300 ORGANIZING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH FOR WAR 



appearing to be in general agreement with the principles outHned by him, 

 Bush next sent letters to Bundy and Purer on August 8, 1944, putting a 

 general program for the termination of OSRD before the Secretaries of 

 War and Navy. The objectives of the program were to continue to render 

 to the Services aid essential in the prosecution of the war until both enemies 

 had collapsed; to make the transition to peace without confusion, and, con- 

 sistent with the above, to give maximum assistance to reconversion and 

 re-employment by releasing individual scientists, as war needs made such 

 releases practicable, to take up technical problems whose solution was essen- 

 tial to orderly reconversion. 



Bush made the following points as being pertinent to the plans for 

 termination: 



1. The scale of operation of OSRD was much larger than could be con- 

 tinued during peace on military research and plans for orderly cessation of 

 part of it must be made. 



2. Provision for continuance of fundamental research could best be made 

 by transferring it to permanent organizations while the war was still 

 going on. 



3. As the war had proceeded, the nature of the work of OSRD had be- 

 come more and more aimed at immediate application, which approached 

 that normally carried by the Services themselves. 



4. The transfer to the Services before the conclusion of the war of a 

 considerable fraction of the research burden should accelerate the establish- 

 ment of an appropriate organization to handle research within the Services. 



5. There was a real danger that with the collapse of Germany a large 

 number of the key personnel of OSRD would feel keenly their obligation 

 to work on reconversion problems and that OSRD would find itself with- 

 out adequate personnel to administer its expanded program. 



6. While development of weapons of great potential importance should 

 proceed at full speed until the end of the war, the number of new weapons 

 of secondary importance already developed was probably greater than could 

 be brought to bear effectively against Japan while the Pacific war lasted. 



7. With the collapse of Germany scientific and technical men must pave 

 the way for the employment of hundreds of men in reconverting industry 

 to peacetime operations. 



8. When the war with Germany ended, the Army should have an excess 

 of personnel including men competent in scientific and technical fields. 



9. In the plans for the termination of OSRD effort beginning with the 

 collapse of Germany, no OSRD program genuinely needed or important 

 in the war against Japan should be allowed to lapse or become stultified. 



The plan for the orderly liquidation of OSRD, to become effective upon 

 the collapse of Germany, called for dividing the work of OSRD into the 

 following categories: 



