STANFORD UNIVERSITY
MEDICAL CENTER
PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA

DEPARTMENT OF GENETICS j ry ok 196,P ever I-1200
s a

School of Medicine bles STANMED

Dr. Jerome Wiesner

Sclence Adviser to the President
The White House

Washington, B.C.

Dear Doctor Wiesner:

May ! first offer my congratulations for your recent appointment which wil!
serve the country well. i also have to commend your recent task force report on
the national space program which | hope wil! be translated Into an even more
energetic concentration on serious tasks by NASA. (in defense of many good
people in NASA, | should also comment, privately, that some of the shortcomings
in the present program might be traced to public end legislative pressure and
the remedies will have to include a good measure of education on the ends and
means of serious work In space.)

The main point of this letter Is a thought about some Implications of the
seemingly Indefinite duration of the cold war. Even Its mitigation by some form
of arms contro! Is not likely to reduce the economic burden of globel defense.
Even more important, as PSAC itself could well Illustrate, a large pert of our
creative scientific and engineering talent will continue to be preoccupied with
defense. The commitment of this resource likewise, Is unitkely to decrease.

All of this, If evil, Is doubtless necessary. But the context of our defense
effort for the past decede has still been that of an acute diversion of our
resources and we should be learning how best to accomodate It on a chronic basis,
how to adapt to the necessity, perhaps even make @ virtue of It.

if | may leap to a concrete proposal it is to add a new alssion to the

existing tasks of the military services as the basis on which we can afford to
devote so much of our national Income to the defense for the indefinite future.
This mission Is the systematic search for productive civillan applications as
by products of military research and development and perhaps ultimetely, production.
Of course, this kind of by product development fs going on all the time without
the benefit of a specific policy and it Is particulerly operative In the AEC.
However, | do not belleve thet there Is any systematic alssion fer by product
development in the Services. This mission could be properly eccomp! ished only
If there were a specific office in the 000 or In the respective services that
was pointedly charged with this responsibility and had the authority to obtain
the requisite Information. {| am not speaking to the desirability of al litary
support of basic research which has been recognized as an Indispensable program

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STANFORD UNIVERSITY
MEDICAL CENTER
PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA

DEPARTMENT OF GENETICS DAvenport I-1200
School of Med gine ¢ ° STANMED
Or. Wiesner, cont. 2 January 24, 196)

in certain fields for some time. { am rether referring to the Importance of
the most economic exploitation of military research and development to help
support Its tremendous expenses over a long period of time. | belleve that
mission responsibility Is the main thing needed to implement this program
although It can be anticipated that the question may arise as to the econonlc
pros and cons of declassifying some particular Items sconer than might be
desirable on strictly military grounds. in some Instances, by product
exploitation might ental! some additional Investment In aliltery projects,
but could be a way of getting a much lerger total return. for eumple, the
Investment In the activities of the Blological Werfare Laboratories at

Fort Detrick might be recaptured much more fully and promptly If these
laboratories had an office specifically charged with looking for developments
that would be useful In public health. {| am confident thet you would be able
to recite many more explicit examples from your own experience.

While additional expenditures might sometimes be needed, the promulgation
of ao systematic by product-uti lization policy Itself might heve useful returns.
For example, the Services now engage many sclentific consultants to bring
civillen sclence to bear on specific military problems. These same consultents,
If appropriately instructed, might most appropriately seerch out the possibilities
of by product application since they would, In any event, have had to fan! llarize
themselves with detailed military edvances. The adoption of this principle
may be expected to have a beneficial effect on the morale and also the
inventiveness of military sclence.

The advantages to the civilian economy of exploiting defense by products
may come, not merely from the huge overall scope of the defense effort, by also
its justifiable history of gambling funds In a way that alght be difficult to
defend In the civilian economy.

These remarks are addressed primarily to the benefits of research and
development but with some forethought the same considerations might apply to
some aspects of military production. in plece of the present shambles of
“war surplus distribution, we might plan for the obsolescence of some classes
of military matériel with Its assimilation to clvilten uses.

In some Instences, a dual purpose program might be justified by Its total
yield where it would not be If It had to depend unlquely on Its allltary or
civilian appileation. This Is @ tangent from the previous discussion but |
would like to suggest that the support of vigorous development work on Automata
would fall in this category. In the context of our need to greatly improve our
resources for ‘limited werfare’’ the terge scale extension of Infantry power by
"automatic soldiers'' would add a new and (in fact, humanizing) dimension to
our military policy. From all ! have been able to learn, there has been only

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STANFORD UNIVERSITY
MEDICAL CENTER
PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA

DEPARTMENT OF GENETICS DAvenport 1-1200

School of Map: Wiesner ’ cont . 3 } ry ak, 1967" STANMED

desultory Interest In developing the sensory and motor components that can be
visuallzed as the essentials of such a system. Even If the Investment were en
unsatisfactory gemble from a purely military standpoint, the econonle yleld
should make It more plausible.

My chief concern In writing this letter Is that the pursult of Its
premises to a logical conclusion might be Intolerable. it will be an tmportant
relevant task to work out a procedure whereby the extraction of by product
returns does not entail the total Involvement of the defense services with
every aspect of our sclence, education, and economy. The ultimate subordination
of the defense program as the means to protect our civilian Interests rather
then an end In Itself ts, and should continue to be, well established as part
of our system and | would hope that by product development can be, tn fact,
implemented as an aspect of this policy.

Quite possibly the addition of this task to the service missions might
appear to weaken their primary function. However, this extension may aake It
possible for us to afford the level of defense expenditure, by making It less
wasteful, that we need for our om security.

Yours sincerely,

Joshua Lederberg
Professor of Genetics

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STANFORD UNIVERSITY
MEDICAL CENTER
PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA

DEPARTMENT OF GENETICS
School of Medgs:
Meg ,

DaAvenpotrt 1-1200

Wiesner, cont. & January oh, ir ee

P.S. Some of our economist friends might be wary of the very success of

such a program if It deprived us of an Opportunity to drain off our "capitalistic
surpluses." If It came to that we could always buy more space!

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