National Defense and Education

The National Defense Education Act’s Passage

The National Defense Education Act’s passage signaled the start of the military’s voyage to support educational initiatives in the US. In order to promote invention, the federal government primarily supported science-related fields. The primary objective of the assistance was to boost American technological prowess alongside other security systems like NASA. President Eisenhower had the notion when he realized that the United States was lagging behind the Soviet Union in terms of science and technology and that more needed to be done in these fields. (History Comes to Life). In total, approximately 4 billion dollars was channeled to the US education system to fund technology projects. However, the act ran into problems after a mandate was inserted requiring all the beneficiaries to complete an affidavit disclaiming belief in the overthrow of the United States.

The Scholars’ Belief and the Connection between Science and Military Defense

The scholars believed that the disclaimer affidavit tried to control individual beliefs and thus it violated the freedom of academics. I believe it is from such attempts to violate the academic freedom that the connection between science and military defense has not been explicit in the recent times. First, students would expect a government loan with no mandates attached to it. In this case, it would appear that the government was using the act to offer loan to the students but with an agenda of forcing them to complete a disclaimer affidavit. In this manner, it would seem that the government was taking advantage of the loan to extend its methods of increasing national defense (Rose 75). With the sharp criticism that the act received including protests in 153 schools, most of the current calls of support in science and technology have not been directly linked to national defense due to the earlier experience.

Works Cited

History Comes to Life. “Eisenhower Discusses Science Education 1957.” YouTube. N.p., 2011. Web. 8 Nov. 2017.

Rose, Deondra. “The Public Policy Roots of Women’s Increasing College Degree Attainment: The National Defense Education Act of 1958 and the Higher Education Act of 1965.” Studies in American Political Development 30.1 (2016): 62-93.