Fifth: It is of the highest importance that the Congress enact the
necessary legislation to enable us to exchange appropriate scientific and
technical information with friendly countries as part of our effort to
achieve effective scientific cooperation.
It is wasteful in the extreme for friendly allies to consume talent and
money in solving problems that their friends have already solved--all
because of artificial barriers to sharing. We cannot afford to cut
ourselves off from the brilliant talents and minds of scientists in
friendly countries. The task ahead will be hard enough without handcuffs of
our own making.
The groundwork for this kind of cooperation has already been laid in
discussions among NATO countries. Promptness in following through with
legislation will be the best possible evidence of American unity of purpose
in cooperating with our friends.