Word: sputnik
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INTO the post-Sputnik atmosphere of foggy fear and cautious reassurance came this week a careful, levelheaded assessment of the dangers that face the U.S. and some hardheaded suggestions as to what ought to be done about them. This was the Rockefeller Report, drawn by a panel of 19 citizens * after 14 months of hearing expert testimony, weighing evidence and hammering out conclusions. The report's basic message: the U.S.. with perhaps a two-year clear superiority in striking power, is rapidly losing its lead over the U.S.S.R. in the military race. "Unless present trends are reversed...
...fifth morning after Sputnik I changed military policy and practice for all time, a brand new U.S. Secretary of Defense, fresh from a world where Cheer is a product instead of an attitude, took over the cavernous office on Ring E, River Side, Third Floor, of the Pentagon...
...characteristically set out on his tour of military establishments. On the evening of Oct. 4 he was at dinner at the Army's Huntsville, Ala. ballistic missile center when Rocket Scientist Wernher Von Braun was called from the table. Von Braun returned, face flushed, with the news that Sputnik I was in outer space. Even then the Secretary-to-be sensed that the Defense job would never quite be the same again...
...break or even quarrel with the U.S. This was talk and criticism of the kind that distinguishes true allies from satellites. Beyond domestic political situations it was prompted by a feeling that the West as a unit must re-examine some of its international assumptions in the light of Sputnik...
...strengthen a seriously weakened position without over-extending himself, as Johnson may have done. The President did not, however, neutralize himself, as he frequently has in the past. While not taking a partisan approach, he assumed some of the blame for under-estimating the psychological significance of the Sputnik, and he at least recognized the existence of the dispute over inter-service rivalry. Because he did not make a mea culpa statement of reform and renewed good intentions, he left a large measure of the blame unplaced. As a result he may still be accused of some lack of candor...