635 
of the oceans to our national interests at a time when the United 
States is faced with a whole set of different developments in the 
oceans. Describing the importance of Presidential action, Wenk writes: 
. .. Translated into political terms, the question of how impor- 
tant the oceans are to the Nation can be directly measured by 
how important the President believes they are. Of all the officers 
of Government, the President has by far the greatest power to 
define the Nation’s major political goals, to synthesize divergent 
interests into a public interest, and to develop strategies and 
tactics to accomplish his programs. He is the manager of the 
bureaucracy, obliged to enforce a coherent unity to the fractured 
internal machinery that endeavors to respond to signals from 
clientele they serve, and to resolve disputes; and he seeks new 
authority when existing powers of the Executive are inadequate 
to fulfill the agreed-upon goals.”4 
Under the Johnson administration, the President delegated the chair- 
manship of the Marine Council to Vice President Humphrey, whose 
enthusiasm for marine affairs turned the Council into a very successful 
instrument of marine policy. Wenk writes that even the creation of 
a Marine Council does not guarantee success all by itself. A President 
can completely neglect the Council, or turn it into a token organiza- 
tion with expectations that it will provide a staff arm to the Chairman. 
But, a third alternative is full implementation in spirit as well as 
in substance.2> Hence, whenever a considerable interest in marine 
affairs exists in the highest circles of the executive branch, a Marine 
Council could be a very successful instrument of ocean policy planning 
and coordination. 
The results of the dismantling of the Council in 1971 had two 
major effects, according to Senator Humphrey: (1) opportunities have 
been lost to present governmentwide policy options directly to the 
President; and (2) lacking that central, politically powerful and poten- 
tially creative leadership, the marine programs of so many different 
agencies that respond to diverse outside clientele have lost their sense 
of community and their activities are now shattered by family quar- 
rels.2° 
CONGRESSIONAL INITIATIVES 
The passage of the 1966 Marine Resources and Engineering 
Development Act was probably the single most important postwar 
governmental development in marine affairs. It resulted in the restruc- 
turing of Federal ocean activities (creation of NOAA in 1971) and 
the establishment of the Council on Marine Resources and Engineering 
Development in the White House. The new marine affairs legislation 
which afforded a mandate to associate the seas with U.S. national 
interests was -initiated by the U.S. Congress.?” However, many in the 
ocean community maintain that the NOAA created by President Nixon 
did not go far enough in reorganizing civilian ocean activities. 
Moreover, it was felt by many that the fact that the Marine Council 
24.Wenk, op. cit., p. 149. 
25 Ibid., p. 98. 
26 Statement by Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, op. cit., p. 8. 
27Wenk, op. cit., p. 95. 
