A More Scientific America: The Presidency of Vannevar Bush Discussion Thread

Teleology

Banned
"I, Vannevar Bush, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of the President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."


dewfnd.jpg


From Wikipedia -
Vannevar Bush (March 11, 1890 – June 28, 1974; pronounced /væˈniːvɑr/ van-NEE-var) was an American engineer and science administrator known for his work on analog computing, his political role in the development of the atomic bomb as a primary organizer of the Manhattan Project, and the idea of the memex, an adjustable microfilm-viewer which is somewhat analogous to the structure of the World Wide Web. As Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, Bush coordinated the activities of some six thousand leading American scientists in the application of science to warfare.[1]
Bush was a well-known policymaker and public intellectual during World War II and the ensuing Cold War [2], and was in effect the first presidential science advisor. Bush was a proponent of democratic technocracy and of the centrality of technological innovation and entrepreneurship for both economic and geopolitical security.
Seeing later developments in the Cold War arms race, Bush became troubled. "His vision of how technology could lead toward understanding and away from destruction was a primary inspiration for the postwar research that led to the development of New Media." [1]


Considering that by 1952 the Republicans are due for the presidency and even as early as then Bush is 62 and would basically just be the Adlai Stevenson run but more so, how can we make this a (hypothetical) reality?


Regardless of how it could happen, Vannevar Bush becoming president in the early Cold War could possibly prevent a nuclear arms race by putting control of atomic research in international hands and encouraging scientific exchange with the Soviets. The result might be a Cold War without the constant threat of thermonuclear holocaust but with the potential for more conventional conflicts and cultural clash (due to more cultural exchanges of ideas) under presidents after Bush himself.
 
Politics and science are vastly different fields. Success in science does not mean success as president. After all, Jimmy Carter had degrees in chemistry and nuclear engineering. Sounds very appropriate for an era of energy shortages and awareness, but was his track record all that great?
 

Teleology

Banned
Yeah but unlike the great visionary scientists (who in themselves had to be able to effectively communicate ideas, don't think that most great scientists were of the Tesla sort) of his time Vannevar's great career was as an administrator. His department during the war had a vast scope and was behind the team that became the Manhattan Project.

I chose Bush for this scenario precisely because he was a civil servant and a skilled administrator.
 
Top