If we wait for a dramatic event — a 21st-century version of Sputnik — it will be too late. There may be no attack, no moment of epiphany, no catastrophe that will suddenly demonstrate the threat. Rather there will be a slow withering, a gradual decline, a widening gap between a complacent America and countries with the drive, vision, and commitment to take our place.
Almost 50 years ago, the Soviet Union shocked Americans by launching Sputnik, the first Earth orbit satellite. The U.S. response was immediate and dramatic. Less than a year later, President Eisenhower signed into law the National Defense Education Act, a major part of the effort to restore America's scientific pre-eminence.
