Since World War II the U.S. military has been a large supporter and customer of computer research and development (R&D), advancing and shaping the development of computers. During World War II both Allied and Axis military forces pushed the limits of their technologies to gather and interpret information on each other. The Allied forces accumulated vast amounts of information on German forces, much of which was encrypted, and the American and British militaries began funding cryptography research and purchasing computing machines that could decipher encrypted information.

The military's need for technology during World War II was the basis for a new and close relationship between the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), American universities, and American corporations, a relationship dubbed the "military-industrial complex" by President Eisenhower in his famous farewell speech of 1961. (Eisenhower mentioned the involvement of universities, but perhaps...