I knew Vannevar Bush and this fellow is no Vannevar Bush. The NY Times author states:
As developed by Bush, the compact between the American government and the universities created the National Science Foundation and reorganized the National Institutes of Health. The central message of the compact was this: The United States would commit taxpayer dollars to fund research primarily through its universities, not through government-controlled laboratories. The universities would be given intellectual autonomy to conduct research deemed by peer scientists and engineers to be of the highest potential to advance the country. The government would not invade the space of free inquiry and academic freedom, because that would limit the ability of scientists to be fully creative.
Now the first part of the above is true. The last sentence is in my opinion more a creation of the author to justify the assault on students, faculty and staff at Columbia. Scientists and Engineers, to be proper and correct, Bush was an Electrical Engineer at MIT before his trip to DC, and the Government support was for both science and engineering. The Government support was limited by statements of work. I cannot think of any open ended checks being sent. The Government support had work statements. One could not do whatever one thought of interest. That last statement is wrong. If an academic had some idea outside the scope of work, fine, go somewhere to get support, such as a VC.
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