which have an Impact on the destiny 

 of the whole nation, and it seems natural that all skills should be mobilized to cooperate. 

 In this way industry and the universities and private organizations are associated with the 

 Government project." (Conclusion of a report prepared by the Secretariat of the OECD, 

 January 1968, as quoted by The New York Times, Jan. 13. 1968, p. 10). 



^ E. Flore, Vice President and Chief Scientist of IBM has stated : "The United States 

 has become the Intellectual renter of the world — the center of the arts, the sciences, and 

 economics." ("Towards the Year 2000," Daedalus (Summer 1967), p. 958, quoted in, Brze- 

 zinski, op. cit., p. 30.) 



=22 For data on America's Innovating performance as reported by the OECD analysts and 

 other evidence of American supremacy in science, see Brzezinski, op. clt., p. 28. The Ameri- 

 can scientific establishment, for example, claims leadership in pure science and als^o In the 

 field of mathematics. In noting the marked preponderance of the United States in Nobel 

 Prizes in Physics, Chemistry and Medicine, Prof. Brzezinski states : ". . . between the years 

 1901 and 1939 the United States and Canada won 13 prizes, while France, Germany, Italy, 

 Benelux, and the United Kingdom won a total of 82, Scandinavia won 8, the US.S.R. won 

 4, and Japan won none. Between 1940 and 1967 the respective figures were 42, 50, 6, 8, and 

 2." (Ibid.) 



323 Ibid., p. 30. 



