July 1, 1966

Mr. John E. Merriam

Legislative Assistant to Senator Kuchel
Senate Office Building

Washington, D. C.

Dear John:

The best time for me to respond to "the next step" mentioned in our phone
conversation was to write it down immediately, which I have done and pass on
herewith. I have written the remarks in the form of a letter from me to
Senator Kuchel, feeling that I might be too bold in suggesting that he incor-
porate this into his own letter. However, I would leave this entirely to his
and your judgment, and if the Senator feels that he could adopt similar language
on his own, it would of course have even more effective impact on the people
receiving it.

I should think one could make a very effective initial distribution of this
material directly to the presidents of the institutions of higher learning in
this country. I think you can be pretty sure that such a letter would receive
very studious attention, if not by the president himself, then by those members
of the respective faculties whom he recognizes as having the most thoughtful
interest in the problems mentioned. There would probably be no harm in addres~
sing a similar comminication to the presidents of the major technological cor-
porations, or even using the list of the five hundred largest that Fortune
publishes every year. Besides that, I would also pend copies to Dr. George
Kistiakowsky at the National Academy of Sciences with enough additional copies
for him to distribute to the members of his committee on science and public
policy. Alternatively, it would not be difficult to arrange a distribution
through the Academy to all the mbmers both of the National Academy of Sciences
and the National Academy of Engineering, which would again make for a very
cogent bedy of informed opinion. It might not be a bad idea to preface these
group mailings with the remark that preseisely that group is being solictted,

Let me say how delighted I am at the very forthright way in which the Senator
took up the issue for his statement for the record; of course, I may have
little more than a forlorn hope that something much more tangible may arise
out of this as a matter of public policy.

I can see no really good reason why there should be any secret about the
inquiry being suggested here but needless to say, I will not do anything on
my own about that.

Sincerely yours,

Joshua Lederberg
Professor of Genetics