CHAPTER XX 



PUBLICITY, PUBLIC RELATIONS AND 

 PUBLICATIONS 



I 



.N AN early meeting of NDRC, Compton observed that NDRC 

 could either do its job or get credit for doing it, but not both. The emphasis 

 was always upon getting the job done. There was frank recognition that 

 if NDRC became involved in competition with the Services for credit, one 

 result would be a chilling of Service enthusiasm for working with NDRC. 

 It would be expecting a great deal of an Army or Navy officer to assume 

 that he would seek assistance in meeting a problem if there were likelihood 

 of NDRC publicity indicating how good NDRC was and, inferentially, 

 what a poor job he had done. Another compelling reason for silence was, 

 of course, the fact that most OSRD operations were in the area of classified 

 information. Nor did OSRD seek publicity for its policy of avoiding pub- 

 licity. Members of the working press were early convinced that OSRD was 

 doing an important job, that the job could best be done without publicity, 

 that OSRD was honest in its desire to avoid publicity, and in accordance 

 with the best traditions of their profession, they co-operated. 



The policy paid big dividends in aiding to build up a free interchange of 

 information with the Services and in encouraging the Services to come to 

 OSRD for assistance. It had as a disadvantage that the Selective Service 

 boards were not adequately informed of the importance of OSRD opera- 

 tions and thus the problem of retention of scientific manpower was more 

 difficult of solution than it otherwise might have been. In the early days, it 

 also contributed to the restlessness of some scientists who had no apprecia- 

 tion of the scope of the program and who therefore felt that science was 

 not making its proper contribution to the war eflort. This feeling died down 

 as more and more scientists were brought into the ever expanding operadons. 



There were a few speeches and a handful of press releases in the early 

 days but they were largely devoted to matters of organization. Their issu- 

 ance was dictated largely by the desire to acquaint scientists not already in 

 the program with the possibility that later they might be. On the other 

 hand the subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee of the House of 

 Representatives handling the OSRD appropriations was kept informed of 

 the principal OSRD activities. Organizational matters were spread on the 

 record; but, more important, at the several hearings the Director of OSRD 

 and the Chairmen of NDRC and CMR gave o£F-the-record outlines of the 



