ABSTRACT
In December 1958 Philip Morse, Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), paid a visit to General Thomas Larkin, the Director of the Mutual Weapons Development Program, at his Headquarters in Paris. Morse was enthusiastic about promoting the field of Operations Research (OR) in the European Member States of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). He sought, through Larkin, to tap into American Department of Defense funding for himself and a few of his colleagues to run a seminar in Europe, to make site visits in various NATO countries, and to pay expert consultants in OR who would be based for longer periods in selected NATO allies. Larkin was supportive and encouraged Morse to carry “American ideas to the unconverted,” as he put it (Morse 1977: 320).
