RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 325 



and that plans for effective civilian assistance in the development of new 

 weapons will be one of the first items dropped in a program of retrench- 

 ment. The proposal for a National Science Foundation independent of the 

 Services with a division devoted to research on weapons carries the greatest 

 promise of effective civilian assistance in the field by assuring funds free of 

 Service control. 



Based upon OSRD experience, there are certain points to which persons 

 interested in future research on weapons and in the field of military medi- 

 cine should give careful consideration. The more important of these as they 

 appear to the author will be mentioned briefly. 



Organization for research within the Services. If, unhappily, there should 

 be another war, there should be no need for another OSRD. It will be 

 needed only if there is a large deficit of military research such as existed in 

 1940. With the experience of World War II behind them, our military 

 leaders should not permit that to happen. But if it is not to happen, there 

 should be more adequate research within the Services and a more adequate 

 use made of civilian research by the Services in the years immediately ahead. 



As a first step the Army and the Navy should give research recognition 

 at the highest levels. The Army, including the Air Force, should have all of 

 its own research programs co-ordinated with each other, reporting through 

 a single office and co-ordinated with strategic planning. The Navy should be 

 similarly organized. While the mechanism would be dependent upon the 

 eventual form of defense organization in the United States (one, two, or 

 three departments), these research programs in their turn should be co- 

 ordinated with each other after consideration of the possible requirements 

 of grand strategy. Competent civilian participation should be provided at all 

 levels, for no military man can be assumed or expected to have the compe- 

 tence to assess the possibilities of the contributions of the various fields of 

 science to the military picture. 



Service laboratories should continue to make their important contribu- 

 tions to military research, but they should not be permitted to monopolize 

 or dominate the field. For one thing they cannot do the whole job which 

 needs to be done, the scientific talent available to them (in or out of uniform) 

 is not comparable to that in civilian laboratories, and the failure to make 

 adequate use of civilian f.^cilities in peacetime will mean the loss of valuable 

 time if it becomes necessary to use those facilities in an emergency. 



The manner in which the Services organize themselves for research will 

 greatly influence the way in which civiUan scientists should be brought into 

 the picture. Assuming the plan suggested above (co-ordinated research pro- 

 grams within and between the Services), a joint civilian-military committee 

 within the framework of the armed services could effect the co-ordination 

 of civilian with military research much as OSRD did, but upon a continu- 

 ing basis. This committee could plan within whatever appropriations were 



