• 

.. 

th-• William F. Friec:b:Jan 

.ArLled Forces Security Agemy 

380J. 1'lebraska Avenue 

l'la&ungton 25, D. c. 

rear J~. Friedman: 

REF ID:A65913 • 

20630 Pacific Coast Highwa,-

JJalibu, CaJ.ifornia 

6 FebrUa.?"'/ 195'2 • 

ibis is t!ie letter I promised to wr:ft e to SUl!ll:lal'ize r:Jy recollection of cur 

conversatiQll of 10 Jamary. I J1D.1st apologize .t'or tha long delq. It wan 

caused :rirst by a change in plans w·.ich f11ced m to co to San Erancisco 

to see officers a.board the USS BOXER (CV-21) a couple of weel~ earlier than 

I ad planned { theref cr e immediate J:r a.ft.er I retu.rm d .f'ror.i Washineton) • 

A .cecond dela;y th.en 'vas caused b:T the death cf IIW' father in \'fashingtcm., and 

this broueht rJe back to Washington itunedia:tely after I :ti..ad. got hone :f.'rorn 

San Francisco. I retim1ed hone last &!.turdcq, and I shal1 try to get this 

letter out toda1'. 

Be£ore I 'vri te arrJ" 0£ ey ideas, horrever, I believe that it wou.!.d be advisable 

for :me to state m:r opinicn of' the nature of the trejudice rihich inf'luences rn.e. 

I suppose that no one srea.Y~ wit•1 complete objectivity, ani during "the develOf.Illeilt 

0£ this letter there will appear a better and better picture of the bias 

which inf'luences me. J.~stl;J", I have no faith in m:r ability to tell people 

how to solve problem nhich I have not attacked teclmical1.:y and explicit]¥ 

Ji\'{self. I extend this no faith in r.r:r ability to a lack of' faith in tne 

ability of others to give sound advice to an intelligent group af'te.r cnlif 

a nost cursory glance at a hard probleljl. Put differently, I believe that 

the best approach to solving har:i prc.bleI:lB is the put the :rr oblems and 

pdi ential. soJ.vers tocet.her 'vi th as l..1.tt1e i."l.tcrferonce as p ... ssible and 

then to mrait resu.J.ts. Thi.am nimizes the importance of a,dninjstration 

except to the extent that the administra.tic.n facilitates the introduction 

of the prob1a::is to the potantial solvers and protects the potential. solvers 

from. disturbance and hecltline '\'rllile therJ work. JJa.ny of 'lJ3" colleat,"1les on 

SCAG and elscnhere are of a nore authoritarian fraoe of mind, m 1 others feel 

that the .aaj :r contrib..ition is the i;rovision c£ facilities and the assembly 

of persl.nnel. ill these things have 1D be done, and mainJ;r they o.ro not 

com.i:etitive, sc there I:licy' not be a:rr:J" real. disagreer.i.ant bet,·reen varlcus 

advisors in a:rI3' event; however, all m:r rm:iarl:s s::i.oul.cl be read wi t..'1. a fUJ.l. 

realization 0£ a real :listaste on m:r pa.rt £or adninistrative direction rather 

than participating tec4micaJ. leaders:!:lip and.discussion in attacking :mat 1et'laticaJ. 

or technical problel!ls. 

I sllall proceed with IiIJ1 development. First I shall nal::e four more or less SlUDli'..ary 

stater.tents, and later in the letter I shall expand on these etat01nents to 

SCI:l.e extent • 

@'pp roved for Release by NSA on 04-15-2014 pursuantto E .0. 1352a 

t.., ' .• 

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REF ID:A65913 

~. '\lilliem F. Friedman 6 February 1952 • 

The summary statements are 1 

1. Unr.!er the present set up it is mst J:i.fficu1t to transform 

arr:!" explicit idea.3 of SCAG l!lembers into t.iJ.e development p..ase. 

2. 

2. '!he nature of the proble:r.is you norr face and the development 

lrili.ch you ha.ve alrea<tr accomplished have broug.lrt you to a position 

'Where professional :c:iathematicaJ. and professicnal peysical and engineering 

ingenui t:r mu.st be applied in approached :ouch deeper and more subtle 

than those '\mi.ch were successfu.JJ.y used durine Wr-rld Uar II. 

3. It is dangerous to try to predict the fields of mathcraatics and 

physics which Hill contribute most to yCJDr i:r obleIJS and to try to 

restrict T.Jajor investigations to these fields. 

4. In the past the most succesai"ul continuing researches have been 

accomplished at colleges and universities or at other institutions 

'Where broad ranges 0£ topics cotle under stiJ.ctr rather than at industrial 

l.aboro.tories or ad hoc development projects where problGIJS rror.i 

more narrm·rly circimscribed fields are attacked. 

The first of these state.~ts reflects acme m;perience I have had t.ey:i..ng to de Yr• rk 

inEt>ired by- the SCAG meetiIJcs. llany ixrt.erru.ptions come between the illitiaJ. 

inspiration and the application to SCAG proble:ca 1 and I have net ,-et been 

able to ovarca:ie all these interruptions. Generally, these irt errupticns 

are caused by t:i.ree existing situations - the lack of technical publications 

pertaining to research on the problmns (and the consequent dif'ficulty o:t: 

communication of technical ideas}, the interruptions caused by the normal 

full time assignments o:r SCL\.G J11embers (such as m:f" chasir1g carriers al:!. over 

t.iie world), and the interest in their crm normal. vrorlc by .A.L"i'SA personne1 1f.lich 

prevents t!lem. from l'IO:rry:i.ng too much about the whins o:t: SC.ii.G nembers. I ~ubt 

that tr.ere is Bn"'.f culpability cormected w.i.th these things; if there is culpability 

I doubt that there wruld be arrJ' gain in trJing to track it dam. I do believe, 

however, that a constructive approach torrard re!lov.i.ng sr;me cf these interrupticns 

is possible and desirable. 

In cormection with my fjr st st.atement above, I mibht also note 11\V persaia:t.. opinicn 

that there is not like:l;r to be much val.ue :in ad.vice more t.lia.n. we have already 

proffered if this advice is arrived at J'.ilai~ at group meetings of one or t.1ro 

days each quarter a.u.gnented by r.iora er less surreptitiou~ o.f:i'ered individual 

advice frol!l the :ciembers o:t: SCJi.G. I have used the word surreptitious, a shocld.ngJ;;.r 

strong or.e, not to impute iJ!JProper motivation to the advisers (aJ.l of l'rhac. a.re 

devoting to SG.1G tine which is pa:in.fu.JJ;/ made available at a ccst to other 

assignments) but rather to point 011t t.at such advice fr:om. t'\10 persons offered 

Jrivately rJa:f be competitive, ma::! be submitted to two sources, and ruq be 

subjected to co:cpetitivc eva1uaticn 17it.ncu t tho lma1ledge of one or of both advisers. ~lis is a direct result of t!:e inconve:l.i..er.ce or .:f'a.lly cooperative ef'fcrts. 

J.\y" second statement above is c-ne ;mi.ch is likely create vlZ'ong iD;pressions and 

to antagonize people '\Tho do not follcnT careful.ly rq e:x;pansion here. It seems 

to me that a great deal of daring and ingenu.i t:T went i.nto tho succassful. 

aJ)!;roaches to tho problem you enccnmtered during \"larld -~ra:r n,, but that,as 

a direct reB11lt of this daring mid iDgenuit,- :t:ollm1ed by the considerable advances 

11hich have been :made sinco then, yau:r scimce has acquired a dogreo of prd'essionalism. 

lThich implies a reauirement fPr specialization and SG.btle approaches. lliring 

World \far II, the ingenuity required was the vision to see t~10 advanta,;e of 

mechanizine the oi;:eratians then attec:ipt.ed and of devising operaticns suitable 
• REF ID:A65913 

J.:'r. i7illiam F. Friec:.ll:lan 6 Febr-..tar-J 19.52 

for :mechanization, but all t:'lese cperaticns vrorlced direct~ end 'tithou.t 

deep subtlety tmrard a soluticn, :prepared to try aJ. __ p ... ·ssib1e ansrrers 

one by one i.f'necessary. In particulor, it seer.is to :co th.at questions 

of accuracy oi' input data. irere prcfi'Lablj- ignored during t!'lis pet"iod; 

hOR"ever, it also seans to De to be true that in one JJaj · r technical 

problet:J. i'ri.1ich l"te have discusE:Jed at length it l!lllst be true ti:?at tho input 

data are not 1'dl.0J.4r accurate, for I can't help believ-'4 that the problan v1ouJ.d 

have been salved lcng a,eo if there wo;:-e not a diast~ly incorrect value 

so.r.i.amere in the input data. Ti1is one example wou1d su:rice to convince me of tho 

necessity of introdu.liing nethods which are comparativel¥ insensitive to input 

er1·ors and for imich sc.Jile evaluation or this sensitivit<J is possible. I uon•t 

believe that it is necessary to justify t..itl.s conclusion on the cne oxar.ple, 

.. for many other justificaticns for this type cf study can be fau.nd, but I do 

contend that the one exa.I!qlle '\TOUld novr justif':r the ccr..clusion. 

I believe that the situation in y .. ur field norr, as opposed to t:m.t ex.isting 

:uring ilorld \'far II, is co!iU'>lete:cy- e.nal.oE;OUS to the situation .:f.'aced b;r 

Henry Kaiser -when ho entered t~ autOlil.otive i'ield. as oppc;sed to t..at faced 

b-'J J-!enry Ford irhen he cmtered. One man can not ex;pect alone to desiB?l an autanobile 

which 1'lill now cacpete for the .American market, .for by now a successfu1 

autar:1.obi1e design requires careflll quantitative a.na.:cy-sis of nany pr. blems 

ranging from heat engineering to c:ieni.strJ. still Uc-. Ford ~ have been as 

ingcrru.ous and as daring as Ht-. Kaiser, and I hope that the more sensitive 

people who contributed so DDlch to the early deve1op:c.cnt of ymr science 

will not fee1 that r:r:r remarks either date then or belittle them aIJ"3' more 

than ey anaJ.ogcus rez:iarks :i.m~ that the Ford J:otor Compa.:rzy- is m.'t a major 

factor in c-u.rrcmt auto::ioti ve deve1opnent • -

On the other !1and1 if there are people - no r:iatter wliat their expericmce - 1dlo feel trurt. no po-.verful, subtle, qu.antitative teclmiqu.os ·can be devolo}:'ed 

for t.."1e problems you ncxr face, then I mu.st axpress 'fJ3' disagreer.i.ent. I do 

not believe that an en,,'P-neer or a ph;rsicist or a l.a:nyer who re.fuses tC' 1earn 

aJ.gebrai.c group theQr,Y or the cn:Lculus of variations sl1ould be c--nsiclerej serious:cy 

if he cJ.a.:llls that the probability that these or other similar subjects Tr.il1 

contribute to your solutions is remote; nor sh\1uld I l.isten seriously to 

a :nw.thenatician i'dlo re.ruses to loam about nuclear spins or travellir!g lmve 

tubes cir electron mull;ip.!.ier tubes but llho advises not lcoldng among plly'sical 

phenomena for radical ioprovet1ents in speed o.r the o1d !llethods. 

I had supposed that SCAG Trould fur:rlsh a sort or forum -for discussion or aJJ. 

sorts of things similar to the ones I ncmti:..ned int.he last para.graph - :cathematica1, 

engLneering and peysical techniques. I believe that these discussions have 

baen inhibited, not purpcse:cy and by an agent I do n~·t recognize. 

This Jiscusoion leads directl;y" into the thrid stater.ient I T.12.de above. You will. 

recaJJ. t.hat I st.a.ted that I doubt that the best attack on the problems you race 

waJ.ld be the assembly- of several. dedicated young men of high intellect and 

good training, as yoa. had SU.f.gested. ~e point I try to :cal::e here and in the 

fourth statement, which are inseparable, is that a successi\11 research outfit 

aust build up a sort of stock pile 0£ talent and that it J:lUSt haVe brao= goaJ.s. 

It i:na;ir be eASY tu predict that a talented man will proauce useful kno1:1ledge, 

but it is certainly imch harder to predict the field uhich Td.ll benefit most fron 

his l"fOrk. Sonet:i.Des this is hard to predict even a.f'tor you know and. tL'Plderstanl 

tr..e wi:.·rl:. 

I believe that Y"CJ1Jr idea of dedicating tbe_yolD'lg man t". the de~od re~lts ,.r<JUJf inhibit them to too great an extent. OJr disagreement is probaru.y a diaagreem.en 
r REF ID:A65913 

llc'. l"filliam F. Fl:'iadr:lan 6 Februa.r,r 19.52 • 

as to the extent to which this inhibition 11oul.d. be justified by the results 

which misht be caused 'b-J this dedication. Certtlrl:cy' soma aim is required for DJ1Y' 

reasonable resea.rc~, e.nd some researchers prefer narrower ains t~a.~ others. 

For 'I!f3' or.n part, llorrever, I fin that I must lul.ve the broadest of fi el.ds of 

apflication for BifY' ccnsiderabl.e pa.rt 0£ rr:r ideas to be useful and thc.t I must 

have the broadest of contacts to generate the ideas I need t'J obtc.in even this 

poor record. In short, I m.lght not object to your id.ea ofJtetting several 

dedicated yV11ng men if I were certain that we could tell that tr..ey were the 

rii;ht young :cen. Homver, if t..lieir traiDine were not IBrf'eotJ;r suited to 

the job in hand (and I have alrea<tr stated tba.t I believe that iii is dangero2s to 

try to dei'ine Tiha:t. this training is restrlctively) then I do not knO\T Tlhcre they 

'\rould get the contacts and the leadership nnd t."1e broad outside ideas which 

'\Tould lead to spectacular success en y~ probler:ts. 

These seem to me to be the adni.nistrative difficulties you face. I do not 

believe that they are insuperable. I have already suggested in an earlier 

let-r.er to the Chair.man of SCAG ono attack w lich should help the situation 

inr.lediately - a research contract with a suitable organization lrl.t!l the 

broad outl..::ok l'lhich I claim is necessarJ. 

I suggested during our conversation that this sort. of an attack is not 

enough, but that it is the arD:J thing I can v:i.SJallze as useful in t.-:.ie 

near rJ.ture. I suggested. then that the observaticn t..'1at univer:::ities had 

alva;rs produced go~d research be considered in connection Tti. th the milit~J 

schools. Two of these soem to me to offer sane hope,, one because i 1.. is Tiilling 

to tr"iJ alllost a:njl:;lliDg and is tr-j.ing to become a good univursity and t..iie other 

because it has a :f'a:ir tradition of research and at present it has a most able 

president; these were the Air University at l!'axYt-ell .Air Force Base, Ala., and 

tr~e 1·TavaJ. -.Tar Collei;e at He\1Pcrli, R. I. 01 the t'\'IO, the .Air Univertirj;17 is 

most :i.mlecti.ate:Iy attractive. It is larger and has broader goals. There are 

present tr.i.ere officers 0£ all. ranks and all sldll.s, an:t marr:r of these have 

the tJp.i.cal Air ::!'orce approach o:r try.int; anything • ' The group at the Iiavo.l 

\far College il:lpres~es ne as bei.TJB nore scholarly and probabq nore discriminating, 

but th07 are cursed Tii.th high rank and la.ck of specialty schools. T!le government 

tendency of remov:i.Jlg a successi\11 persrn to a. hi.ch adr.ii.Distrati ve position as 

aeon as he has developed cmcu~ OJCIB rience D.Dd d:i:scrimination to be mo st useful 

.. 

in his sr:ecialty would probalicy wcr k agai:ist a research pro;::rm at t..h.e I~aval. 7:'ar College 

except for research in the brai>dest fields. Still. th.ere is the histmc work or 

!!'a.ha.ii (admi.tteUJ.y broad and general) and the rttrk of Sina (1mich seems to me to have 

been superior in every lfaY) and there is t.·1e obvious desire 01' the ]ID1RBri1m 

present President(and his great ca:Jpctence) to introc.blce somo researc!· into t!1e 

college. I suggested that yoo. consider means which miGht be used to develop the 

research capabilities of • ne or nore of these instituticns for future use to ycu. 

I offered, if you desire, to meet you at the Air University '\men you aret!1ere on 

10 March and to discuss the set up there 'With sa:ie cf t:te more aggressive officers 

on the staff. I shall ,.ll'i te to theo. within a few da:ys and try to make appointoent.s. 

I s}l...a.J.l be glad at arr:r tine to try to help in aey negotiaticns, i'orz:w.l. \..r i:if crmal, 

'\"lith Vice Admiral Connelly of the UavaJ. ~·:ar College; I do net l:norr wl'!at good I 

would be here, horrever. I doubt that I lmar eno:igh about any of the other 

schools to be helpful at ~l. 

In conclusion, I mieht note t..'!.iat I have been CaJ!'letacy open in this letter Tlith 

t..'1.e possibility that feelings might be Irurt. I doubt that t!tls w-ill be the case, 

but I am certa:in that yoo:r jndgement as to whom. should see t.·e letter :ind :v!'llr 

explanations to them will assure that t:;.e letter will etta.in its JTJaXimm:1 vlluE) 
REF ID:A65913 

Ur. l"f.i.llaim F. Friedr:lan 6 :i!'cbruary 1952 s. 

if it has any value at all. I doubt t!"'At it is a1vi_sable to intrryduce it 

in a SCAG oeet:Lng, f,,r exar.Ip1e, but I 1eave that tc- your judgec.ent. I 

enclose a copy vt.D.ch you might '\"Tant to fP_ve to tho Chairman or 3CAG or 

which you mieht vrant to use atherrr.i.se - sa:y for starting a fire on a cold 

I!lor:ning • 

The letter has been long and h&ly a.11d verbose; possibl.¥ even po:apeus. I 

apologize for all these; I tried to avoid them aJ.l, but seemed to lacl:: 

the ccnpetence to do so• Ha.ybe this is ,.,.ny- I prefer teclmical work to 

tectmica.L adtlinistration. And am, no doubt, not as bad at it. 

Sincerely y:urs, 

-ii--.i~ .. C. B. Tompkins. 

, 

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