Goodness, it is. Quick Look at the Early History of the Internet
President Dwight D. Eisenhower initiated the Advanced Research
Projects Agency (ARPA) after the Soviet launch of Sputnik I in
1957. Eisenhower believed in the great value of science, and
formed ARPA in 1958 in a quest for “the scientific improvement”
of U.S. defense. This project employed, at one time or another,
some of the finest engineers and scientists of the late 20th
century. The early emphasis was on missile-defense systems and
the detection of nuclear bomb tests. It wasn’t until 1962, when
J.C.R. Licklider arrived on the management team, that ARPA began
investigating the idea of networked computers. In the early
1960s, Licklider, Leonard Kleinrock, Paul Baran, Lawrence
Roberts and other research scientists came up with the ideas
that allowed them to individually dream of and eventually come
together to create a globally interconnected set of computers
through which everyone could quickly and easily access data and
programs from any site.