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[i]...Eisenhower enlarged President Truman's President's Science Advisory Committee (PSAC). To be its chair, he selected Dr James R. Killian, President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and thus the first presidential science adviser. Killian apparently was very influential in space-related matters during late 1957 through 1959. Eisenhower's commitment to Saturn development, however, appears to be a prime manifestation of his personal concerns about space and the Soviet Union. On the other hand, to his subordinates, he occasionally professed a lack of enthusiasm for manned space flight in general and flights to the Moon in particular. Eisenhower's apparent antipathy toward man-in-space, particularly military man-in-space, only increased when the Soviets shot down Gary Powers' U-2 reconnaissance plane in 1960. In spite of such contradictory indications, it is difficult to believe, in view of his push for Saturn development, that Eisenhower had anything in the back of his mind other than human flights to the Moon... In retrospect, Eisenhower seemed split between his concern about the role of the United States as the protector of freedom in the world during the Cold War and his commitment to control the federal budget and the "acquisition of unwarranted influence... by the military/industrial complex." Still, on Eisenhower's watch, NASA came into existence, public education in math and science was enhanced, studies of manned flights to the Moon progressed, and a manned lunar booster project was aggressively pursued.[/i]
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