624 



part of this structure (specifically, the aerospace and military systems 

 industry) which is characterized by low production of items of high 

 quality and j)erf ormance ; workers in this industry include a high pro- 

 portion of scientific and technological professionals, skilled in solving 

 complex and difficult problems. 



The outbreak of the Korean War was the signal for a great increase 

 in military research and development. Demonstration of the feasibility 

 £)f the hydrogen bomb accelerated efforts to exploit its high potency in 

 an array of sophisticated attack systems, and at the same time to devise 

 <3ountermeasures against these same systems in the hands of an ad- 

 versary. With the exhibition of advances by the Soviet Union in 

 rocketry and spacecraft, the efforts of the United States were redou- 

 bled. To recapture the lead in space technology, the United States in- 

 vested some $60 billion in the Apollo and other large programs of re- 

 search, technological development, design, and system-building. 



Otlier programs of science and technology were concurrently ex- 

 panding, such as the support of basic science by the National Science 

 Fomidation, basic research installations in high-energy physics spon- 

 sored by the Atomic Energy Commission, medical research in the Na- 

 tional Institutes of Health, interdisciplinary research in the basic sci- 

 ences and programs to create new scientific ''centers of excellence" with 

 supix>rt by the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Department 

 of Defense, research in meteorology h\ the Environmental Science 

 Services Administration, water desalting studies in the Department 

 of the Interior, and so on. Servan-Schreiber sums up the consequences 

 of this ferment in these words : 



During the past ten years, from the end of the cold war and the launching of 

 the first Sputnik, American power has made an unprecedented leap forward. It 

 has undergone a violent and productive internal revolution. Technological innova- 

 tion has now become the basic objective of economic policy. In America today the 

 government ofl5cial, the industrial manager, the economics professor, the engineer, 

 and the scientist have joined forces to develop coordinated techniques for inte- 

 grating factors of production. These techniques have stimulated what amounts 

 to a permanent industrial revolution." 



Diplomatic hnpUcaticms of U.S. Technological Maturity 



At the beginning of the present century, when the United States 

 was at the threshold of technological niaturity, the nation was con- 

 fronted by three options : 



* * * To expand its power on the world scene ; to soften the harshnesses of 

 industrialization through the devices of the welfare state; to elevate the stand- 

 ard of mass consumption." 



This author concludes that the United Staites "opted*' rather whole- 

 heartedly for the third course.^^ 



There were several diplomatic consequences of the U.S. decision to 

 opt for a high-consumption economy: (1) As raw material resources 

 at home were quickly consumed, American industry looked increasing- 

 ly abroad for sources to make good a growing list of deficiencies. Heavy 

 U.S. investments were made to develop overseas sources of chrome, 

 manganese, bauxite, tungsten, and other metals needed by American 



i*.T.-J. Servan-Schrelber. "The American Challenge." Translated from the French by 

 Ronald Steel. (New York, Atheneum, 1968), page 27. 



1^ Rostow : "The United States in the World Arena : An Essay in Recent History," op. 

 clt.. page 7. 



15 Ibid., page 8. 



