Word: sputniks
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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This happened during World War II, when the nation was galvanized by fear that Germany would produce the first atomic bomb, and the Government-funded, $2 billion Manhattan Project unlocked the secrets of nuclear fission. In 1961 President John Kennedy, stung by Sputnik and later by Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's orbiting the earth, decreed that the U.S. should put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. A synergistic exchange of technology among Government, science and industry had Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin walking on the moon five months ahead of the deadline...
...OPEC, which could be considered the Sputnik of the '70s, threatens the rest of the world. The shotgun marriage of Government and industry, to develop alternative energy sources, has yet to be consummated; but history shows what can be accomplished if they join forces...
Last weekend at Carpenter Center the devil spit the universe out of his mouth and laughed. A sign of recognition went up from the audience: Ah, another origin-of-the-universe cartoon." It was an Italian movie, FantaBiblical, good news for post-Sputnik man, the fallen Catholic's Chariot of the Gods, the ten commandments as the fallout of a mid-space collision. Nothing is sacred; everything is permitted...
...SPUTNIK. It was the earth's only other satellite except the moon, a polished metal sphere the size of a beach ball, hurtling around the planet at 18,000 m.p.h. An NBC radio announcer that October in 1957 bade his audience: "Listen now, for the sound which forever separates the old from the new." And over thousands of radios, from somewhere in space, came an eerie beep ... beep ... beep...
...cautious Republican President, Dwight Eisenhower. In its first year of operation, HEW's budget was a mere $5.4 billion, of which $3.4 billion went for Social Security. Immediately the department became a political issue, as congressional Democrats pressured Ike to increase funding. He held off until the Soviets launched Sputnik in 1957. Then the first significant breach was made in hold-the-line spending. Fearful that the Russians might surpass the U.S. in science and technology, the President backed the National Defense Education Act, which authorized $900 million in aid to schools and colleges, especially for scientific study...