1293 



cooperating with them in these developmental efforts through its assistance pro- 

 grams. Thus, in a sense, the United States is helping to create or expand the 

 human resources needed by these countries for their social and economic develop- 

 ment and it may, at the same time, be attracting or absorbing a significant share 

 of the members of this scarce group. 



Inquiries by the Interagency Council had revealed that U.S. Gov- 

 ernment-sponsored programs of exchange and those sponsored by 

 nongovernment organizations in the United States under the Ex- 

 change Visitor Program "do not appear to be contributing directly to 

 these types of immigration, in significant numbers or proportions." 

 The greatest number of nonreturnees were free-lancers or those coming 

 under other auspices. The note concluded, again at most suggesting an 

 awareness of the problem in its relation to development : "This fact 

 does not lessen the national interest in learning more about the sources, 

 trends, and consequences of these patterns, given their obvious and 

 important implications for public policy in the fields of international 

 education and foreign aid." ^^^ 



Less equivocal were the comments by Dr. "William C. Gibbons, Di- 

 rector of Congressional Liaison in AID. In a letter to Senator Mon- 

 dale, of September 23, 1966, endorsing the substance of the Senator's 

 speech of August 31 on brain drain and the LDCs, Dr. Gibbons said : 

 "We are very pleased that you have added your voice so forcefully 

 to those others who have been calling attention to the complex prob- 

 lem of the emigration of talent, especially from developing countries." 

 AID, and particularly the Office of International Training, was 

 "acutely aware" of this problem, he said. "There are countries from 

 which at least as many talented or skilled people may be 'drained off' 

 by the process you describe as we are training in the United States 

 and in the other country." AID-sponsored participants tend to return 

 in very high proportions, Dr. Gibbons went on, but he added : "even 

 for these ... we lack figures on how many later emigrate to the 

 United States or some other developed nation after they have fulfilled 

 that commitment or satisfied the legal requirement to wait for two 

 years before re-entering the United States." After a point-by-point 

 commentary on the Senator's speech, Dr. Gibbons concluded: "We 

 intend to give your remarks wide circulation and the most thoughtful 

 study. They touch upon not only the brain drain problem but the 

 whole subject of foreign students in this country and the problem 

 and opportunity they present, even though the vast majority are not 

 government-sponsored." '^^ 



This letter is significant not only its spirit of concern for the welfare 

 of the LDCs but also in its official expression of awareness of brain 

 drain as a force contravening the purposes of foreign assistance to the 

 developing countries. 



From the Perspective of Academia. — Students and concerned 

 scholare of development in academia quickly perceived the contradic- 

 tion between brain drain and development : they protested and urged 

 corrective action. In a seminal article in Foreign Affairs of July 1966, 

 Dr. James A. Perkins, President of Cornell University, cited brain 



■^ Department of State, Proceedings of Workshop on the International Migration of 

 Talent and Skills, October 1966. p. 2. 



759 William C. Gibbons to Sen. Walter F. Mondale, Department of State, Agency for In- 

 ternational Development, Washington, D.C., Sept. 23, 1966. Inserted In Congressional 

 Record, Oct. 13, 1966, p. 26503 (by Senator Mondale). 



