2 DASA 2019-2 i can only say that coming hers again today and Sooking around the room and seeing the people who are also here filis me again with hupe that perhaps out of this discussion something may, indeed, be accom. plighed. Lhope, as co-chairman, that I may be able to serve as a little bit of a catalyst in helping the meeting to be a succesr. BRUES: [I think it is to be anticipated that at this informal mecting both the medical and social aspects of the subject will be under discussion concurrently. T would like next to hear comments from Colonel Hemler, who actually is the one who developed the idea of having this series of conferences, HEMLER: much to me, Thank you, Dr. Brues. Actually, you attribute too in view of the efforts of two other members of this conference, Dr. Taylor and Dr. de boer, As Linentioned last year atthe first conference, | was more or less a catalyst between those two men. , The conference idea was actually a series of ideas developed by Dr. de Boer in Aibequerque, and by Dr. Taylor, who was, at that time, the Deputy Director for Science Fechnology at the Defense ' Atomic Support Agency in Washington, D.C. Dr. de Boer caught me unaware when | was on a trip in Albuquerque, and approached me with the idea of talking to De. Fremont-«Smith about his [nterdis. ciplinary Conference Program. At the same time, Dr. Taylor had considered the problem that we ere faced wath today, a problem which is probably more lar-reaching today than at the time of the First Interdisciplinary Conference in February 1967. The problem is that of the vast numbers of people around the world who fall gen- erally into one of two extreme camps: those who believe that the “on the beach” pnilosophy exists with respect to nuclear warfare, and those who believe that this iy simply another weapon om the battle. field that can be used with relatively few longerange afterefiects. If l can steal a tittle bit of your thunder, Dr. Brues, as lb rememober, you said at the first conference that the answer probably lics somewhere in between. em: The purpose of the conlerence, then, is to gather some of the people tugethes from the several disciplines in order to exchange some of che specialized knowledge that we ail have, in hopes that perhaps we can arrive at some conclusions as to exactly where the