Yet, with the cooling of public sentiment for technology in the mid-1970s, the nuclear power industry came to a stalemate. During the decades of the 1960s and 1970s, we saw the rise of an enonnous public cynicism toward technologists and technology. Industrialists were characterized as wrong until proven right. Amenca's manned space program, ushered into existence with great fanfare and public interest in the 1960s, almost faded from the skies during the mid-1970s, when the public's fancy turned away. More recently, however, we have seen signs Hat the public view has turned around again.
Technology seems to be back In favor.
It is also necessary if our economy is to grow and prosper. Our Academy itself was founded in 1964 as a result of the cyclic shift in public attention. But by the middle of the twentieth century, with the RussianlAmencan race to space in progress, engineering had achieved a stature of special importance. The National Academy of Engineering was established under the 1863 congressional charter by which the National Academy of Sciences was cre- ated. NAE was created to advise the Congress and the executive branch on matters of engineering.