"One Small Step For Man"......

[ngauger]

Now if we could only realize his dreams of no wars, conflicts and other distractions....

Romulans? Klingons? etc.?. . . . . maybe just a bit more than an "other distraction?".
Phasers, and Photon torpedoes, were not really "research tools".

The original premise was that they were for protection... (think a policeman's Revolver" they are never supposed to be used for offense, only defense)

The largest thing brought forward was that the UFP Was using all of there assets and R&D for Space Exploration (To Explore strange new worlds)...

The Romulans and Klingons used their R&D and Assets for warmaking... That was a huge point he wanted to get across.. another interesting point is that the Vulcans where a Non-emotional race, based on the premise that they were supposedly a cousin of the Romulans, when they split off years before The UFP was formed. It shows how 2 "Kids" can grow up oh so different....

The Klingons represented the Russkies, The Romulans were just another race to not keep using the Klingons and in one show -- We saw the Yangs and the Chomes.... Yankees and Communists... Every show was a lesson learned... some very interesting teachings for a Cold War nation....