ABSTRACT
For the United States, the post-war decades were an expansive time, fertile ground for technological achievement and enchantment. This post-war scenario was endorsed by Dwight Eisenhower when he became chief of staff at the end of 1945 but it did not take hold all at once or immediately. As anticipated by the planners, a war-weary nation balked at calls for a post-war military build-up, and, for a few years, military strategies gave way to political and economic strategies for attaining global security and American prosperity. After a post-war contraction of the industry in 1945-1947, the military aircraft production expansion program authorized by the Supplemental National Defence Appropriation Act of 1948 resulted in a tripling of output between 1946 and 1949. Thus, while the Cold War gained momentum, and turned into the hot war of Korea, the debate over the shape of post-war science drew to a close.
