clayton1967

General Notes

“62 percent of the national budget, or $776 billion, was spent on national defense from 1946 through 1965.” (p. 449)

“defense spending has been shaping, often dramatically, the growth patterns of several important regions of the United States since the cold war began.” This has “assumed special significance for the thirteen far western states.” (p. 449) [Clayton defines the western states as the eight Mountain States, the three Pacific Coast States, and Alaska and Hawaii.]

Spending:

“Although less than one-sixth of the nation lives in that region, in recent years one-fourth of all Department of Defense (DOD) military and civilian personnel, one-third of all military prime contract awards, including one-half of all DOD research and development contracts, and two-thirds of all missile awards have been let to business firms and other organizations located there.” (pp. 449-450)

“expenditures of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the Far West from 1961 through 1965 amounted to $5,317 million or 48 per cent of the total national expenditures of that rapidly growing administration.” (p. 450)

“Ninety per cent of all federal research and development programs and, in recent years, over half of all scientific research has been funded by defense agencies. These research grants are the ‘seed corn’ of future production contracts and the very life blood of the science and engineering departments in most distinguished universities.” (p. 451)