OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20301

 

DEFENSE SCIENCE
BOARD 12 December 1983

Dr. Joshua Lederberg

The Rockefeller University
Box 115

1230 York Avenue

New York, New York 10021

Dear Josh:

As you may be aware, I have felt for some months that the time had
come to turn over the DSB chairmanship to another of our members. I have
now served in the capacity of chairman for over three years and, although
truly an enormously rewarding position, it is nonetheless incredibly de-
manding upon one's time. Secretary Weinberger has agreed to appoint a
new chairman, however, it is of course the Secretary's role and not mine
to make the announcement as to the specific individual he has selected.
The purpose of this letter, therefore, is simply to thank you for your
unwavering support of the DSB and the DoD, and to say I feel enormously
fortunate to have been associated with a group of people of your caliber.
I believe there is much in which we can take pride; particularly includ-
ing the continued conduct of high quality studies in spite of a workload
roughly double earlier experience in terms of number of task forces; es-
tablishment of a fine staff with, for the first time, a representative of
each of the four Services to provide direct communication with their orga-
nizations; addition to the Board of a member with operational experience
derived from each of the four Services; further establishment of a tie
with the Chairman of the JCS; a new mechanism of communicating with our
DSB members; and so forth.

The sole disappointment of the past three-plus years, in my opinion,
has been the enormous and largely unproductive diversion of time and
effort to defending the Board and its members against attacks on their
integrity in the conflict of interest arena ... attacks which of course
remain unsubstantiated. I fear that the greatest damage suffered is in
fact not to the Board's current effectiveness but rather is one of dis-
couraging qualified individuals from joining the Board in the future.
We will all need to work very hard to assure that this does not happen.
12 December 1983
Page 2

Again, I thank you for your part in making the job of the Chairman
ninety-nine percent positive, rewarding, and just plain "fun". I look
forward to continuing to serve with you as we support our new Chairman
beginning in 1984.

May I also take this opportunity to wish you a very pleasant holiday
season.

Sincerely,

SI",

Norman R. Augustine
Chairman

NRA:gm

ce: Dr. Richard D. DeLauer
Dr. James P. Wade