56 Research and National Purpose 



In effect, the Office of Naval Research took the initiative in 

 breaking with our older peacetime tradition of borrowing basic 

 knowledge from abroad and supporting only those aspects of 

 science which can obviously be tied to specific applied missions. 

 The Navy recognized explicitly that henceforth the United 

 States had a prominent role to play among the leaders in 

 world science. Western Europe could be expected to regain 

 its original impetus, and in fact would be joined by other na- 

 tions such as the Soviet Union and Japan as well. The time 

 had come, however, for our country to recognize that it too 

 had an obligation to contribute a proper share to the advance 

 of world science. 



It seems quite evident to me today that we 

 New Pattern cannot assume that the battle is won — that 

 Not Secure there is universal understanding of the impor- 



tance of basic science — universal understanding 

 of the need to support basic science liberally for our own na- 

 tioal welfare. It is clear that most mission-oriented agencies 

 are still prepared to shift funds from the support of basic re- 

 search to mission-oriented research whenever their budgets 

 tend to become stationary, even though the fraction of funds 

 devoted to basic research may be quite small. We can also note 

 that Congress seems at times far from unanimous in the view 

 that the National Science Foundation should be kept free of 

 programs tied to applied missions. 



I think it safe to say that our national position in basic 

 science will remain insecure for at least a generation ahead. As 

 long as that is the case, our national welfare will inevitably 

 remain in jeopardy to some extent. Fortunately, as I noted 

 above in one of the more optimistic passages, our system con- 

 tains an enormous amount of flexibility. The shortcomings 

 associated with the budget of one year can be corrected in the 

 budget for the next. Our wealth in money, facilities and 

 professional talent is great enough to guarantee such flexibility. 



