The railroads were heavily subsidized and enabled by government. Without eminent domain authority and grants of government lands, the great railroads would never have happened. The first substantial airplane network in the U.S. was the Post Office's air mail service. Most of the existing U.S. airlines evolved from air mail contractors. Aircraft technology was heavily pushed forward by government spending in World War I and World War II. The first supersonic plane was a government project, as well as the first hypersonic plane.

In other areas: The transistor was invented by the research arm of a government-granted monopoly; nuclear technology was pioneered by a government weapons project; the double helix was discovered at a publicly-funded university; we're talking to each other over a network created as a department of defense program; much of the field of artificial intelligence was developed under the department of defense.

The U.S. government linked the pacific and atlantic oceans through the panama canal; the Army Corps of Engineers made the southwest habitable; the Army Corps of Engineers built and maintains the locks that makes the Mississippi easily navigable.

The 20th century is a triumph of the American model: government policy-making and funding/subsidization combined with implementation by independent public or private entities.

Many of these examples are a stretch:

(1) The transistor/monopoly theory make no sense. The US government never granted AT&T a monopoly but broke it up in 1982 when they discovered it was a monopoly.

(2) I don't think the residents of New Orleans would agree that Army Corps of Engineers should be a model for anything.

I'm sure there are some truly great non-military US government accomplishments but I just can't think of any...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Army_Corps_of_Engineers_ci...