ABSTRACT
There has been substantial debate about the restoration of "President's Science Advisory Committee (PSAC)", that was dismantled by President Nixon in 1972. Paramount is the authentic need for a President to have advisors whose discretion and confidence can be trusted, however deeply they may disagree with him on specific issues. He deserves advisors who can bring a range of well-informed critical views to Executive policy-making, especially when new policies are being formulated — and this is eternally in the face of competing national needs and claims from special constituencies. The role of a PSAC then goes beyond that of the fulltime Science Advisor, whose position is obviously untenable in the face of a principled policy conflict. The Advisor does play an essential role as manager of the process, which, if done conscientiously, will be an affirmative search for the best informed, necessarily often controversial and disparate views on intricate technical questions.
