"...The 1950s were not good years for mathematical research. [the] Secretary of Defense ...had a pathological fear and hatred of the word, research... I decided therefore to use the word, "programming". I wanted to get across the idea that this was dynamic, this was multistage... I thought, let's ... take a word that has an absolutely precise meaning, namely dynamic... it's impossible to use the word, dynamic, in a pejorative sense. Try thinking of some combination that will possibly give it a pejorative meaning. It's impossible. Thus, I thought dynamic programming was a good name. It was something not even a Congressman could object to."