Thread by @jasoncrawford

Why did US military R&D do so well during WW2? In part because we had leaders with vision and foresight. A national military R&D org was created over a year before the US formally entered the war. We got started early, and we were prepared.

More foresight: “Although we hardly grasped the revolutionary possibilities at the time, the threat of a possible atomic bomb was in all our minds, and time might well determine whether it became ours or a means for our enslavement.”

“In a time of true national emergency men who understand cease to worry about salaries or the details of contracts… Little things become submerged when great things are dominant.”

Serious times call for serious men.

“One does not resign in time of war”

Interestingly, Vannevar Bush was against the Apollo program, at least at first:

Why he partially changed his mind: “It was worth the effort if it caused us, once again, to have confidence in man's ability to overcome rugged obstacles, and to rise above the sordid, the petty, the commonplace, and the wails of those who tell us we are doomed.”

Why did the Allies get the atomic bomb before the Nazis? In part because Hitler didn't care about science, and because Nazi persecution drove Jewish scientists into exile:

Reminds me of this story from @Thomas_Hager's book The Alchemy of Air. When Hitler was told that Jews were important to physics and chemistry, he replied that he could do without physics and chemistry:

@Thomas_Hager “In general no one was looking for personal credit.… the general attitude in laboratories everywhere was, ‘The hell with the credit, get on with the job.’”

Serious people in serious times aren't focused on getting credit, but on achieving results.

@Thomas_Hager Vannevar Bush had quite a way with military men:

@Thomas_Hager More on why the Nazis were behind: “a truly democratic country has enormous advantage, in the modern world of science and technology, in a contest with a totalitarian state”