Dr. David “The Nuke” Newquist has a wonderful posting about how he found out about the launch of Sputnik by the Soviets, 50 years ago today.

I thought his conclusion was among the more profound things I’ve read lately:

The Cold War got hot. But 1957, as a recent edition of U.S. News reported, was a year in an era of intense creativity, multiple scientific breakthroughs, such as polio vaccine, and great advances in social progress. The Civil Rights movement made its initial advances during that time. The world was tense, but America was determined to remain at peace, although alert and watchful. Our self-esteem was asserted by launching our own satellite in early 1958 and improving the prospects of freedom and life, not searching for pretexts to go to war and expending our troops, our resources, and our moral resolve on vanity exercises.

America has changed.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the old soldier, warned about avoiding where we are today—a government run by a military/industrial (and I’d throw in oil) complex. I used to think Ike was a great general and a mediocre President. Perhaps Ike was equally as good a civilian leader.  And as Dr. Newquist notes, perhaps America’s priorities were more enlightened in 1957—and our sights set higher—than they are today.