Liberal Arts Services

The US Government: Fostering Research

The US government has been a major force in developing new technologies, such as the Space Program in the 1960s, which ultimately led to moon landings, the space shuttle, and the International Space Station. Products resulting from NASA and the Space Program include food packaging and freeze-dried technology, laser angioplasty, and virtual gaming technology. In capitalist societies, governments tend to work with private corporations to develop products and technologies or create incentives for private companies to conduct particular kinds of research. The US Space Program involved many large corporations, many of which were considered by President Dwight Eisenhower to be part of the ever-expanding “military-industrial complex.”

In the US and other capitalist countries, private corporations play a significant role in the development of new technologies, and at the same time government policies can have a direct impact on the scale and type of research conducted by private corporations and public institutions. For example, during the “Space Race” of the 1960s, US government policy was implemented to support scientific research at NASA and the National Science Foundation as well as renew interest in science, math, and engineering in secondary and post-secondary education. Metaphoric policy speeches to fuel the imagination of citizens were commonplace, creating the momentum and support for government agencies to carry out the policy.

President John F. Kennedy’s famous “Man on the Moon” speech was actually part of the State of the Union Address to the US Congress in 1961. As with most State of the Union addresses by US presidents, the speech was intended to both set and explain the policies and funding priorities of the administration and win the hearts and minds of the voting public. In this case, public policy was influenced by widely held fears of the Cold War and, more specifically, fears that the Soviet Union could achieve scientific and technological superiority over the US. Kennedy placed an emphasis on scientific research with a national agenda, laying the following policy plans in his speech:

"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.

I believe we should go to the moon. But I think every citizen of this country as well as the Members of the Congress should consider the matter carefully in making their judgment, to which we have given attention over many weeks and months, because it is a heavy burden, and there is no sense in agreeing or desiring that the United States take an affirmative position in outer space, unless we are prepared to do the work and bear the burdens to make it successful. If we are not, we should decide today and this year.

This decision demands a major national commitment of scientific and technical manpower, material and facilities, and the possibility of their diversion from other important activities where they are already thinly spread. It means a degree of dedication, organization and discipline which have not always characterized our research and development efforts. "