The Secret History of Silicon Valley
Steve Blank, a Silicon Valey engineer, investor and ex-Air Force tech, wrote an interesting “Secret History of Silicon Valley”. He draws a direct line from wartime work on radar and early EW efforts at government-sponsored university labs to the emergence of the entrepreneurial Silicon Valley “system” of today. Quite enlightening; you can either watch him give a talk here:
youtube.com/watch?v=ZTC_RxWN_xo
or read the (multi-part) story here:
steveblank.com/2009/03/23/if-i-told-you-i’d-have-to-kill-you-the-story-behind-the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley/
The WW2 parts seem to be here:
steveblank.com/2009/04/27/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-vi-the-secret-life-of-fred-terman-and-stanford/