NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM—1965 
two-thirds, where ten years ago it was less than 
one-half. Expenditures amount to about $12.4 
billion. Ten years ago, they were less than $3 
billion. 
The reason for this is well understood. Science 
and technology have become great, if not our 
greatest, national resources. The discoveries of 
science and their applications in technology have 
become so woven into the fabric of modern life 
that “our economy, our defense, our material 
welfare and comfort, and our physical well- 
being”* would soon disintegrate and vanish with- 
out them. 
Federal support for basic research has also 
grown—to well over $1-1/2 billion this year, 
roughly 70 percent of the Nation’s total. 
Much has been written about the need to main- 
tain a vigorous and growing base of fundamental 
research, adequate to meet the suction for knowl- 
edge imposed upon it by the applied and develop- 
mental activities. Such a capability that ostensibly 
is free of concern for immediate use does not 
flourish without some measure of federal inter- 
est—and in fact, it has become a fact of history 
that governments become patrons of the sciences, 
as well as of the arts. But in contemporary terms 
this is not sheer altruism. We know from exper- 
ience in war, in tough economic competition, and 
in man’s fight for a life free of poverty and dis- 
ability that research jays. It is the Federal Govern- 
ment that, in oceanography as in other fields, has 
strengthened basic research to provide the reser- 
voir of intelligence needed to satisfy specific prac- 
tical objectives. It must thus assume some respons- 
ibility for training and educating highly skilled 
manpower that it consumes, including the spon- 
sorship of basic research undertaken by graduate 
students and their faculty advisors. 
The scientific goals in oceanography whose 
pursuit is most likely to produce worthwhile scien- 
tific advances are described in the next chapter. 
At the federal level, the National Science Founda- 
tion and the Office of Naval Research have formal 
commitments to see that basic work directed pri- 
marily towards the goals of the oceanographic 
scientists themselves is adequately supported. 
Large programs in the universities and various 
private laboratories and institutions, including 
A Great Age for Science,” by Warren Weaver, in Goals for Americans, 
The American Assembly, Columbia Univ., 1960. 
441 
those of industry, are supported by these agencies. 
But in addition, other agencies have found it 
necessary to support some basic research as well 
as applied in their own agencies or laboratories. 
The funds from all federal agencies which are 
directly applicable to the conduct of basic ocea- 
nographic science in 1963 amount to about 43 
percent of the entire budget, making this goal of 
approximately equal importance to that of de- 
fense. During the next ten years, this figure is 
expected to rise to 57 percent.t 
B. Improving National Defense 
It has become widely accepted that we, like the 
other major nations of the world, have a heavy 
stake in the preservation of peace. In the cur- 
rent world situation, military strength is a neces- 
sary element in our way of life. This must be a 
national capability so strong that the fact of its 
availability to the Free World is a deterrent to 
major infractions of the peace of the cold war. 
Within our defense team the Navy’s domain is 
the world ocean, from its deepest depths through 
the air-sea interface and into skies above. During 
peacetime one of its most important missions is 
maintaining the freedom of the seas so that we 
and the other nations of the world may enjoy the 
advantages of water-borne commerce and trans- 
portation so vital to our growing economy. Dur- 
ing wartime it must, in addition, deny this freedom 
to the enemy. 
Freedom of the seas is a phrase and a concept 
which, through long usage, has been taken for 
granted and has, for many, come to have the in- 
evitability of a law of nature. It should be remem- 
bered that it is instead a term for a situation which 
in the last analysis depends on the willingness and 
ability of those nations dedicated to it to resist the 
encroachments of those who would deny it to 
them. The United States Navy is the major Free 
World force upon which this freedom now de- 
pends. Since we are without question being faced 
by a serious challenge to our mastery of the 
oceans, the Navy is energetically pursuing a mul- 
titude of significant research and development 
programs to maintain our dominant posture at 
sea. 
+ Funds for conduct of basic research include costs for ship opera- 
tions, instruments, and expendable supplies. 
