ENCLOSURE II
CRITIQUE OF THE REPORT OF THE
WATIONALACEDEMYOF SCIENCES
The Blological Effects of Atomic Radiation
Based on (1) "A Report to the Public,’and
(2) ‘Summary Report.”
To understand and best evaluate the implications of this
report it is important to bear in mind the background of the
individual selentists who made the study and their relationship
to the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council
and to the Government,
The NAS-NRC is not a Government organization.
True, it was
established by President Lincoln in order to have a distinguished
body of scientists with whom the Government could consult at the
time of the Civil War,
On the other hand,
it is a self-perpetua-
ting body of free American scientists who control the membership
of the Academy without any Governmental appointments.
While
various Federal agencies may appoint representatives to the
various divisions of the National Research Council (the operating
body of the NAS), they serve to bring problems to the Council for
advice, and not to control the actions or the opinions of Council,
In the case of this study,
the President of the NAS, Dr,
Detlev W. Bronk, called together some 100 American sclentists to
earry out the study as individual citizens.
While some of the
scientists were Government employees and top advisers to Government on scientific matters,
they were not acting in these
capacities in their participation in the study.
The study was undertaken largely as a result of the concern
felt throughout the country following the March 1, 1954 thermonuclear test explosion at Bikini, as a result of which a number
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Enelosure II