ARPA was an expedient solution born in the midst of crisis, and as 1959 came to a close, its brief but chaotic life seemed to be almost over. In less than two years, it had taken the mantle of the country’s first space agency and had pushed its agenda for advanced technology aggressively. Yet it had lost more battles than it had won, and it still had neither its own offices nor any permanent employees. That ARPA survived much beyond 1959 could be credited, not completely, but in large part, to Godel, who understood how badly ARPA had bungled relations with the White House and the scientists
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