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The Importance Of Sputnik

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On the other hand, the Republican Party tried to lessen the importance of Sputnik. Senator Alexander Wiley dubbed it a “great propaganda stunt” while Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson called it “a nice scientific trick” (Divine, xv). White House Chief of Staff Sherman Adams put it forward that the US had no plans to participate in “an outer space basketball game”. In contrast with the ideologies of the Democrats, presidential assistant Maxwell Rabb held that Sputnik was “without military significance” and thus not worth panicking over; in fact, professionals such as research scientists from Harvard University were more concerned with the public frenzy (Divine, xvi). Yielding to public pressure, President Eisenhower established the Advanced Research Projects Agency, otherwise known …show more content…

Dr. James Killian, originally president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was appointed the nation’s first national science advisor, and later convinced Eisenhower to establish a national rocket and space agency, which would be the predecessor of today’s NASA (Kuhn 24). With its establishment on October 1, 1958, the American masses put much attention on NASA; Hillary Clinton, 11 at the time, eagerly wrote to volunteer for astronaut training but was rejected due to her gender. There were quarrels within the US government regarding the development of certain warheads, most notably the ICBM. Even as president, Eisenhower was forced to accelerate missile programs to appease the public as well as politicians who were in a state of panic and frenzy. Amid the process of delivering new policies, politicians took stances and Eisenhower faced much resistance. Within Congress, the impact of the Space Race was unmistakable. Symington proposed to increase defense spending and

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