46 



ministration's use and coordination of science. The first was the 

 creation of a Special Assistant for Science and Technology within 

 the White House. This new position was promptly filled by the ap- 

 pointment of Massachusetts Institute of Technology president 

 James R. Killian on 7 November 1957, thus making him the na- 

 tion's first full-time Presidential science advisor. 13 



pesident's science advisory committee (psac) 



President Eisenhower also created the President's Science Advi- 

 sory Committee (PSAC) in 1957. This was part of a reorganization 

 which put the former Science Advisory Committee of the Office of 

 Defense Mobilization into the White House. First established in 

 1951, the Science Advisory Committee was little used until Eisen- 

 hower's tenure. The elevation of this advisory committee to the 

 White House increased the frequency and intensity of the Presi- 

 dent's meetings with scientific advisors. Indeed, scientists became 

 regular policy advisors, with their access to the President only sur- 

 passed by the conditions that existed during World War II. PSAC's 

 first major task was space policy, although it also offered advice 

 and recommendations on a wide range of public policy issues, and 

 provided the White House with new lines of communication with 

 the nation's scientific community. 14 



The creation of PSAC and the Special Assistant for Science and 

 Technology significantly increased the influence of scientists at the 

 highest level of government, giving them an institutionalized policy 

 voice. Congress, however, found itself limited from participating 

 fully in the formation of Federal science policy largely because the 

 new Special Assistant was insulated from Congressional committee 

 questioning. Congress' frustration over this situation helped fuel 

 the unsuccessful efforts to establish a Department of Science and 

 Technology. 1 5 



FEDERAL COUNCIL FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



In December 1958, the President's Science Advisory Committee 

 recommended that a Federal Council for Science and Technology 

 (FCST) be created in order to provide central, coordinated control 

 over Federal research and development. 16 The Committee ex- 



1 3 For Eisenhower's appointment of a Special Assistant for Science and Technology, as well as 

 the overall development of Presidential science advice, see William G. Wells, Jr., "Science 

 Advice and the Presidency, 1933-1976," Ph.D. dissertation, George Washington University, 1977; 

 and James Everett Katz, Presidential Politics and Science Policy (New York: Praeger, 1978). 

 Also useful are "White House Superstructure for Science," Chemical & Engineering News, 42 

 (October 19, 1964), 78-92; James R. Killian, Jr., Sputnik, Scientists, and Eisenhower: A Memoir 

 of the First Special Assistant to the President for Science and Technology (Cambridge: The MIT 

 Press, 1977); and George B. Kistiakowsky, A Scientist at the White House: The Private Diary of 

 President Eisenhower's Special Assistant for Science and Technology (Cambridge: Harvard Uni- 

 versity Press, 1976). 



14 See Robert N. Kreidler, "The President's Science Advisers and National Science Policy" in 

 Robert Gilpin and Christopher Wright (eds.), Scientists and National Policy-Making (New York: 

 Columbia University Press, 1964), pp. 113-143; and William T. Golden (ed.), Science Advice to the 

 President (New York: Pergamon Press, 1980). 



15 See National Academy of Sciences, Federal Support of Basic Research in Institutions of 

 Higher Learning (Washington: National Research Council, 1964), pp. 54-55. 



1 6 President's Science Advisory Committee, Strengthening American Science (Washington: 

 GPO, 1958). For a full discussion of the FCST, see U.S. Congress, House Committee on Science 

 and Technology, Interagency Coordination of Federal Scientific Research and Development: The 

 Federal Council for Science and Technology (94th Congress, 2nd session. Washington: GPO, 

 1976). 



