Although the United States was envisioned from centuries back as a Utopia that would become the core of an empire to replace the British Empire
My reading of US history suggests nothing of the sort. The US was formed as an inward looking collection of semi-independent states that was first and foremost concerned with spreading across the face of the North American continent and their own indepence.
Let us not forget the words of Quincy Adams, speaking as sixth US president, about the objectives of the US state when developing and implementing the US constitution:
They had before them in their new position, besides the maintenance of the independence which they had declared, three great objects to attain; the first, to cement and prepare for perpetuity their common union and that of their posterity; the second, to erect and organize civil and municipal governments in their respective states: and the third, to form connections of friendship and of commerce with foreign nations.
Nothing of empire building, or utopias, in that. Adams goes on to admonish about US foreign policy:
Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will recommend the general cause, by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example.
that plan went wrong beginning in 1906 when Rockefeller's General Education Board started off the work of destroying education in the USA.
Well, I'd argue that this "plan" never existed, and education in the US was pretty much sub-standard compared to most of Europe until at least the mid 1850s.
The Rockefeller GEB gets spread about in all sorts of conspiracy lunacy. As far as I can tell, it did a lot to promote K to 12 education, founded some left leaning think tanks and started a lot of high schools, some with an agricultural focus, in the Southern states of the US.
Although highly respected in World War I, American soldiers by WW2 were not well thought of.
You may want to re-read your history here.
The US armed forces were sneered at generally by European states prior to late 1917 - the US Army was initially viewed as little more than a police force incapable of fighting the large scale, set piece battles that had been going on in Europe for the past three years.
As the war progressed, the perception of the average US solider changed. Initially, US soliders were viewed as almost suicidally overconfident (or brave), very good riflemen with superb personal equipment, but very poorly led at both the lower and upper command levels and seriously ill-equipped on a strategic level in terms of transport, support weapons, field artillery, and logistics. After about 6 months of fighting, the US solider was viewed as probably better led at the lower level, still very brave but not as likely to take the initiative as the Canadians or Australians and much more willing to lavish equipment and men on objectives than the French or British were.
And the 'Manhattan Project' was almost entirely staffed by foreign scientists,
I think you'll find that the Manhattan project was staffed overwhelmingly by US and UK nationals. There were a few foreign scientists - mostly European nuclear physicists fleeing Fascism and/or Communism - but overall the project was mostly American with secondy British input.
and the shortage of Americans to work in the highest levels of technology has remained a problem.
Not since the 1940s. US STEM education has suffered a little since the 1980s, but generally the US has been able to attract the best brains from around the world to emigrate.
My own experience is that it is becoming worse as the white male non veterans who for whatever reason have led so many successful companies and innovations - Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Henry Ford, Nicholai Tesla, Enrico Fermi, Albert Einstein etc. are now the category so heavily discriminated against.
Evidence of such a pattern of discrimination? Personal experience can never be convincing evidence, because its personal.
Equality is good, a more equal distribution of wealth is essential, breaking the system where members of the elite select other members of the elite into the revolving doors of success in government, trusts, and banks is also essential, but a quota system working solely against white non-veteran males is something we can not afford.
Evidence of such a quota system?
Historically speaking, prior to WWII the US was a world leader industrially almost across the board, but a leader only in a few scientific/technological areas. The leaders in the world in scientific endeavors in the late 1930s were Germany, the UK and France, which were the old centres of research and development.
The US underwent an exceptionally rapid technological and scientific growth through the mid to late 1930s into the late 1960s, completely changing the ball game. There were a couple of reasons for this:
Immigration - Einstein and Fermi fled European Nazism, Tesla got out of Serbia (for France, then the US) in the late 1800s because of a repressive state. Basically, the rise of fascism and communism in Western and Eastern Europe and their repression of intellectuals prompted a lot of the smart people to get out. Look at your list of people - most of them are immigrants or the sons of immigrants.
Knowledge and wealth transfer - French and British scientists and delegations visited the US through the 1930s in an effort to harness the tremendous industrial and manpower resources of the US in their impending struggle against Nazism. When war did break out, collaborative research projects were established, which had the effect of dragging the US forward technologically in some key areas.
Funding - The US, not to mention its European allies, poured huge sums of money into ensuring technological parity/superiority in the war effort, as well as in education. US college enrollments doubled between 1938 and 1942 and then doubled again between 1942 and 1948. The G.I. Bill may have been the greatest achievement in US public education since establishing mandatory primary education in the early 1840s.
