The Seed of Innovation

Though the Soviet Union’s success with Sputnik in 1957 further intensified American anxieties on nuclear warfare, it was beneficial not only to the country’s scientific development, but also to the growth of the educational system. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union and the U.S. were locked in a fierce competition between communism and democracy. Often, technological advances and progress was what measured the success of the nations. In 1957, when the Soviet Union’s first satellites, Sputnik I and II, were launched into space, it encouraged the U.S. to “catch up” with the Soviets to redeem itself in technological supremacy (Newman and Schmalbach 577). At the same time, the United States looked into itself for any possible reason why the Soviets had surpassed them in the technology race.

With the paranoia of communism on the rise, the U.S. believed that to prove democracy’s superiority, it must prove itself technologically superior to the Soviet Union. This ambition was destroyed with the Soviet launchings of their first satellite, the Sputnik. Many started to blame the “do-nothing” President Eisenhower (Launius). The Governor of Michigan, G. Williams had even wrote a poem about the federal government’s apparent apathy:
“Oh little Sputnik, flying high
With made-in-Moscow beep,
You tell the world it's a Commie sky
and Uncle Sam's asleep.” (Launius)

This poem well reflected the public loss of faith in their government. However, to regain confidence and hoping to find a way to surpass to the Soviets, Eisenhower announced that the US would catch up to their rivals with the launching of the Vanguard. The rocket was only able to lift off a few feet before exploding into flames (Jennings and Brewster 358).

With the explosion of the Vanguard, the United States sank even deeper into embarrassment when it failed to be able to launch spacecraft of its own. The nation faced humiliation from everywhere; the London press, the Daily Herald, had headlines that read, “Oh, what a Flopnik!” (Isaacs and Downing 156). However, pride was not the only concern of the US. As the American people became more aware of Russia’s technological advantage over the US, they began to see the “missile gap” between the two countries. As a result, a panic ensued. The fear of atomic attacks was portrayed through the people as they began to take precautionary procedures such as building bomb shelters or conducting “duck and cover” drills. The media played a huge role in the paranoia. For example, two days after the launching of the Sputnik, the press released an article called “Scientists Wonder if Shot Nears Moon”. Here, the author explains how the Soviets were apparently sent a hydrogen bomb to the moon that would create an illumination brighter than a full moon. The article continues and claims that the Soviets planned to send animals to mars in order to study how naked cosmic rays would affect animal life (Castell). These claims, as silly as they seem now, further frightened the American people at the time, for they did not know the physical limits of technology of their day. The fact that the Soviets were very secretive of their plans also amplified American anxieties. For instance, some articles had claimed that the beeping signal of the Sputnik was some sort of secret code to the Soviets. This explanation had seemed to somewhat plausible due to the fact that Americans could listen to the beeping signal from their very own radio (Castell). This hysteria and humility soon resulted in more and intensified efforts to regain the nation’s elite technological face.        In order to expand its technological horizons, the United States saw that it must first expand in its government agencies to be geared for aeronautical development. Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson saw that the current space programs in the United States were extremely short in funding and thus were limited in progress. Johnson’s aide, George Ready, commented: "the simple fact is that we can no longer consider the Russians to be behind us in technology. It took them four years to catch up to our atomic bomb and nine months to catch up to our hydrogen bomb. Now we are trying to catch up to their satellite." (Launius). The statement held true for what many Americans at the time felt. As a result, the government begins to expand its science agencies.  For example, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was originally a civilian agency that did space research, though it also was in close correspondence with the military. However, upon suggestion of the President's Science Advisory Committee, President Eisenhower decided to expand the NACA to the Nation Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) which duties were to "plan, direct, and conduct aeronautical and space activities" of the nation (Launius). When the Soviets sent Yuri Gagarin in 1961, the first man to orbit the earth, the US responded by sending John Glenn in 1962 into orbit as well. President John Kennedy had promised that by the end of the decade, the US would put the first man on the moon. By 1969, the Apollo 11 sent Michael Collins, Neil Armstrong, and Edward Aldrin, Jr. to the celestial body (Peiser and Serber 215). These advances in space science portray the actions the government had taken in response to growing concern of America’s technological inferiority.

Thanks to the media technology of the day, many symbolic images were forever branded into history. On the moon, astronaut Neil Armstrong took a picture of Edward Aldrin standing next to the American flag (Armstrong). As the flag stood firm and fluttered gently in the vacuum of space, it was no doubt a symbol of the US’s superiority in space.

However, space technology was not the only field in science that expanded. Many appliances we see today have roots from the Cold War era. For example, the smoke detector was originally developed by NASA as a means to warn astronauts for any disaster in space while conducting studies. Another example would be the Intergrated Circuit, which was a combination of transistors into “chips” of silicon developed in 1958. The Defense Department used these “chips” as a way of improving weapons, such as missile guidance computers. As a result of the threat of a nuclear attack, the Internet was originally developed as a method of communication for the military that could not be brought down by sabotage (Wilson). These developments, and many more, had been inspired during the Cold War, all in response to the intense competitive atmosphere between the Soviet Union and the United States.

Another one of these efforts to regain the US’s technological pride was to expand on education. With the passing of the National Defense Education Act, the federal government provided more funds for the growth of many colleges. Some two billion dollars were dedicated as loans to students who were majoring in science or mathematics. As a result, there were more people emerging from college with higher levels of education. (Isaacs and Downing 157). Another example of this stress of sciences and math in school is portrayed through the shift to a new concept known as “New Math”. The new curriculum stressed mathematics and “set theory”. At the same time, it stressed the importance of creativity rather than rote memorization (Castell). Oftentimes, young children had taught extremely complicated concepts in hopes that they would be better suited later on as young adults to understand mathematical theorems better. However, the idea soon lost its popularity as many began to complain that children were not focusing enough on the traditional basics. The New Math concept soon became the target of much ridicule. Courses offered were so altered and complicated that even teachers had a difficult time comprehending the material (Freund). Programs such as these well reflected the government’s many rash attempts to rebuild America’s technological might fueled by the U.S.’s strong desire to “out brain” the Soviet Union.

In conclusion, the launching of Sputnik had inspired both fear and ingenuity in the United States. As the public feared of a nuclear attack, it prodded the US government to invest more in technological advances as well as shaping the educational system to emphasize sciences and mathematics. Though the space race was originally mainly a competition of opposing forms of government, the nation expanded greatly in its technological capabilities, eventually sending humans to the moon. With the increased government support of the educational system, the US saw the rise of a wave of more individuals with higher education. In short, with the amazing development in technology and education it had spurred, the Sputnik truly was a seed of innovation for America.