128 Research and National Purpose 



our universities have achieved undisputed world leadership in 

 this field. In setting such patterns, ONR reduced the perspica- 

 cious ideals of the Bush Report to concrete practice. It worked 

 out the detailed methods, trained the research administrators, 

 and, in the process, supplied staff for agencies — such as the 

 National Science Foundation, the Atomic Energy Commission 

 and NASA — that were getting into the same business. 



Concomitantly, there were changes also within the Depart- 

 ment of Defense. Many of the Navy's laboratories were 

 started during World War II. Among these were the Naval 

 Electronics Laboratory in San Diego, the Naval Ordnance Lab- 

 oratory in Corona, the Naval Ordnance Test Station at China 

 Lake, and the Underwater Sound Laboratory in New London. 

 They now had to be integrated permanently into the Navy's 

 R&D establishment. Laboratories became more numerous 

 also in the other services, and non-profit organizations were 

 created to satisfy special needs. Along with the earlier parallel 

 Research Offices in the Departments of the Army and the Air 

 Force, there now appeared within the Office of the Secretary 

 of Defense the Advanced Research Projects Agency, supporting 

 research both inside and outside the Department of Defense. If 

 the outlays for space and atomic energy are added to defense, 

 a figure of ninety percent of the total R&D is reached. Such 

 heavy Government investment clearly must be made for good 

 cause: Our government does not spend nearly fifteen percent 

 of its budget in the research and development business because 

 science has a powerful lobby; in fact, scientists are still rather 

 untutored at the game; nor because the United States is hungry 

 for a better understanding of nature, or what lies on the other 

 side of the moon; nor — finally — as a contingency investment 

 against the risk that some other nation will surpass us. Each of 

 these factors certainly plays a part, but basically the investment 

 is made because our society has understood the dependence 

 of its future on science and technology. 



There are the evident short-term gains which are defined in 

 terms of particular equipment and capabilities to meet present 



