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INTRODUCTION 19^ 



but also highlighted our ignorance of it. Most members of the 

 small marine science community turned to military-oriented work 

 in uniform, in the civil service, or at universities and related 

 institutions. Academic ships, as well as those of the federal gov- 

 ernment, were put to work on Navy research and surveying tasks. 

 The Navy needed and received oceanographic help in everything 

 from submarine warfare to amphibious landings. Although this 

 assistance contributed to the war effort, of even more importance, 

 it impressed on the nation the fact that marine science was not 

 an abstract endeavor but could contribute to the public good in 

 many fields. 



The plan of Vannevar Bush at the end of World War II for 

 government support of university science led to the formation of 

 the Office of Naval Research (ONR). It was charged with ensur- 

 ing the development of strong academic research programs in sci- 

 entific fields of interest to the Navy. The growing Cold War and 

 the threat from both surface and, particularly, submarine vessels 

 led ONR to conclude that expanding and generally strengthening 

 the basic science of the ocean were in the national interest. With 

 ONR's financial backing, existing marine research centers were 

 expanded and new ones created. Initially, ONR was more con- 

 cerned with institutional support than with program definition. 

 There was generally only one contract per institution, proposals 

 of work were often loosely defined, and the director of the institu- 

 tion had considerable discretion in transferring funds from one 

 investigator to another. In 1950, the National Science Foundation 

 (NSF), dedicated primarily to the support of peer-reviewed single- 

 investigator research in the academic community, was created. 



The postwar and post-Sputnik periods from 1960 to 1980 were 

 marked by a national awareness of the rest of the world and an 

 intense interest in science. These encouraged international coop- 

 eration in research, tempered strongly by a U.S. desire to achieve 

 world leadership in science and technology. In marine science, 

 interest grew from our coastlines to the globe, leading to such 

 major ocean-related programs as the International Geophysical Year, 

 the Deep Sea Drilling Project, and the International Decade of 

 Ocean Exploration. Through both its small science programs and 

 large coordinated programs, NSF rapidly became a significant sup- 

 porter of oceanography and is now the dominant supporter of aca- 

 demic ocean research. The Navy, which almost single handedly 

 provided impetus and financial support for the postwar academic 

 expansion in oceanography, has progressively concentrated its support 

 in a relatively limited number of Navy-relevant areas and in pro- 



