Word: rand
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...DRAMATIC LEAKING of the Pentagon Papers by Daniel Ellsberg '52 in June of last year caused many Americans to think that so-called think tanks aid the government in the logistics--and in many instances the formulation--of public policy. An uproar immediately ensued questioning the right of the RAND Corporation (which had employed Ellsberg and had been a contributor to the U.S. Air Force's participation in the Vietnam War) to decide the course of action in Vietnam without the knowledge or participation of the American people...
...immediate June reaction failed to encompass the real role of RAND in the Vietnam War. Although a number of think tank types participated in the historical analysis that produced the Pentagon Papers, their findings make clear that the formulation of actual policy was firmly in the hands of elected and appointed officials, not RAND consultants. And in no sense was RAND the "developer" of Air Force participation in the war. That honor goes to the Air Force, the Department of Defense and the White House, Certainly RAND is implicated, but along with "improved" methods of Air Force operation in Vietnam...
Nevertheless, the awakening of the public's conscience to RAND's role in Vietnam soon spread to include the whole realm of the elite Research and Development groups known as think tanks. Americans are realizing that their government encompasses not only the executive, legislative and judicial branches, but a fourth branch of "brains" whose job is to think, analyze, determine and recommend. No one elects these "thinkers," and no analyst must defend himself before the public. Yet they wield and uncertain and highly explosive power: the ability to scientifically determine the present and even the future...
...thousands of research groups in the United States, about 600 qualify as think tanks. Approximately 75 of these are attached to the Federal government by annual contract. Created mostly by the executive branch, they include RAND and NASA's Bellcomm Inc. The Stanford Research Institute and the Hudson Institute are two of 200 leading independent or university-affiliated nonprofit institutions devoted broadly to the natural and social sciences. About 300 profit-making firms consult, study, conduct surveys, make recommendations, perform applied research and, generally think for a fee. These teams of "brains" include General Electric's TEMPO group and Arthur...
Peter L. Szanton, former president of the New York City RAND institute and now a lecturer for the Kennedy Institute of Politics, suggests that the current think tank "phenomenon" is related to a major change in the identity of the people governing...