For Better or for Worse: The Marriage of Science and Government in the United States

In retrospect, it is easy to see that the close rapport between the federal government and the science community would ebb away naturally over the course of time. That rapport emerged from WWII and was sustained by the cold war and the peacetime contributions of science and technology to the quality of American life. But other national cares and worries and a natural tendency to take the science establishment for granted brought about the separation. The reinstatement of a science advisory structure in the executive office of the Ford administration was reassuring, as was President Carter's appointment of a well-respected scientist as his science adviser. Moreover, there was no movement by either executive to make overly large cuts in the science budget despite the need to pay for the Vietnam War and the ongoing cold war. Federally funded science and technology continued to be recognized as a proper responsibility of the government, and the science establishment was regarded as a valuable national asset. Emphasis in Washington in the decade 1975–1985 turned instead to the more pragmatic

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