ABSTRACT
The office of Science Adviser and the President’s Science Advisory Committee (PSAC) were established in the White House by President Eisenhower in the form approved, but not activated, by President Truman in 1951. Under these circumstances the President felt compelled to act, both to restore the US position and to demonstrate his own leadership. One of his moves was the appointment of Dr. James Killian, President of MIT, as Special Assistant for Science and Technology, and the creation of the PSAC. The Science Adviser to President Kennedy, Jerome Wiesner, had a somewhat different conception of his role. But aside from efforts focused on the Presidency, Wiesner saw the Science Adviser as a focus for what is now called science policy. He saw the office as the science center for the entire government, a source of scientific and technical input and leadership wherever or whenever it was appropriate.
