V. THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION AND THE 

 SOLIDIFICATION OF AMERICAN SCIENCE POLICY, 1950-1957 



After five years of debate, Congress and the President settled on 

 a plan to establish the National Science Foundation. Yet the orga- 

 nization created in 1950 was not the same one envisioned by its 

 early proponents; it was not a centralized agency in charge of co- 

 ordinating the Federal Government's scientific research programs 

 in the areas of medicine, atomic energy, military, and basic re- 

 search. The wartime Office of Scientific Research and Development 

 had maintained significant coordinating authority, but with its 

 break-up and the subsequent delay in creating the NSF, other 

 agencies stepped in to assume responsibility for the various sectors 

 of the nation's overall science policy. By 1950, a pluralistic system 

 of science support was firmly entrenched, including the scientific 

 research and development programs within the Atomic Energy 

 Commission, in the National Institutes of Health, and in each of 

 the armed services. And so, during the period 1950-57, the NSF re- 

 mained a relatively small organization responsible for basic re- 

 search, while the other agencies carrying out scientific research 

 and development continued to develop and expand their programs. 



Creation of the National Science Foundation 



Lacking the broad base of Vannevar Bush's proposed National 

 Research Foundation— which would have included basic research 

 in the medical and military arenas — the National Science Founda- 

 tion established by Congress was a modest agency with the more 

 limited responsibility of supporting basic research primarily within 

 universities. The 1950 NSF legislation signed by President Truman 

 represented a pragmatic compromise between the Democratic Ad- 

 ministration and the followers of the Bush approach, a compromise 

 that left neither side completely satisfied. x 



The political accountability of the NSF director and the National 

 Science Board had been one of the most heated areas of controver- 

 sy. It was, in fact, President Truman's principal reason for vetoing 

 the 1947 NSF legislation. He wanted the NSF under civilian politi- 

 cal control. In the 1950 legislation, the NSF director and the 24 

 members of the National Science Board were all to be appointed by 

 the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. This ar- 

 rangement, which was acceptable to the Truman Administration, 



1 The best history of the creation and early development of the National Science Foundation 

 is J. Merton England, A Patron for Pure Science: The National Science Foundation 's Formative 

 Years, 1945-57 (Washington: National Science Foundation, 1982). Also useful are Dorothy 

 Schaffter, The National Science Foundation (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1969); and Milton 

 Lomask, A Minor Miracle: An Informal History of the National Science Foundation (Washing- 

 ton: National Science Foundation, 1976). 



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