- A Bibliography of Selected Rand Publications Regarding Criminal Justice
- The Rand Habitual Offender Project: A Summary of Research Findings to Date
- Focusing Attention on Career Criminals – An Idea Whose Time Has Come
The Origins of RAND
World War II revealed the importance of technology research and development for success on the battlefield. It also drew attention to the wide range of scientists and academics outside the military who made such development possible.
As the war drew to a close, it became clear that complete and permanent peace might not be assured. Forward-looking individuals in the War Department, the Office of Scientific Research and Development, and industry thus began to discuss the need for a private organization to connect military planning with research and development decisions.
Commanding General of the Army Air Force H. H. “Hap” Arnold articulated this need in a report to the Secretary of War:
“During this war, the Army, Army Air Forces, and the Navy have made unprecedented use of scientific and industrial resources. The conclusion is inescapable that we have not yet established the balance necessary to insure the continuance of teamwork among the military, other government agencies, industry, and the universities. Scientific planning must be years in advance of the actual research and development work.”
Other key players involved in the formation of this new organization were Major General Curtis LeMay; General Lauris Norstad, Assistant Chief of Air Staff, Plans; Edward Bowles of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, consultant to the Secretary of War; Donald Douglas, president of the Douglas Aircraft Company; Arthur Raymond, chief engineer at Douglas; and Franklin Collbohm, Raymond's assistant.
The name of the organization? Project RAND.
The Douglas Years
On October 1, 1945, Arnold, Bowles, Douglas, Raymond, and Collbohm met to set up Project RAND under special contract to the Douglas Aircraft Company. Project RAND got under way in December 1945, expending a total of $640 in its first month of operation. That same month, the new office of Deputy Chief of Air Staff for Research and Development, to which Project RAND would report, was officially established, with Major General LeMay serving as its first appointee. On March 2, 1946, Collbohm began directing Project RAND in a separate area within the Douglas plant at the municipal airport in Santa Monica, California.
In May 1946, Project RAND released its first report, Preliminary Design of an Experimental World-Circling Spaceship. It discussed the potential design, performance, and use of manmade satellites. A year later, Project RAND moved from the Douglas plant to new offices in downtown Santa Monica. Project RAND also held a symposium in New York as a first step in enlisting social scientists.
Project RAND's first report, published in 1946
By early 1948, Project RAND had grown to 200 staff. Its researchers had expertise in a wide range of fields, including mathematics, engineering, aerodynamics, physics, chemistry, economics, and psychology.
An Independent Nonprofit Organization
Hand-tinted photo of the original RAND building at 1700 Main Street in Santa Monica, California, circa 1960s
RAND Archives
By late 1947, it seemed that Project RAND should consider separating from Douglas. (It was already operating fairly autonomously.) In February 1948, the chief of staff of the newly created U.S. Air Force wrote a letter to the president of Douglas that approved the evolution of Project RAND into an independent, nonprofit corporation. H. Rowan Gaither, Jr., a prominent San Francisco attorney who later served as president and then as chairman of the board of the Ford Foundation, was retained as legal counsel to determine the best means of setting up an independent RAND.
On May 14, 1948, RAND was incorporated as a nonprofit corporation under the laws of the State of California. The articles of incorporation set forth RAND's purpose in language that was both remarkably brief and breathtakingly broad:
To further and promote scientific, educational, and charitable purposes, all for the public welfare and security of the United States of America.
Informal discussions with representatives of the Ford Foundation led to an agreement in July 1948 for an interest-free loan from the foundation and its guarantee of a private bank loan to RAND. A total of $1 million was secured for operating the new corporation.
Four years later, an expansion of the foundation's loan enabled the establishment of a RAND-sponsored research program, which furnished staff with the means to conduct small, nonmilitary research projects. This marked the beginning of the diversification of RAND's agenda and was the first of many grants by the Ford Foundation to support important new RAND research initiatives.
On November 1, 1948, the Project RAND contract was formally transferred from the Douglas Aircraft Company to the RAND Corporation.