June 29, 1970

Thomas G. Bowery, Ph.D., Director

Division of Research Resources

Department of Health, Education and Welfare
Public Health Service

National Institutes of Health

Bethesda, Maryland 20014

Dear Dr. Bowery:

Your letter dated June 15, 1970, indicated that a private citizen had expressed
concern in a letter to President Nixon, that computer systems at Stanford
University are being used inappropriately to further the efforts of groups
opposed to U.S. involvement in the Indochina War.

Your communicant apparently was also under the mistaken impression that a

large part of the ACME system's capacity had been diverted to inappropriate
partisan activities.

The first week of May was, we must regretfully recall, a time when life through-
out the country, and on the campuses in particular, was stressed by enormous
pressures and violent emotions to a degree that would not long be compatible
with the viability of a democratic society. I do not doubt that there were

some lapses of judgment during that period. Even the idea that a computer~

composed letter could be a useful way of influencing a legislator speaks to
some lack of realign.

a

The development of an alert interest by many students in more effective political
activity within our constitutional system is one of the more encouraging events
of the succeeding weeks. It is perfectly obvious, nevertheless, that we have
certain responsibilities in the administration of a government-funded resource

and that partisan political activity with such a resource would be an abuse of
the trust placed in us.

We have advised our users and operators about this policy and the need to avoid
any public misunderstanding about possible discrepancies fromiit. We do not
believe that more than a trivial percentage of the computer's capability could
have been diverted in thie way at any time despite a volume of output that
might be misleadingly impressive to a lay onlooker.

The time sharing environment for the ACME computer does make it as difficult to
police every activity undertaken thereon as it would be to monitor telephone

calls. Indeed it would require an inordinate intrusion in terms of cost and

Ayanog
Dr. T. Bowery ~2- 6-29-70

invasion of privacy to attempt ultimate policing. This applies particularly
to the small proportion of computer time that has been made available to
general student educational use.

To recapitulate the specific steps that are and will be taken to minimize
such abuses: 1. All users will again be advised about our policy and 2.
Specific abuses that come to our attention will be attended to and mitigated
as expeditiously as possible.

In the present climate I believe we can count on the general cooperation of
our user community to be, by far, the most effective way of dealing with
this problem.

If your correspondent, or any other source, can advise me of any specific

discrepancies at any time in the future, I will respond appropriately to such
information.

Sincerely,

Joshua Lederberg
Professor of Genetics

JL/ged

ec: R. Jamtgaard
W. Miller

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P.S. Provost Lyman has also just circulated these guidelines which pertain
to the problem. ( Mémty Of ug re)
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