CHAPTER XVII 



SECURITY 



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.HE problem of security was one of the first to concern 

 NDRC, and the decisions made in the early days held throughout the 

 history of OSRD. While some aspects of the security problem will be ex- 

 panded in the following pages, the account of security operations contained 

 in the first chapter on the NDRC including the discussion of compartmen- 

 talization of information will not be repeated here. 



The problem is simple of recognition, but impossible of satisfactory solu- 

 tion in a country where freedom of the individual is a precious heritage. 

 No man has the right to imperil the safety of the state by revealing its 

 military secrets to an actual or potential enemy. Premature disclosure of the 

 existence of a new weapon might eliminate the element of surprise, enable 

 the enemy to develop counters for it, and cost the lives of many American 

 soldiers. Disclosure to the enemy of progress in the development of a new 

 weapon might enable him to improve his own weapons so as to make them 

 more devastatingly effective against American troops. Even the disclosure 

 that great effort was being concentrated in a particular field might enable 

 the enemy to plan his campaign with a relative impunity to certain measures 

 because of the assurance that the United States was not adequately pre- 

 pared in that area. 



Most American citizens go through life without accumulating police or 

 other records which would stamp them as unfit to be trusted with classified 

 military information, which is as it should be. At the same time, the mere 

 absence of a police record is no assurance that a man can be so trusted. He 

 might be completely lacking in discretion, or in an extreme case might even 

 be disloyal without any occasion having arisen for the disloyalty to have 

 been revealed. 



In the OSRD philosophy, there was need for a balance between security 

 precautions on the one hand and speed on the other. Undue security pre- 

 cautions would occasion delay and sometimes so restrict the transmission of 

 knowledge that the best minds could not be made fully available for a 

 project. On the other hand speed at the expense of proper security might 

 occasion untold harm. In general the inclination of the scientist was to favor 

 speed and to resent the delays imposed by security precautions; but the 

 record of the agency shows that the security restrictions were well observed. 



The necessity for freedom of action within limits was well illustrated in 

 a few instances where the using Service was exhorting OSRD to the greatest 



