As someone who wasn't alive then either, it's a rather well documented period of history, albeit mostly in dead tree form. Karnow is probably the classic (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0140265473/).

To use a more modern analogy that exists on the internet, the 2010 US military research / development / testing budget looks like it was around USD$80b.

Or in other terms, roughly equal to the total of all research spending by all other branches of the US government. (http://www.aaas.org/sites/default/files/RDGDP_1.jpg)

Now you're a university professor / dean / president. Times are hard (they always are, you're in academia). There's a huge pie sitting right next to the one you've been fighting over, and all you have to do is work on certain technologies that may or may not have lethal consequences.

I wouldn't take the bet on many people saying "No thanks, I'll be happy giving up grant money for moral reasons."