Recently the technology transfer between East and West has recently gained a new meaning, because technology transfer has changed its direction from the civilian sector to the military sector. The U. S. A. has controlled exports to the Soviet Union, but the U. S. must control not only products, but also technology, i. e., software, know-how, and design.
Traditionally it was the Department of Commerce that controlled exports to Communist countries under the authority of Export Administration Act. But the Defense Department increased its voice in this issue, as it was considered vitally important to the national interest to stop high technology transfers to Communist nations. Thus the Defense Department issued the Bucy Report in 1976 which called for the strict regulation of technology transfer, and urged an increase in the department's role in export administration.
The first fruit of the Bucy Report was the Militarily Critical Technology List, made public in October 1980. The Department of Defense and the Department of Commerce were jointly responsible for making this list.
This article analyses the Dresser Industry's export application which should have been included in this MCTL. This was the first test case of the effectiveness of the Export Administration Act after the Bucy Report. The main source materials for this article come from the Hearing held before the Committee on Governmental Affairs, United States Senate on October 3, 1978.
On the one hand, the Department of Defense aided by the Department of Energy, the National Security Council, and some group of Senators tried to stop the export by the reason of military diversion, but they were blocked by buraucratic inertia. On the other hand, the Department of Commerce muddled through this maze with unintentional help from International Security Affairs, Department of Defense.
The Carter Administration was too divided on this problem to make a coherent policy. As they changed attitude too many times, Mr. Schultz severly critisized this “light-switch diplomacy”.
Though defeated in the first round the Secretary of Defense, with the Secretary of Energy, used a special task force chaired by Mr. Bucy to reverse the decision. The Senate echoed this counterattack, and held the Hearing to check the process of export application. There was a hot debate in the Hearing on what national security means to the U. S. A., to what extent this technology transfered to the Soviet Union, whether this export had the danger of military diversion or not, what was foreign availablity, and so on.
The industrial sector, including Dresser Industry, was strongly against the export embargo on foreign policy grounds, and demanded a coherent export policy. Even though the Department of Commerce gained a victory in this export application, the Department of Defense increased its power in the next phase-the Export Administration Act of 1979.
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