"The other way to protect our technological lead is to continue to advance and exploit our technological base. In so doing, we can show the Soviets that they will never catch up, that the military balance will be maintained because the technological balance will always be in our favor. We have many opportunities for pursuing this positive approach. For example: - We can continue to extend the military utility of our precision guided munitions, employing existing and new technologies to achieve all-weather, day or night attack capabilities against heavily defended targets, and we can transfer this capability to our strategic forces. We can exploit our lead in micro-computer and minicomputer technology to realize distributed commandand-control systems, which will improve the timeliness and precision of execution of command decisions, and reduce the vulnerability of the command system to enemy attack. We can continue to advance our leads in space technology to give us more effective navigation and communication systems for the strategic and general purpose forces. "We have long passed the point where we can exploit every technological opportunity that presents itself, but by careful selection of those opportunities that really make a difference, I believe that we can keep the technological balance tipped in our favor - and thereby maintain the military balance as a deterrent to aggression at a cost we can afford. Reading List 1. Bagby, Frederick L. "A Unified View of the R & D Economy.' Astronautics and Aeronautics, January 1974, pp. 32-39. 2. Battelle Memorial Institute. Focus on R & D in the Seventies: A Report. Columbus, Ohio: Battelle Memorial Institute, 1970. 3. Dickson, Paul. Think Tanks. New York: Atheneum, 1971. 4. Laszlo, Ervin. The Systems View of the World. New York: Braziller, 1972. 5. Orlans, Harold. The Non-Profit Research Institute. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972. 6. Perry, Robert. Prototype Strategy for Aircraft Development. Santa Monica, Calif.: Rand, 1972. 7. Rosenberg, Nathan. The Economics of Technological Change. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin, 1971. 8. U.S. Department of the Army. Army Research and Development. Washington, D. C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1973. 9. U.S. Department of Defense, Office of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering. Research and Development in the Department of Defense. Washington, D. C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1971. 10. U. S. Department of Defense, Office of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering. Program of Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, FY 1976. Statement to 94th Congress, First Session, 1975. ROLE OF THE U.S. FOREIGN SERVICE The following information is extracted from a booklet published by the Department of State entitled, "Career Fields in the Foreign Service of the United States": "This leaflet briefly describes the five basic kinds of work in which officers specialize in the Foreign Service. The Foreign Service of the United States includes both Foreign Service officers (FSOS) employed by the Department of State and Foreign Service Information officers (FSIOs) employed by the United States Information Agency (USIA). Candidates for the Service must indicate at the time of application whether they wish appointment as FSOs or FSIOS. Indivuduals considering employment as FSIOS are advised that the number of appointments have been curtailed in recent years; consequently, competition for these positions is unusually rigorous. "On entering the Service FSOS and FSIOS receive several weeks of basic orientation at the Department of State's Foreign Service Institute. Subsequently training prior to the officer's first overseas assignment may involve area studies, language training and functional training (in consular or administrative affairs, etc.). In later years, In later years, officers may receive specialized training at the Institute, at universities, and subsequently at the War Colleges or the Department's Senior Seminar in Foreign Policy. "Department of State "The Department of State is responsible for conducting relations with foreign nations and international organizations; for protecting and advancing political, economic/commercial and other interests of the United States overseas, and for rendering a variety of services to individual Americans abroad and foreigners travelling to the United States. Much of this work is carried out by FSOS who, when abroad, serve as diplomatic and consular officers and who, when in Washington, fill most of the more responsible positions in the Department aside from those requiring technical or professional training, such as lawyers, electronic technicians, security officers, etc. There are four basic areas of specialization (often called "cones" or "tracks") for FSOS: administrative, economic/ commercial, consular, and political. FSO candidates must specify the cone in which they wish to specialize when they apply for entry into the Service. The functional approach is of particular emphasis in the mid-career ranks. Junior officers, in their initial assignments, may anticipate being posted on occasion to positions in other than their designated areas of specialization -commensurate to the needs of the Service at the time. Upon reaching senior level (Foreign Service officer Class 2 and Class 1), officers compete for further advancement with all others at their particular rank, without regard to specialty. Regardless of specialization, officers should be knowledgeable about American history, government and culture; be well informed regarding foreign and domestic affairs and be able to speak and write effectively. The principal duties and responsibilities of each specialization are described below. "Administration: "Administrative officers are responsible for the day-to-day management and administration of diplomatic and consular posts abroad. Their concerns are multifold and require an ability to understand and interact with people, both American and local nationals. Administrative officers should also bring a flexible and imaginative approach to everyday problems and demonstrate good judgment, organizing and planning ability, as well as independence and leader ship qualities. "Five broad categories of work are embraced under the general heading of "administration. " Budget and Fiscal involves preparing the post's budget and financial plans, allocating funds, controlling expenditures, and negotiating reimbursement agreements with other U. S. Government agencies, which may also receive some support for their program activities from the Department of State administrative complement at an Embassy. General Services includes maintenance of government property, procurement of supplies, negotiation of leases and contracts for office and employees' residence space, travel, transportation, shipping, custom clearances for the importation of official supplies and employees' personal effects, motor pool operations, and arrangements for meetings and conferences. Personnel includes the selection, placement and counseling of local nationals employed by the post, determination of their wage scales and fringe benefits, and classification of local positions. In recent years personnel work has become more complex and demanding. Officers specializing in this field may expect to be intimately involved in labor management negotiations, the development of special employement benefits services, and equal employment programs. A Personnel Officer is also an important factor in the fostering of morale at post. Although State Department administrative officers rarely occupy positions dealing with Communications and Records and Security, they may nevertheless have some responsibilities in these specialized fields in the early stages of their careers. Later they may expect to occupy positions in general administration which involve supervisory responsibilities for work in all the above areas. When on a Washington assignment, officers in the administrative functional field serve as counterparts to their colleagues in the field, relating Foreign Service administrative needs to the Department as a whole. "Officers in the administrative function generally have some supervisory responsibilities from the beginning of their Foreign Service careers, usually overseeing the work of local nationals. At the senior level administrative officers may have responsibility for relatively large establishments consisting of several hundred employees and 100 or more government-owned or leased office and residence buildings. "Consular Affairs: "The essence of consular work is providing services to people. These services, many of them governed by Federal statutes, are made available to foreigners and Americans abroad. More than any other Foreign Service specialty consular work involves dealing directly with people. Consular officers, therefore, should be service and people oriented, yet practical and objective in their evaluations of people and problems. They should enjoy performing "case work" and in so doing demonstrate flexibility, and imagination, as well as organizational and analytical ability. "Services to foreigners are primarily in the field of Visas. A visa is a document representing a preliminary finding that an alien is entitled to enter the United States either as a visitor or as an immigrant. The consular officer makes the decision either to issue or refuse the visa based on an intimate knowledge of the Immigration and Nationality Law and the rather voluminous |