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Mansfield Amendment (1969): Difference between revisions
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[[File:Mansfield-Amendment-1969-Cover.jpg|thumb]] | [[File:Mansfield-Amendment-1969-Cover.jpg|thumb|Implementation Of 1970 Defense Procurement Authorization Act Requiring Relationship Of Research To Specific Military Functions (Original Document)]] | ||
'''[https://www.gao.gov/assets/b-167034-d12080.pdf The Mansfield Amendment of 1969]''' was a provision (Section 203, Public Law 91-121) attached to the Military Procurement Authorization Act of 1970 that restricted the use of Department of Defense (DoD) funds for research. | |||
The amendment stated that DoD funds could only be used for research that had a '''direct and apparent relationship to a specific military function or operation'''. In effect, it prohibited the Department of Defense from funding basic or fundamental research that lacked an immediate, obvious military application. | |||
== Background and purpose == | |||
In the late 1960s, during the Vietnam War era, widespread anti-war sentiment on American university campuses led to criticism of the military's deep involvement in funding academic research. The DoD, particularly through the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA, later DARPA), had become a major sponsor of broad scientific work in fields such as computer science, materials science, and behavioral sciences that often had no clear military purpose. | |||
Senator [[Mike Mansfield]] (D-Montana), the Senate Majority Leader, argued that funds appropriated for national defense should not be used to subsidize general scientific inquiry, a role that properly belonged to civilian agencies such as the [[National Science Foundation]] (NSF). The amendment was intended to curb perceived military overreach into academia and to ensure that defense appropriations were spent only on projects with direct military relevance. | |||
== Impact == | |||
The amendment had an immediate and lasting effect on U.S. military-funded research. ARPA was forced to terminate, rejustify with explicit military applications, or transfer many of its basic research projects. Notable examples include early work that led to the [[ARPANET]] (predecessor to the Internet), which had to be reframed or moved. | |||
Many fundamental research programs previously supported by the DoD migrated to the NSF and other civilian agencies. Although the strictest form of the amendment applied primarily to fiscal year 1970 and was later softened in subsequent legislation, it marked a permanent shift in American science policy, reducing the military's role as a patron of unrestricted basic research and pushing DoD funding toward shorter-term, applied projects. | |||
== On X == | |||
=== 2021 === | === 2021 === | ||