Message to the Congress Transmitting Annual Report of the National Science Foundation.

To the Congress of the United States:

I am pleased to transmit to the Congress the annual report for Fiscal Year 1964 of the National Science Foundation as required by the National Science Foundation Act of 1950•

At the end of the war the advance of science was a source of pervading pessimism in our land--and around the world. There were fears that the onrush of man's knowledge would outrun man's wisdom and speed humanity toward its own extinction. With the establishment of the NSF, we committed ourselves to the development of peaceful science, and now our times are marked and moved by an optimism and hopefulness rare in all the history of mankind.

At its source much of our optimism flows from the confidence which both the advance and application of scientific knowledge permits. As science has provided us with new insights into man's antecedents, so science also has unlocked for us new visions of man's possibilities. Science has given us new knowledge of matter and of living things, a better understanding of natural processes, new and unexpected glimpses into what we can achieve in the future. The power over nature which science is giving our generation permits us to look forward with hope toward the solution of many age-old problems, if we apply results of the scientific advance well and wisely.

In the gains and change of these post-war years, American science has played a central role. Science has flourished in America as never before. While human knowledge has never known--and must never know--national boundaries, it is a fact that our nation's resources, stability and political purposes have permitted American science to benefit the world to an extent unique in modern times.

A vital factor in our achievements has been our national effort toward understanding, anticipating and supporting the creative force and constructive ends of science dedicated to peace, not conquest--to elevating human life, not oppressing it. This responsible approach toward science has come broadly, throughout our society, but a key role has been taken by the Federal Government.

While possessed of no special gift of foresight, the Federal Government has taken a forward-looking role, exercising both desirable initiative and appropriate self-restraint. Support for science has come from the Government without thought of making science subservient to the Government. The virtually undisputed leadership held by America today in the realm of science and technology is a conspicuously visible testament to the greater compatibility a free society affords to the spirit of free inquiry.

If balance has been approached in our overall support of our free science, credit is abundantly due the unheralded and frequently underestimated role of the National Science Foundation. Under its first Director, Dr. Alan T. Waterman, and now under the outstanding leadership of Dr. Leland Haworth, whose first annual report I am transmitting, the Foundation has fulfilled many times over the intent and hopes of the Congress which established it at the beginning of the last decade.

Close and understanding accord between science and public affairs is an imperative for free societies today. As I am so acutely aware, no national policy or purpose of the United States is unaffected by the present state or prospective scope of our scientific knowledge.

We look to it

For the technology and industry which will supply us with new products and new jobs to meet our needs.

For the health programs which will eventually conquer disease and disability.

For the purposeful and useful exploration of the seas around us and the space above us. And, most especially, for the guidance that will permit us to proceed with greater security and greater confidence toward our goals of peace and justice in a free world.

As no other force has contributed more materially to our effective pursuit of happiness in America, so it is true that no other force is now requiring of us the more careful examination and reexamination of the workings, values and aspirations of our society. Science is changing many of the very premises on which our greatly successful American society has been built over the past two centuries. If we are to strive toward our society's continuing success and further greatness, we must not merely commit ourselves to its support--we must involve ourselves in seeking to understand the profound changes which it promises.

For all that has been wrought in this land, we must understand that these are the infant years of a new age--not the aging days of an old era.

Our wisdom must be always the equal of our knowledge and information. For that reason, I commend to you this report from the National Science Foundation, created and supported by the Congress, and encourage your unchanging steadfastness in support of what is required to assure America's continuing leadership in the science and technology of our times.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON

The White House

February 15, 1965