The Study Of U.S. National Defense Education Act In Cold War

"National Defense Education Act" is a educational legislation which was passed by U.S. Congress on August 23th, 1958 and signed by President Eisenhower ,coming into effect on September 2th,1958.The act lead an extremely important position in the history of American education and had profound impacts not only on education itself, but also on the society and economy of whole country, or even widely known abroad.Science and technology is one of the most active factors in the field of national defense. National defense and science and technology penetrate ,cross each other, forming into the organic integration of the national defense science and technology,which is the most advanced and most promising part in the whole field of science and technology. The Cold War started after World War II. The United States government had stressed that it would use different methods starting from the strength to deal with challenges facing the potential threat against the Soviet Union. Science and technology was a major area to compete with the Soviet Union. Science education had become an important instrument of the Cold War.This paper tries to study "National Defense Education Act" absorbing of research results at home and abroad on the basis of the Cold War and strive for in-depth analysis of relationships among Cold war,U.S. national defence, U.S.education. Science and technology was one field in which they compete with each other.In this particular context, the competition in this area had been ongoing. The"Sputnik"event occurred in 1957. The United States from all walks of life were aware of the backwardness of education in the case of direct stimulation. The "National Defense Education Act" was passed favorably coupling with the drawbacks of Progressive Education Movement gradually emerged.This paper analyzes the backgrounds,contents and impacts of "National Defense Education Act" deeply and puts forward my suggestions aiming at the reality of our national education.According to this, this paper analyzes and discusses and can be divided into five parts approximately.The first part mainly introduces the concept of the United States national defense in the first session of Eisenhower. National defense and science and technology are closely related. Never-ending changes and improvements in high-tech areas had tremendous and far-reaching impacts on national defence. The first session of the Eisenhower administration, emphasized the support for scientific research and technical talents.Of course, "National Defense Education Act" was also passed during his first administration.The second part analyzes the backgrounds of "National Defense Education Act". The Cold War had been a characteristic between post-war and before the ending of Cold War. "National Defense Education Act" can not be separated from the background of the broad context of the Cold War.This section focuses on the impact of the fuse of the law -"Sputnik"event.Besides,the analysis of educational background is also included.The third part analyzes the contents of "National Defense Education Act". This chapter focuses on the specific content of the law and makes the corresponding analysis and interpretation.The fourth part analyzes the expansions and impacts of "National Defense Education Act". The law had undergone two expansions in order to adapt to the new situations.The impacts of the law are multi-faceted and extremely far-reaching, including the status of United States and Soviet Union in the Cold War .The fifth part analyzes the revelations of "National Defense Education Act" for our country,which include the referential experience and apparently include the lessons we should learn.