People like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs packaged the research for popular consumption, but there would have been no Apple and no Microsoft without Whirlwind and SAGE.
At the same time vast amounts of military spending are pure pork - either spent corruptly, spent on projects that are plainly silly (like a 50s attempt to create a nuclear powered bomber), or militarily and diplomatically questionable, like missile defence.
The US could probably afford to cut military spending by 50 or 75% without losing any real military effectiveness.
