IV. THE POLITICS OF POSTWAR SCIENCE POLICY, 1945-1950 



The five-year period after World War II was critical to the devel- 

 opment of science policy in the United States. The mechanisms, ra- 

 tionales, and structures for the Federal support of science which 

 were put into place during this period changed only slightly in the 

 years thereafter. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Na- 

 gaski — along with the other science-related developments of World 

 War II — not only heightened the public's interest in science and 

 technology, but also convinced military planners of the need to con- 

 tinue the Armed Services' support of research and development. 1 

 Government policymakers concerned with the nation's shift from a 

 wartime to a peacetime economy also saw the possibilities of apply- 

 ing the results of research to the civilian sectors of society. 



Another major issue in the politics of postwar science policy was 

 the creation of a central scientific agency. Although the National 

 Science Foundation legislation was proposed in 1945, Congress did 

 not pass a bill until 1947. President Truman's veto led to another 

 round of debate. Although a National Science Foundation was fi- 

 nally created in 1950, the pattern of postwar Federal science sup- 

 port had already been established, largely through programs in the 

 Office of Naval Research, the Atomic Energy Commission, and the 

 National Institutes of Health, which had filled the void left by the 

 disbandment of the OSRD after the war. Rather than developing a 

 broad program of coordinated, basic research through the early es- 

 tablishment of a single agency, the nation's science structure devel- 

 oped in a pluralistic, mission-oriented manner. 2 



The Continuing Debate Over NSF 



By June 1945, both Vannevar Bush and Senator Harley Kilgore 

 had recommended the creation of a central scientific agency. Their 

 two positions shared much in common, yet their differences charac- 

 terized the debate over the organization, function, and size of the 

 proposed agency. This debate remained unresolved long after the 

 formal establishment of the National Science Foundation in 1950. 3 



Legislation to create a national research foundation was first in- 

 troduced by Senator Warren G. Magnuson in July 1945. The Mag- 

 nuson bill was fully in accord with Bush's position. As noted, Sena- 



1 For an analysis of American attitudes toward science and science policy during the immedi- 

 ate postwar years, see Kenneth MacDonald Jones, "Science, Scientists, and Americans: Images 

 of Science and the Formation of Federal Science Policy, 1945-1950," Ph.D. dissertation, Cornell 

 University, 1975. 



2 For a concise overview of science policy during the Truman Administration, see John Walsh, 

 "Truman Era: Formative Years for Federal Science," Science, 179 (January 1973), 262-265; and 

 A. Hunter Dupree, "Paths to the Sixties," in David L. Arm (ed.), Science in the Sixties (Albu- 

 querque: University of New Mexico Press, 1965), pp. 5-9. 



3 For a thorough description and analysis of the debates surrounding the formation of the 

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

 Formative Years, 1945-57 (Washington: National Science Foundation, 1982). 



(25) 



59-294 0-86-2 



