As the Biden administration dispenses funds for its multidimensional and unprecedented infrastructure legislation, this herculean pursuit should furnish the nation with a singular and long-awaited moment.
But it requires a multilayered administrative apparatus to fulfill the worthy aspirations envisioned by our president and Congress.
The infrastructure effort’s implementation would benefit from the appointment of a 21st-century reincarnation of Vannevar Bush (1890-1974). A talented multifaceted administrator — appointed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1941 — Bush served as executive director of the newly established Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD). Not requiring Senate confirmation in taking this catalytic step, Roosevelt immediately granted Bush ready access to the Oval Office.
Vannevar Bush! When we recall the catalytic individuals of the Second World War immediately we turn to the key leaders in uniformed services — especially George Marshall as well as Dwight D. Eisenhower, William Halsey, Jr., William D. Leahy, Douglas MacArthur, Chester W. Nimitz — among others. Unquestionably Bush served the nation with great distinction, but opted to carry out his monumental charge purposefully cloaked in anonymity.
The recipient of a joint doctorate in electrical engineering from Harvard and MIT, Bush had achieved an exhaustive list of bona fides: a founder of Raytheon, professor as well as dean of electrical engineering at MIT, then as its vice president and subsequently president of the Carnegie Foundation. Bush is credited with developing the analog computer, among numerous other milestones. Indeed he set the path for the ascent of our digital age.
Bush immediately faced the rapid unfolding of World War II as Germany’s fearsome forces ran rampant over eastern and western Europe. The catastrophic fall of France virtually coincided with these circumstances. Bush foresaw the imperative for harnessing American defense requirements to the nation’s scientific expertise. He sketched for Roosevelt, in their brief, fateful meeting, the urgency to draw upon university research centers as well as expertise from the private sector for the inevitable national mobilization already underway. Instantly Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8807, establishing OSRD.
The design of OSRD required civilian control. This significant decision came about due to unrelenting inter-service rivalries experienced during the First World War. Bush successfully melded disparate resources for developing an array of weaponry required by the Allied fighting forces.
Key OSRD achievements included guided missiles, proximity fuses, fuzes, radar and the battle-field-ready walkie-talkie. Visiting the United States to observe military maneuvers, Prime Minister Winston Churchill marveled at the latter. He proclaimed the device as an iconic symbol of American technological expertise. OSRD’s little-known medical division had a role in developing, producing and distributing penicillin. Its availability greatly diminished Allied battlefield fatalities during the D-Day invasion.
Ultimately OSRD would expend $500 billion during the course of the war.
During the 1930s Bush had expressed disdain for President Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation, pointing to its unwarranted encroachment upon private enterprise. (His partisan affiliation, if any, remains unclear). This prompted Bush to suggest to the president, in the course of devising OSRD, that the powerful agency should disband soon after the war concluded.
The postwar legacy of Bush culminated in 1950, when President Harry Truman signed legislation authorizing the formation of the National Science Foundation. Bush believed the new agency — unquestionably inspired by the wartime role of OSRD — would advance the nation’s capacity for scientific and technological research in a sprawling network of freestanding laboratories and on university campuses.
President Joe Biden would be well advised to contemplate the legacies of Bush and OSRD as his administration formulates its strategy to implement legislation to remedy as well as expand the nation’s much-depleted infrastructure while avoiding wasted resources and political favoritism.
Michael H. Ebner is the James D. Vail III professor of American history, emeritus, at Lake Forest College.
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