75 



It is not evident that at the time of the hearings there were very 

 many persons with the necessary quahfications to present scientific 

 or technical criticism or ahernatives. Whether or not a search was 

 vigorously pursued for such witnesses, they were not forthcoming. 

 Vu"tually no testimony was offered to shed doubt on the Nation's 

 ability to pursue an effective program of technical assistance to the 

 less developed countries. No testimony was taken from executive 

 officials actually designing the program: Haldore Hanson, Director 

 of the Interdepartmental Committee on Scientific and Cidtural 

 Cooperation, and Jon Abbink and Isadore Lubin, who had participated 

 in the Joint Brazil-United Statts Technical Mission and who were 

 aiding Assistant Secretary Thor]) in program planning. 



Several reasons may be gi\'en to explain wiry Congress passed over 

 the science policy aspects of this program. To begin with, the program 

 was not recognized as involving scientific problems at all. Much of the 

 deliberation centered on political, economic, and military considera- 

 tions such as the need to contain conmiunism, the need to exjjand U.S. 

 markets, and the development of secm^e som'ces of strategic materials. 

 Then, to silence those opposed to Government spending, the President 

 yielded to the persuasions of those advocating that main reliance be 

 placed on private investment and private arrangements for the export 

 of technology. The executive branch had apparently not undertaken 

 thorough prelimmary analyses of the special needs of the underde- 

 veloped countries. Its optimistic and somewhat superficial belief in 

 the ability of American technicians to aid the underdeveloped countries 

 was not challenged by the Congress, nor were the views of critics 

 outside of the executive branch solicited. 



And in 1949-50 the executive branch did not have the benefit 

 of the science advisory apparatus it now utilizes to help formidate 

 science policy: the Office of International Scientific and Technical 

 Affairs in the Department of State,^^ the Office of Research and 

 Analysis within the Office of Technical Cooperation and Research in 

 the Agency for International Development,^^ the science attache 

 program in the Department of State, the Office of Science and Tech- 

 nology, and the President's Science Advisory Committee. 



The task of Congress was complicated because it also lacked such 

 science advisory arrangements as the several House and Senate 

 committees relating to science, technology, research, and development; 

 the Subcommittee on Technical Assistance of the Committee on 



^* A Science Advisory Committee, chaired by Dr. Oliver E. Buckley, chairman of the board of the Bell 

 Telephone Laboratories, was established on Apr. 20, 1951, witliin the Office of Defense Mobilization, to 

 advise the President and the Director of Defense Mobilization in matters relating to scientific research and 

 development for defense. (U.S. Federal Register Division, National Archives and Records Service, General 

 Services Administration. U.S. Government Organization Manual, 1951-52. Revised as of July 1, 1951. 

 (Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1951), p. 69.) Later in the Truman administration, it fell 

 into disuse. (Bm-ton M. Sapin, "The Making of U.S. Foreign Policy" (Washington, D.C., the Brookings 

 Institution, 1966), p. 225.) The Office of International Scientific and Technical Affaii's was created as the 

 Office of the Science Adviser to the Secretary of State in 1951 upon recommendations of the Berkner report . 

 From 1052 to 1902 it was ineffectual and nonfunctional. It was resuiTected in 19.58 after the launch of Sputnik 

 I and reorganized into the Office of International Scientific Affairs (later the Office of International Scien- 

 tific and Technological Affairs), in 1962 upon recommendations from the Development Assistance Panel 

 of the President's Science Advisory Committee. (U.S. President's Science Advisory Committee. Report 

 of the Development Assistance Panel: "Research and development in tlie new development assistance 

 program," prepared for the Department of State, 1961. In U.S. Congress. House Committee on Foreign 

 Affairs. The International Development and Security Act. Hearings on * * * 87th Cong., 1st sess., pt. 3. 

 (Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1962), pp. 971-82.) 



35 Created in 1961 after enactment of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and upon recommendations from 

 the 1961 report of the President's Science Advisory Committee. (For information relating to the Science 

 Offices within State and AID, see: Warner R. Schilling, "Scientists, Foreign Policy and Politics." Revised 

 version of an article pubhshed in The American Political Science Review (vol. LVI, No. 2, June 1962), 

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

 Columbia University Press, 1964), po. 144-173. 



