The National Defense Research Committee was created with the goal of advancing technological development for World War II. Before the war, university scientists and the military stayed largely in their own lanes. In fact, there had been a lack of cooperation between civilian scientists and the U.S. military during WWI, and the feelings of contempt ran both ways. Scientists at the time considered the enlistment of their skills for the military as a “desecration upon the temple of science,” as the historian Daniel Kevles put it. At the same time, any scientists who did try to work with the military ran into a wall of prejudice: Military officers didn’t believe scientists to be as qualified as service members. In fact, in the 1930s some scientists had tried to collaborate with the armed services but were told that no civilian could match a service member’s judgement about the practicality of new weapons. These attitudes were of great concern for Bush, who wanted to use the power of science to enhance the U.S. military. By helping channel federal funding directly to scientists, he was able to mend this fissure, and both parties came to see the benefit of this relationship. Scientists had the financial means to perform high-quality research, and the military had access to the brightest minds in the country. With Bush’s guidance, the National Defense Research Committee supported the development of radar, sonar, the mass production of penicillin, and (most controversially) the Manhattan Project. Without a doubt, this new funding system greatly increased the power of the U.S. military.
The collaboration between scientists and the military was thriving under the National Defense Research Committee, and Roosevelt asked Bush to consider how the organization could be extended into peacetime. In response, Bush penned a report entitled “Science, the Endless Frontier,” proposing what would eventually become the National Science Foundation. The report highlighted the boundless potential of basic science. Despite Bush’s intimate involvement with military operations, his report emphasized that “the most important ways in which the Government can promote industrial research are to increase the flow of new scientific knowledge through support of basic research and to aid in the development of scientific talent.”
Bush’s grand vision finally materialized in 1950, when President Harry S. Truman signed a bill creating the National Science Foundation to support fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering within universities. There were several reasons Bush felt that universities were the best place for scientific discovery. The success of science depended on an atmosphere that was “relatively free from the adverse pressure of convention, prejudice, or commercial necessity,” while providing security and intellectual freedom to its researchers. Bush understood that new knowledge can create opposition, since it often challenges current beliefs. That could be a barrier to true discovery within government and industry.