Volume 1

The U.S. Government and the future of international medical research : hearings before the Subcommittee on Reorganization and International Organizations of the Committee on Government Operations, United States Senate, eighty-sixth congress, first session ; international health study (pursuant to S. Res. 347, 85th Cong., S. Res. 42, and S. Res. 255, 86th Cong.) July 9 and 16, 1959.

United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Government Operations

Date:: 1960-61

Credit: The U.S. Government and the future of international medical research : hearings before the Subcommittee on Reorganization and International Organizations of the Committee on Government Operations, United States Senate, eighty-sixth congress, first session ; international health study (pursuant to S. Res. 347, 85th Cong., S. Res. 42, and S. Res. 255, 86th Cong.) July 9 and 16, 1959. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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in programs of international and worldwide importance in the cement- ing of better understanding and peaceful ties among nations. So I think we could say now that there is a beginning of a new and ereater use of these scientists. We still have a great shortage of trained people. TESTIMONY BEFORE “FOOD FOR PEACE” HEARING Senator Humpnurey. Dr. Mead, the reason I asked the question 1s that in the past 2 days I have sat in the Senate Committe on Foreign Relations, listening to a host of witnesses discuss with us the utiliza- tion of our food and fiber abundance on the world scene as an integral part of American foreign policy, American aid in material and eco- nomic aid, American expression of compassion and understanding. All that goes with the use of food and fiber on the international scene. I say this not in bitterness, but in sadness: The testimony of the Government witnesses was the same old cliches, the same old cant I have heard so many times that it no longer relates to anything that exists. Yet, when the citizenry came in—people in business, in the profes- sions, and thankfully, people in the churches and our great voluntary agencies, people in medicine, science; we have had, as I said, a parade of witnesses—there was a sense of appreciation of what is going on in the world, and the depth and the nature of the conflict in which we are involved, and the problems that beset us. It was like seeing the sun shine after a terrible storm. Al] at once life became meaningful. I am beginning to wonder whether or not we, at the Government level, get so stale because we never fill the well. We are talking in language that was related to things of yes- terday, and the things of yesterday have passed. Problems change; if not, they have become more difficult. : That is why I asked about your kind of activity and your relation- ship to government. I know that a lot of research is going on, but the problem in our society today is that the research may be going on over there, so to speak, while other policies that relate to our lives, life or death, peace or war, are being made over here. CULTURAL STUDY IN U.S.S.R. Yet, I do know, for example, that in the Soviet Union the foreign ministry 1s directly related to all the areas in the fields of behavioral sciences and cultural activities. Their information is fed up to it through the channels of communication. Thus when the policies are made, relating to Africa or even an area of Africa, before there is any contact made with that area, people have studied the mores and the culture of the tribe and the dialect and the language and the social pattern. ‘Then, policies are laid down for the conquest thereof. That is my problem. Well, I got way off the meaning here, but when I am staying up late at night, working, I think of these things. Dr. Mnap. I think this. I can use as a background a very brief summary, now, of what you wanted from me because it is this knowl- edge of the local culture and the language and psychological back-

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