One of the most important reports in science policy, (commonly known as the Bush report), and intended to be a blueprint for a new era of science—and of government in science—following the transformational experience of World War II and its technological culmination in the detonation of two atomic bombs over Japan.

A principal objective of Bush and his colleagues was the continued importance of maintaining military superiority for the United States. This, they reasoned, would require heavy investments by the government in defense-related research at universities and national laboratories.