Apologies ahead of time for any sarcastic tone or offense. This one is a real pet peave of mine.
Honestly, the fact that this is being discussed is stunning to me. The idea that it was a US government pet project from the beginning is actually historically inaccurate. The US government loves to claim it (like everything else) as “their idea,” however in reality it was developed by university scientists starting in the 1960s in the hopes that they could come up with a system for rapid, wide-area communication for scientific and research purposes. According to the Internet Society (ISOC.org), the order of events goes something like this:
1961 - Leonard Kleinrock (MIT) publishes the first paper (1961) on Packet Switching Theory.
August 1962 - Scientist JCR Licklider (MIT) developed the first concept of a “Galactic Network.” It is not a published work, but a series of memos exchanged between colleagues (at least that is the impression I get). In October of that same year, Licklider becomes the first head for computer research at DARPA, however he is responsible for the internet only by frameworking the idea of a Network and by convincing other DARPA personnel of the importance of the topic when other scientists build on his idea and submit to DARPA for funding. Licklider drops off the radar from network research at this time.
1964 - Kleinrock publishes the first book (1964) on Packet Swithcing Theory. Kleinrock’s work - along with that of Licklider - convinces fellow MIT researcher Lawrence G. Roberts of the feasibility of a network, and the two commence work on the first network.
1965 - L. G. Roberts, working with Thomas Merrill of California, successfully connects a TX-2 computer in Massachusettes with a Q-32 computer in California using a dial-up connection. It is officially recognized as the world’s first wide area network, and is the beginning of the internet as such. It is a proof of concept for Dr. Licklider’s idea of the Galactic Network.
Late 1966 - L. G. Roberts applies for and receives funding from DARPA to continue research and development of the network. The project at this point becomes monopolized by the US government - with the exception of small, independently developed networks that begin popping up in the 1970s - and will not again see the light of day until 1985. Note that the DARPA network would later become the Department of Defense backbones which remain classified in their wiring, switching, et cetera locations and inaccessible to the public to this day.
1970s - Small, purpose-built networks crop up from time to time; however, with the exception of USENET and BITNET, these networks are restricted to groups of scholars for use on specific research, and none are intercompatible.
1973 - TCP/IP is conceptualized.
1 January 1983 - DARPA’s ARPANET switches completely to a TCP/IP system, replacing the older NCP systems.
1985 - the US National Science Foundation (NSF) develops the NSFNET. However, it is the monopoly of government funded academic organizations and users are banned from any use of the system for anything other than research and educational purposes under the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). During this same time, communication finally begins between DARPA, other government agencies, and private vendors on development of TCP/IP systems outside of strict US Government only use. Most vendors, however, are still producing for government contract.
April 1995 - the NSF terminates public funding of its network and turns over funding and technology to private ISPs beginning the internet as we know it today. However, the internet is not open to definition. It is given (in October of the same year) a legal definition which makes it so that only TCP/IP systems can be considered “internet” thus representing a forced transition of all networking systems to TCP/IP.
Working source, Internet Society (ISOC): http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/brief.shtml
So, no, the Government did not “develop the internet.” The internet had already been developed to the point of proof of concept. The government then stepped in and funded the continuation of the project using stolen money. In all likelihood, had tax rates not been as exorbidant (sp?) as they were in the 1960s and had Roberts and his colleagues been able to convince business leaders of the potential profits of such a system - which they probably would have been able to do - it is unlikely that DARPA would have been the one funding it. Money down it would have been IBM or some other major manufacturer of the time who did the funding. People who like to say, “but government invented [insert pet project here]” neglect the fact that the government far more often squelches scientific research than encourages it. When people have to go begging before Uncle Sam (or whoever) to scratch up enough money to pursue their projects, it destroyes innovation, not encourages it.
There you have it…the history of the internet in a nutshell. Did the government fund it and fascilitate it? Yes, absolutely. However, to believe that private industry - if allowed to its own ends instead of wantonly robbed by the government - would not have done the same is at best naive. In fact, had the internet been developed through private industry, it probably would have been developed faster, and people probably would have been reaping its benefits long before now. Instead, through DARPA, it was kept as a wonderfully secret pet project of the government, hidden from private investors and the public eye until the government let the cat out of the bag, and then, “zowee!!! Government gave us the internet!” Balogna! Government didn’t give us the internet, they witheld it from us until there were so many tiny, incompatible networks running around as scientists played guessing games as to how it was done that the government finally let things out. Then, when it didn’t move fase enough for them, when scientists continued searching for better ways, they forced the DARPA/NSF method on private industry with no consideration for efficiency or desiere of the scientists themselves. Internet was delayed from use by private enterprise for nearly thirty years, not being fully privatized until 1995, because of this kind of stupidity. The only exception to this was small networks that only cropped up where people could scratch together enough funding and capital to construct local- and wide-area networks. However, thes LANs and WANs were nothing like what we see today because of the sheer mass of capital that was drained from the economy by overtaxation and inflation during the 1960s and 1970s.