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STATE
UNIVERSITY OF IOWA
IOWA CITY, IOWA
Department of Psychology
June 29, 1961
Mr. Richard M. Nixon
P. 0. Box 6539
Los Angeles 55
Dear Mr. Nixon:
With reference to your letter of June 15, 1961
in which you expressed interest in learning more about
the procedure for marshalling, processing, and evaluating
expert opinion toward policy clarification, I am pleased
to forward you an early statement entitled "A Plan for the
Objective Study
"
I
am also enclosing some carbons from my files
of 1952 correspondence with Sherman Adams, Arthur Summer-
field and the late Senator Vandenberg. I direct your at-
tention to the last paragraph of the Vandenberg letter,
in which reference is made to two publications (not mine)
in which the plan is outlined or commented on. George
Galloway was Executive Director of the Joint Committee
on the Organization of the Congress (IaFollete-Monroney
Committee).
It is regretted that I do not have at hand a
copy of the final plan as set up for the complete proced-
ure, which specifies how the experts are identified, rated,
selected; how the issue in the form of a general statement
with propositions formulated for the experts' reactions,
and how these$ reactions are analyzed, with a tentative consensus
derived which is then resubmitted for more study and subse-
quent reactions; this procedure continues until there is derived
an impasse$ in further progress or a general consensus attained.
At the conclusion of the series of re-submissions, in which
any expert can contribute critical thought, enlisting com-
petitive and creative thinking of a high order, it is expected
that the end-product will in most cases be the best distilla-
tion of the best wisdom the democracy can at the time produce.
The experts are themselves rated for competence, bias, and
cogency of their respective contributions.
This may all sound quite involved, even formidable,
but it was considered feasible by the dozen or so prominent
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"ocrText": "STATE\nUNIVERSITY OF IOWA\nIOWA CITY, IOWA\nDepartment of Psychology\nJune 29, 1961\nMr. Richard M. Nixon\nP. 0. Box 6539\nLos Angeles 55\nDear Mr. Nixon:\nWith reference to your letter of June 15, 1961\nin which you expressed interest in learning more about\nthe procedure for marshalling, processing, and evaluating\nexpert opinion toward policy clarification, I am pleased\nto forward you an early statement entitled \"A Plan for the\nObjective Study\n\"\nI\nam also enclosing some carbons from my files\nof 1952 correspondence with Sherman Adams, Arthur Summer-\nfield and the late Senator Vandenberg. I direct your at-\ntention to the last paragraph of the Vandenberg letter,\nin which reference is made to two publications (not mine)\nin which the plan is outlined or commented on. George\nGalloway was Executive Director of the Joint Committee\non the Organization of the Congress (IaFollete-Monroney\nCommittee).\nIt is regretted that I do not have at hand a\ncopy of the final plan as set up for the complete proced-\nure, which specifies how the experts are identified, rated,\nselected; how the issue in the form of a general statement\nwith propositions formulated for the experts' reactions,\nand how these$ reactions are analyzed, with a tentative consensus\nderived which is then resubmitted for more study and subse-\nquent reactions; this procedure continues until there is derived\nan impasse$ in further progress or a general consensus attained.\nAt the conclusion of the series of re-submissions, in which\nany expert can contribute critical thought, enlisting com-\npetitive and creative thinking of a high order, it is expected\nthat the end-product will in most cases be the best distilla-\ntion of the best wisdom the democracy can at the time produce.\nThe experts are themselves rated for competence, bias, and\ncogency of their respective contributions.\nThis may all sound quite involved, even formidable,\nbut it was considered feasible by the dozen or so prominent"
}