This collection documents Alan Waterman efforts to convince universities that the U.S. government's objective was the development of scientific knowledge, not control over academic research. It should be noted that in addition to the general correspondence there is a valuable group of daily diaries which summarize telephone conversations relating to Waterman's activities at both the Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation. Of particular interest are those segments of the papers concerning the foundation's role in fostering United States participation in the International Geophysical Year and the nation's first successful launching of a space satellite. Among the prominent scientists appearing in the manuscripts are Detlev W. Bronk, Vannevar Bush, Karl T. Compton, James B. Conant, Lee A. Dubridge, George Gamow, Willard F. Libby, Bernard Lovell, Margaret Mead, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Harlow Shapley, Norbert Wiener, and Jerrold Zacharias. The general correspondence also contains papers relating to many organizations in which Waterman was active, particularly the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and the Cosmos Club of Washington, D.C.