[Gangnam Perspective] Killian and Ha Jung-woo

When the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik satellite, U.S. President Dwight David Eisenhower was resting on a farm near Washington, D.C. It was Friday afternoon, October 4, 1957. His response to the emergency call was unexpectedly calm. He believed the satellite itself was not an immediate nuclear weapon and that a small satellite would not upset the military balance. What he failed to grasp, however, was the public’s fear. In his later memoirs, he admitted that this judgment was a painful mistake.
The entire United States was thrown into panic. Fear that the Soviet Union was watching America from overhead and could drop bombs at any time did not easily subside. The media attacked the government fiercely, saying the country had suffered a scientific Pearl Harbor. Faced with uncontrollable public opinion, Eisenhower summoned members of the White House Science Advisory Committee to the White House. It was ten days after the Sputnik launch. "Appoint a powerful Science Czar who can stay right next to the president and speak up," they urged. That was when the post of Special Adviser to the President for Science and Technology was created.
After the emergency White House meeting, Sherman Adams was the first to act. He called the president’s office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge. That was the moment James Rhyne Killian, the man who helped lay the foundation for U.S. technological dominance, stepped onto the stage of history. President Killian was not a sudden choice of the Eisenhower administration. When Eisenhower, early in his presidency, was looking for experts to assess the possibility of a surprise Soviet attack, Killian was the one strongly recommended by senior figures in the scientific community.
At the president’s request, Killian later drafted a 190-page proposal on advanced strategy for technology security. Eisenhower remembered him. So when the scientists gathered at the White House named Killian as the right person to become the president’s first science adviser, he did not hesitate. When Killian met Eisenhower one-on-one after Adams’s call, he asked for three things: the authority to report directly to the president, coordination power over scattered science projects across the military and government, and the authority to set priorities for science spending. The president’s televised address to the nation was then made official.
The 15-minute speech began by saying that America’s defense remained strong, but its highlight came in the latter half, when Eisenhower declared a science and technology war. He announced that Killian would have full authority to oversee all government science programs from right beside the president and to clear away bottlenecks. Investment in education, talent, and the future came at the very end. He declared a sweeping reform of institutions and systems, saying that the outcome of war would be decided in the classroom. Citizens cheered, while the military and the bureaucracy stirred uneasily.
Killian, now armed with sweeping authority, moved without hesitation. He pushed for the creation of NASA, arguing that space development should be led by a civilian agency rather than the military. He also helped establish ARPA, the predecessor of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), as an organization meant to ensure that future technologies would not be blocked by bureaucracy. It was there that the Internet, GPS, and stealth technology would later emerge. Killian and a group of scientists also helped shape the National Defense Education Act (NDEA), which funneled enormous funding into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Eisenhower, Killian’s powerful backer, seemed like a dull leader in his own time, but the view is different now. He is being reevaluated as a shrewd strategist who prepared the United States for the era of technological dominance.
What about our situation? We are living through an AI shock that is no less serious than the Sputnik shock. Ha Jung-woo, the former Senior Presidential Secretary for AI Policy and Future Strategy, said that AI will determine the nation’s future survival and that the next three years, or at most five, are the last golden window. He was the country’s AI commander, entrusted with unprecedented authority and responsibility. Ten months ago, the Office of the President said it created the post to rapidly strengthen the nation’s AI competitiveness. Now, Ha, who was brought in for that role, is suddenly back in his hometown campaigning in a by-election. He is roaming markets and alleyways, asking for votes as a local worker. It is hard to imagine a post tied to the nation’s future looking this light. The golden time is still passing.
jins@fnnews.com Reporter