310 ORGANIZING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH FOR WAR 



close contact with the Executive Secretary, leaving only important sub- 

 ject's to come before the full committees. Bush concluded the memoran- 

 dum in the following fashion: 



This memorandum gives me opportunity to remark on a very significant fact. 

 The same civilian personnel that started in CMR and NRDC still remains. We 

 have the same Executive Secretary. We started together and we finished to- 

 gether. I think there never was a more convincing evidence of harmonious 

 teamwork. 



Bush also wrote the President on August i6, 1945, outlining a program 

 for the termination of OSRD for which he requested presidential approval. 

 After pointing out that extensive scientific effort would need to be focused 

 on the problems of reconversion and education, he outlined the following 

 program: 



A. Research on the instruments of warfare (carried out through the National 

 Defense Research Committee). 



1. Condnue projects of long-term significance which should become the re- 

 sponsibility of a Foundation conducting, in part, research on military matters 

 until such a Foundation is established, or until they are taken over by the Army 

 or Navy, or until it becomes evident that neither provision for their continuance 

 may be expected. 



Continue other projects of a fundamental character only for a brief period 

 to enable the armed services to take them over and incorporate them in their 

 own programs if they so desire. This interval need exceed thirty days only 

 under unusual circumstances. 



2. Stop all other work on war weapons which does not appear to have long- 

 term significance. It seems obvious that many weapons which are now near 

 completion will be obsolete before another war would be likely to occur. Per- 

 haps 90 per cent of the present OSRD program in the field of weapons will 

 fall in this category. In the case of work on specific weapons of long-term 

 significance the program should be handled as outlined above in (i). 



In both types of cases provision will be made for adequate reporting of 

 work already done in a form which will permit later investigators to take up 

 the work at approximately the point where the OSRD may have discontinued. 

 This work on reporting will need to continue beyond the time intervals indi- 

 cated above. 



B. Medical Research related to national defense (carried out through the Com- 

 mittee on Medical Research). 



Much of the work carried on under the auspices of the Committee on Medical 

 Research of OSRD has implications for civilian medicine and public health as 

 well as for military medicine. 



1. Transfer to the Services or terminate all research predominantly of military 

 application, with the expectation that the military establishments will continue 

 under their own auspices such part of the program as they may find desirable. 



2. Transfer to the Public Health Service that part of the CMR program which 



