Steve Blank is recognized as a thought leader in the field of entrepreneurship and in this newsletter he contributes thoughts on the history of US government investments in funding research driven by the needs of the military.
The U.S. has spent the last 70 years making massive investments in basic and applied research. Government funding of research started in World War II driven by the needs of the military for weapon systems to defeat Germany and Japan. Post WWII the responsibility for investing in research split between agencies focused on weapons development and space exploration (being completely customer-driven) and other agencies charted to fund basic and applied research in science and medicine (being driven by peer-review.)
The Endless Frontier: U.S. Science and National Industrial Policy: Part 6a of The Secret History of Silicon Valley