Word: basic
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...going to "patronize" the British. "Hell, we don't have to pat each other on the back all the time. If I try to sell them anything it will be the validity of basic American ideas." His ideas about his mission are firm. Years ago, in grammar school, he memorized Little Breeches, by his hero, Ambassador to Britain John Hay, the last lines of which he still likes to quote...
...they read a report by Dr. Vannevar Bush, wartime head of the OSRD (Office of Scientific Research and Development) and president of the Carnegie Institution. Said Bush: "It is now recognized all over the world that the application of science is central in national security." But he warned that basic, not-yet-applied sciences should not be neglected. "As a people we are strongly philotechnical [gadget-loving] ; we have always excelled in the applied. We have not turned with the same success to more philosophical matters. In many branches of science, we have . . . lagged behind Europe...
That took care of the "applied v. basic" question. In regard to the military, Dr. Bush was no less reassuring: "A [much discussed] danger [is] that there will be overemphasis on military aspects of science . . . since federal funds are flowing from the military services into basic research. This system, however, is undoubtedly a temporary...
Primary job of the JRDB is to eliminate unhealthy research competition among the services, avoid waste effort. But it can also discourage "weaponeering" in favor of basic work which may prove valuable in peace as well as in war. Scientists could hope that the Board, with Bush at its head, would not drown in military money the free spirit of U.S. science...
...outlined the task of the new Congress as falling into three parts, labor relations, housing and removal of controls, and emphasized the need for legislation that would simplify the "mass of confused and ineffective planning now in effect." Furthermore, the basic ideological difference underlies differences between the two parties...