0.6 The science-government compact: 1945-1950  (Page 14/16)

The most significant attempt at international scientific cooperation was the Baruch Plan, presented to the United NationalAtomic Energy Commission on June 14, 1946, by Bernard Baruch, a New York financier and informal advisor to the Roosevelt and Truman administrations. Theplan was drafted under the auspices of a committee headed by David Lilienthal, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and a small group of scientistsheaded by J. Robert Oppenheimer. It proposed worldwide sharing of nuclear technologies and strict sanctions against uncooperative nations.Specifically:

The [International Atomic Energy]Commission shall proceed with the utmost despatch and enquire into all phases of theproblem, and make such recommendations from time to time with respect to them as it finds possible. In particular the Commission shall make specific proposals:

1. For extending between all nations the exchange of basic scientific information for peaceful ends;

1. For control of atomic energy to the extent necessary to ensure its use only for peaceful purposes;

1. For the elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons and of all other major weapons adaptable to mass destruction;

1. For effective safeguards by way of inspection and other means to protect complying States against the hazards of violations and evasions. ^{www.atomicarchive.com/Docs/Deterrence/BaruchPlan.shtml .}

With the Soviet Union’s rejection, the Baruch Plan died.

Relation of the Federal Government to Research and Science —the Endless Frontier both recommended that the federal government support US scientists’ travel to scientific meetings abroad. The Steelman reportwent considerably further, suggesting that science could be an effective tool of diplomacy, and recommending:

US scientists should be supported by the federal government to travel to European research facilities to assist in restoring the viability ofthose facilities which had been devastated by World War II;

The federal government should support foreign students to study science and engineering in USuniversities;

The federal government should assign competent scientists to its principal foreign embassies;and

The United States be prepared to cooperate in scientific research with non-European countries,including specifically Japan, China, and India as the developed their scientific resources and talent—and also be cognizant of the competition that this wouldentail. Steelman, op. cit. , 38-41

The Steelman report was transmitted to President Truman two months after announcement of the Marshall Plan, and thuswas consistent with the administration’s vision of international cooperation.

Emergence of the bureau of the budget

The Steelman Report’s premise that formulation of national science policy ought to proceed from an analysis of nationalresources and objectives also reflected the perspective of the Bureau of the Budget (BoB), whose influence on science policy became more pronounced duringthe five-year National Science Foundation debate. Harold Smith, who served as BoB Director from May 1939 to June 1946, regarded the agency as the principalinstitutional guardian of policy. Accordingly, he sought to provide the president with sound advice on pending legislative proposals based on careful andobjective staff work. As a result, Smith succeeded in building within the BoB the capability of analyzing executive and congressional proposals for theirconsistency both with administrative policies and the long-term, constitutional and institutional prerogatives of the presidency. Larry Berman, The Office of Management and Budget and the Presidency, 1921-1979 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 1979), 13-15.