Kinda, it wasn't shot down. The US actually started down the path of conversion. The real reason that US metrication failed was that conversion was voluntary. The UK went through a similar change but metrication was mandatory for all industries. In the US most businesses and industries just decided it cost too much to change so they didn't.
tastyfreeze|6 years ago
https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/documents/pml/wmd/m...