34 ORGANIZING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH FOR WAR 



officers were appointed as members of the Committee. In addition, the 

 Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy appointed Uaison officers 

 to serve with the Committee in order that there might be direct channels 

 which could operate with a minimum of delay. 



As the NDRC grew and divisions and sections were established, liaison 

 officers were appointed to follow specific projects or groups of projects. The 

 purpose of the liaison at the project level was to assist the scientist to oper- 

 ate within the framework of possible military requirements and conversely 

 to give the armed services in some detail a glimpse of what science might 

 of!er in the various fields of military operation. The story of the liaison 

 with the military is told in detail in a later chapter. It is mentioned here 

 because it was one of the important points to which the Committee de- 

 voted its attention from the beginning. 



By the time the NDRC was established, the United States was well com- 

 mitted to assist the Allies against the Axis. The British were feeling the 

 effect of the weapons and instrumentalities developed by Germany and 

 were acquiring invaluable experience in devising and testing countermeas- 

 ures for those weapons. An exchange of information with the British would 

 have the advantage of giving the United States the benefit of the British 

 experience and the additional advantage of an early trial of weapons and 

 equipment which might be developed for the protection of the United 

 States. The importance of the object was one which made it desirable to 

 start the exchange of information at a high level. This was accomplished 

 when President Roosevelt commissioned Conant to proceed to London 

 in February 1941, to make arrangements for an exchange of information 

 and the estabhshment of an NDRC office in London. This commission was 

 given, of course, only after the matter had been thoroughly canvassed with 

 the Army and the Navy. Shordy thereafter the British established a com- 

 parable office in Washington. 



During the first year of its existence, NDRC succeeded in solving a num- 

 ber of perplexing problems in the introduction of civilian scientists into a 

 program of research on military devices in a time of rapidly mountmg 

 crisis. Its success led to a change in the form of its organization brought 

 about largely by President Roosevelt's desire for a similar achievement in 

 the field of medical research. 



