Letter, Detlev Bronk, President of the National Academy of Sciences, to Sherman Adams Proposing the International Geophysical Year, with Attached Memorandum
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OCR Page 1 of 10THE WHITE HOUSE
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
APR Z2 8 51 AM 55
OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
RECEIVED
2101 CONSTITUTION AVENUE
April 21, 1954
WASHINGTON 25, D.C.
The Honorable
Sherman Adams
The Assistant to the President
The White House
Washington, D. C.
Dear Mr. Adams:
I have followed with enthusiastic interest the President's
various statements having to do both with international cooper-
ation and with science. As you know, the President has also
XOF146
combined these broad and humane views in his expressions of the
desirability of international cooperation in science, as in the
recent announcement of his intention to call an international
scientific conference on peaceful uses of atomic energy.
This announcement suggested to me that the President may be
interested in a major international cooperative undertaking in
geophysics, called the International Geophysical Year covering
*
research in such fields as meteorology, oceanography, solar
activity, longitude and latitude determinations, cosmic rays,
magnetism, and studies of the upper atmosphere. Some thirty nations
will cooperate in these world-wide studies during 1957-58, now being
planned and budgeted for. The United States program, developed by
the U. S. National Committee appointed by the National Academy of
Sciences, has already been presented to the Bureau of the Budget
by the National Science Foundation. Some details of this program
are presented in the enclosed memorandum. I am also enclosing
comments from two leaders in the Administration on this activity.
From the President's point of view, I believe that the essen-
tial feature is the aspect of international cooperation in science.
Moreover, the topics involved are close to the daily lives of all
of us. Agriculture, industry, commerce depend in one fashion or
another upon weather, navigation, and communications, and the pro-
posed studies promise to contribute significant advances in these
and related areas. These advances are marked by their peace-time
applications, and the prospect of an international cooperative
effort of this kind should have a refreshing appeal to all men.
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