1551 



Major elements in persuading Congress to provide the needed funds 

 were the desirabihty of simultaneous observations and on carrying out 

 measurements throughout the entire globe, the evident exi)ense of 

 doing so, and the assurance that the program was finite and of definitely 

 limited duration. Later, when Dr. Berkner, speaking for the USNC 

 and responding to a Soviet proposal to extend the IGY formula beyond 

 the IS-month period earlier decided u})on, raised the possibility of 

 further development of IGY activities, the congressional reaction was 

 mildly favorable. However, the position of the American scientists 

 themselves — who had repeatcdl}^ emphasized to Congress that the 

 IGY was to be a specific, time-limited undertaking — had by then 

 become hardened so that support for the Soviet direct continuation 

 proposal was impractical. 



The separate question of the impact of the IGY — or Sputnik — on 

 the Congress is discussed below.*^ 



Outcome 



Some of the scientific results of the IGY have already been touched 

 on. The main concern of this study is with its domestic ])olitical 

 impact and its effect on U.S. diplomacy. These impacts were many 

 and substantial. As quoted in the basic study, Walt W. Rostow sums 

 up American reaction to the most spectacular of the IGY events: 



There is no clear analogy in American history to the crisis triggered by the 

 launching of the Soviet Earth satellite on October 4, 1957. This intrinsically 

 harmless act of science and engineering was also, of course, both a demonstration 

 of foreseeable Soviet capability to launch an ICBI\I and a powerful act of 

 psychological warfare. It immediately set in motion forces in American political 

 life which radically reversed the Nation's ruling conception of its military problem, 

 of the appropriate level of the budget, and of the role of science in its affairs. 

 The reaction reached even deeper, opening a fundamental reconsideration not 

 only of the organization of the Department of Defense but also of the values and 

 content of the American educational system and of the balance of values and 

 objectives in contemporary American society as a whole. ^^ 



The effect of Sputnik I in particular and the IGY in general on 

 Government support for basic science in the United States was 

 unprecedented. Federal funds were restored for scientific facilities 

 previously closed down; the Federal Government's in-house research 

 efforts were increased; Federal scientists and engineers received 

 ingrade promotions and other preferential treatment. The budget of 

 the National Science Foundation shot up from its pre-IGY ceiling of 

 $15 million to about $159 milhon in 1960 and $416 milhon in 1965; by 

 1975 it had reached approximately $690 million. 



THE SPACE PROGRAM 



The most dramatic development sparked by Sputnik I — and 

 probably the most significant, at least in the short run — was the 

 "Space Race": 



« For a compact summary of the "vigorous and sustained role [of the Coneress] in the adoption and 

 implementation of U.S. polfcv for international space cooperation," see also the account by Mrs. Eilene 

 Galloway, CRS Senior Specialist in International Relations, of "Congress and International Space Coop- 

 eration" 'in Senate Document No. 92-57 (International Cooprration in Outer Space: A Symposium), prepared 

 for the Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, United States Senate. Washington, U.S. Govt. 

 Print. Off., 1971: 3-12. (Mrs. Galloway wa.s appointed by Senator Lyndon B. Johnson in March 1958 to 

 serve as Special Consultant to t!ie Senate Special Committee on Space and Astronautics, and later to the 

 Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences.) 



" Bullis, op. cit., p. 334. 



