1247 



degeneration, and the widening gap between the LDCs and advanced 

 countries through brain drain complete the catalog of possible nega- 

 tive effects of brain drain on the LDCs. 



The United States and other Western advanced countries gain 

 enormously because of the inflow of professional manpower from the 

 LDCs. The inflow of scienrtists and engineers, first from the advanced 

 countries of the West and later proportionately greater from the 

 LDCs, has contributed to enhancing American possibilities of main- 

 taining world economic and political primacy in the last quarter of a 

 century. The inflow of FMGrs, mainly from the LDCs in recent years, 

 enable the LTnited States to reduce the gap in the doctor shortage and 

 to pursue the Nation's goals of expanding health care, apparently with 

 some success. But this success seems to have been achieved at the price 

 of exposing the American people to what some brain draih specialists 

 and physicians perceive to be a threat of lowering the high standards 

 of medical care by filling the ranks of the American medical profes- 

 sion with FMGs of seemingly doubtful competence, and of terminat- 

 ing career expectations of qualified American premedical students by 

 failing to provide sufficient medical schools to meet both the growing 

 health demands and needs of the American people. 



Thus, the effects of brain drain seem to fall into a range of possi- 

 bilities that may vary by degree of relevancy and intensity, but they 

 are nevertheless realities. Created by multiple, interacting forces 

 within the area of science and technology, these effects intrude upon the 

 Nation's domestic policy and make their presence known in many 

 ways. But it is likely that their greatest impact may be in the realm 

 of American foreign policy, for it is in this realm that science, tech- 

 nology, brain drain, and national policy interconnect in a way that can 

 produce serious implications for the foreign policy goals of this 

 Nation. 



