ABSTRACT
The President and those with whom he works in making major policy choices have had no generally effective access to the best judgment of advisors not tied to any one department or service. The next President and his Science Advisor will need to find ground rules that will limit the damage from the built-in conflict between confidential advice and public candor. The qualities desirable in a first-class Science Advisor are many, but three are indispensable and interconnected. First, the Advisor must have and deserve the trust of the President. Second, the Advisor is a capacity to enlist serious working support from men and women. In its good years under Eisenhower and Kennedy the Advisor's office had the powerful reinforcement of the President's Science Advisory Committee (PSAC), a group of scientists chosen for their recognized combination of talent and good sense. Third, the Advisor must be able to perform effectively in the President's world—the world of governmental choice and action.
