Science and National Security 



by 

 Dr. William O. Baker 

 Bell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated 



Today we celebrate the role of science, a great symbol of 

 the freedom of man's mind, in defending the freedom of man's 

 person, his society and maybe, ultimately, of his soul. Science 

 denotes a vast realm of knowledge and even of practice, but 

 we shall be thinking of it now as the medium of discovery of 

 new knowledge, such as provided by basic and applied research. 

 We shall recognize gains in the national security related to the 

 support of basic research in all kinds of institutions by the 

 Department of Defense. This support in the last decade 

 changed from $80 millions to $300 millions annually (Fig. 1). 

 And we shall see examples of the use and products of applied 

 research, for which the Department of Defense increased its 

 commitment from $439 millions in 1956 to about $1800 mil- 

 lions in 1966 (Figs. 2 and 3). As a background to this, we must 

 recall that two decades ago in 1946 total research and 

 development expenditure of all kinds for the components of 

 what is now the Department of Defense was $418 millions, with 

 the Department of the Navy responsible for $183 millions, or 

 appreciably more than either of the other two major service 

 agencies. For current calibration, we should now recall that 

 the corresponding Department of Defense total for research, 

 development, and related plant for 1966 is listed at $6,881 

 millions (Fig. 4). 



Now these familiar figures, both earlier and later, represent- 

 ing a large segment of our national professional resources in 

 the second half of this century, are nevertheless a minor part 

 of our national product and a small cost for freedom and se- 



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