persuaded Congress to enact the "War on Cancer" legislation; how Senator Edward Kennedy championed the cause in the US Senate; how Rep. Paul Rogers brokered a compromise that kept the National Cancer Institute within the National Institutes of Health; and how President Richard Nixon embraced the legislation even though he had earlier proposed to cut the cancer research budget. In the wave of technological enthusiasm from putting a man on the moon, the account documents the exaggerated claims for cancer research advanced by advocates of the legislation and the sober evaluation by the scientific community of prospects for a cure for cancer. The 1971 National Cancer Act set the stage for major expansion of federal financing of cancer research.

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