489 



Decision. — Camelot was canceled but the military need for spon- 

 sorship of such research was accepted as valid. Interagency coor- 

 dination and formal guidelines for such research were established 

 administratively. 



Decision locus. — Congressional committee and executive branch, 

 without enactment of legislation. 



Assessment. — Pressures on the executive branch generated by com- 

 mittee interest in the episode prompted cancellation of the project. 

 It also led to a strengthening of interagency coordination mechanisms, 

 a debate among societies of social scientists on the ethics of performing 

 classified Government research in sensitive areas, and fonnation of 

 social science advisory groups in the Xational Academy of Sciences. 

 Increased interest in the Congress regarding the uses of the social 

 sciences in Government led to legislative proposals for a National 

 Social Sciences Foundation. Supporters of the proposal said that if 

 established, the proposed Foundation would "civilianize" federally 

 sponsored social science research and give the social sciences the special 

 visibility, support, and direction needed to promote rapid growth. 

 Moreover, the Foundation could support social policy-oriented re- 

 search, which was not supported elsewhere in the Government. How- 

 ever, an alternative approach was adopted. This was to instruct the 

 National Science Foundation to accord the social sciences more em- 

 phasis, and to extend its sponsorship to some applied research projects. 

 Supporters of the NSF alternative said that the existing NSF mecha- 

 nism could valuably support growth of the social sciences. They held 

 that the NSF already had experience in supporting such research and 

 that the similarities in methodology and policy utilization between the 

 social, physical, and biological sciences necessitated unified direction. 

 Subsequently, NSF created a panel to assess the status and prospects 

 of Federal utilization and support of the social sciences. 



Commentary. — Criticism of the extent of interagency coordination 

 evidenced by the management of Project Camelot focused congres- 

 sional attention on the need for more direction and coordination in 

 Government use of the social sciences. The outcome was probably 

 beneficial to the relationship of the social sciences to Government. 



CASE five: mohole 



Background. — Disciplines within the physical sciences attracting 

 Government sponsorship and able students were those with active, 

 challenging, and creative research programs — particularly if they were 

 also in competition for world leadership with Soviet scientists in 

 similar disciplines. 



Prohlem. — "^^Hiether a spectacular and costly program to drill to 

 the deep underlying mantle of the earth, sponsored by the National 

 Science Foundation (NSF), should be supported at the level recom- 

 mended by NSF, slowed, redirected, or denied funds entirely. 



Access to Congress. — The program was initially described to the 

 House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, in May 1961. 

 Thereafter it received periodic reviews as a part of NSF appropria- 

 tion proceedings in the Senate and House Appropriation Committees. 



