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By the start of World War One in nineteen fourteen, the federal government was employing scientists in many areas of work.
President Woodrow Wilson created the National Research Council to organize the work of scientists and engineers to win the war. However, before World War Two, government support for science was generally limited. The government was willing to pay for research only to meet certain clear goals, such as better weapons or military transport systems.
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World War Two greatly changed the traditionally limited relationship between American scientists and the federal government. In the early years of the war, the German forces of Adolf Hitler showed the world the strength of their new tanks, guns and other weapons.
President Franklin Roosevelt knew that the United States would need to develop modern weapons of its own if it entered the war.
For this reason, Roosevelt established a National Defense Research Committee in nineteen forty to support and organize research on weapons.
The new committee included some of the top scientists in America. Among its members were the presidents of Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Bell Laboratories. The committee did its work so well that Roosevelt later formed an even more powerful Office of Scientific Research and Development.
The leader of both groups was Vannevar Bush -- no relation to the future presidents. He had long experience as a professor of electrical engineering and as an inventor. Many scientists knew him.
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25