Word: nations
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Charles Stark Draper, 67, director of the Instrumentation Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. To solve the problems of navigation, NASA went straight to the nation's leading authority on inertial guidance. The system devised by Draper for Apollo includes telescopes, a sextant, and a computerized inertial reference "platform" that tells astronauts where they are in space, where they are headed and how fast. But how could they be sure that it would work?, the NASA brass wanted to know. "I told them I'd go along and run it myself," recalls Draper. The on-board navigation...
...going to the Viet Nam war. That the money would in fact be spent in such a way is, at best, debatable. Moreover, cost effectiveness is not a criticism that can or should be applied to advanced technology. Who would have put money on atomic energy in 1940? A nation which concentrates on the present will have no future; in statesmanship, as in everyday life, wisdom lies in the right division of resources between today's demands and tomorrow's needs...
There is always the fear, of course, that men will carry the curse of their animosities into space. But it is more likely that in the long run, those who go out to the stars will leave behind the barriers of nation and race that divide them now. There is a hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags will not wave in a vacuum; our present tribal conflicts cannot be sustained in the hostile environment of space. Whether we like it or not, our children will find new loyalties when they set foot on the moon, or Mars...
...Confucian tradition, which ordains that the scholar has an obligation not only to disseminate knowledge but also to participate in the rule of his country. From this concept, the mandarinate emerged, and down through Viet Nam's history the mandarins provided the administrative core for the nation. In the 19th century, with the arrival of the French, the mandarinate split: some scholars resisted the invaders, others collaborated...
...Buddhism on the intellectuals remains strong. It holds that temporal life is only an "ocean of sorrows" and that the intellectual should avoid involvement in it. As a result, attentisme (waiting) is a popular posture. It is a detached resignation at least partly rooted in the belief that the nation's destiny is controlled by outside forces-the French after World War II, the Americans and the North Vietnamese in the present conflict-and that the individual is powerless to bring about change. It also reflects despair over the lack of alternatives and deep disenchantment with both the Saigon...