ARPA (later, DARPA) - The (Defense) Advanced Research Projects Agency

"...to provide within the Department of Defense an agency for the direction and performance of certain advanced research and development projects."    - Original DARPA Directive
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"DARPA’s mission is to maintain the technological superiority of the U.S. military and prevent technological surprise from harming our national security by sponsoring revolutionary, high-payoff research bridging the gap between fundamental discoveries and their military use."

- DARPA Mission Statement (from website)

Purpose - The Beginnings of ARPA

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Dwight D. Eisenhower



In 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite. President Eisenhower immediately took action by establishing ARPA and NASA in 1958.
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Sputnik
"DARPA’s original mission, established in 1958, was to prevent technological surprise like the launch of Sputnik, which signaled that the Soviets had beaten the U.S. into space.
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Today, DARPA’s mission is still to prevent technological surprise to the US,
but also to create technological surprise for our enemies."

- DARPA Stragegic Plan, Bridging the Gap Powered By Ideas
"[The Soviet Union] was very much behind in computers. This was related to the fact that the Russians could build very large rockets to launch their satellites and so had no urgent need to develop advanced computers to control the launches; their rockets had plenty of boost capability. On the other hand, since the United States had not developed as powerful rockets, they had to carefully control the launches with computers, and so focused on advancing computer technology."
- Leonard Kleinrock, 3/13/13