The Atlantic Wire - Barack Obama summoned the ghosts of Communist enemies past last night
when he used the term "Sputnik moment" to describe the United States'
current standing on the world stage, presumably with a particular
comparison to China's rising status as a dominant force in the global
economy. The original launching of Sputnik I by the dreaded Soviets in 1957--a satellite about the size
of a beach ball--was enough to send the
United States into paroxysm of science-fiction induced fantasies and
paranoid delusions. "It really doesn't matter whether the satellite has any military value," wrote an aide to Senate Majority leader Lyndon B. Johnson in a memo to him at the time, "the important thing is that the Russians have left the earth and the race for control of the universe has started." Emphasis not added.
But the original "Sputnik moment"-- be it from
legitimate fear, or paranoia, or an uncomfortable hit to inborn American pride--did
serve as a catalyst for all sorts of technological and scientific
research and development in the United States, leading to the invention of things like the
pocket calculator, the microchip and computers that kept getting smaller. And the rest, as they say...you can find on Wikipedia.
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