The Imagineers of War

by Sharon Weinberger

  In Kraków, Marek Vetulani was an important sounding board for ideas, and Wojciech Kolarski and Agata Kolarska made me feel at home in the city. In New York, Nina Burleigh of Newsweek made sure I did not become a book-writing hermit. I am also grateful to the entire staff of The Intercept, particularly the editor in chief, Betsy Reed, for allowing me to hide out for nine months in Cambridge, Massachusetts, so that I could finish the manuscript. In Cambridge, I thank Subrata Ghoshroy of MIT and Kevin Kit Parker of Harvard University for their ideas and interest in my topic. Finally, I thank Loretta Oliver, who transcribed the majority of the interviews conducted for this book; she has been a virtual companion on a long journey.

  My family has been a source of support, in ways big and small. I am grateful to my brother Marc Weinberger, and his wife, Kacey, for their encouragement in California while I conducted interviews there, and to their children, Eli and Talia, who like to read books; I hope they will want to read mine someday. And I thank my father, to whom this book is dedicated, for teaching me to love ideas.

  I am also deeply indebted to Nathan Hodge, who provided advice and encouragement during the critical early stages of this book, as well as to his father, Brien Hodge, who shared his thoughts and recollections on being a military adviser in Vietnam. Nathan also sent me pictures and notes chronicling the sad fate of the Taj Guest House and its tiki bar, a poignant symbol of America’s failure in Afghanistan.

  —

  This book was the first opportunity I had to work extensively with the incredible staff at the National Archives and Records Administration, including at the presidential libraries. Many staff there assisted me, but I am particularly grateful to David Fort, at the National Archives in College Park, for his help in processing my FOIA requests.

  As I mention in the note on sources, Kathleen “Kay” Godel-Gengenbach was generous enough to share significant portions of her father’s unpublished memoir as they pertained to DARPA. She also answered countless questions about her father’s career and pointed me to archival sources I would never have found on my own. I admire Kay’s devotion to the historical record and the protectiveness she has toward her father’s legacy. I have tried to balance respecting the Godel family’s desire for privacy with the historical obligation to shed light on his neglected contributions to DARPA’s history.

  I also thank Dick Davis of the Kyoto Symposium Organization and Jay Scovie of the Inamori Foundation, for the generous fellowship that allowed me to attend the Kyoto Prize Symposium in Japan, where I interviewed Ivan Sutherland. I also thank Robert Dujarric, director of the Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies, Temple University, in Tokyo, and Yuri Ota, my translator in Japan, whose idea it was to interview a Nagasaki survivor. And I am grateful to Richard Weiss, DARPA’s director of strategic communications, who knows it is more important to have the story right than favorable.

  Many former employees of DARPA agreed to speak to me, even knowing that this book was intended as a critical history of the agency and its legacy, and I am grateful for their time and candor. I regret that a number of those whom I interviewed, including Lee Huff, co-author of the 1975 history of DARPA, passed away before I could finish this book. I will always be grateful to the late Seymour Deitchman, who spent his final days making sure I had as much information as he could provide. Finally, I am incredibly thankful to Stephen Lukasik, who more than any other former DARPA official gave me countless hours of his time, with no expectation that the story I wrote would reflect his views or thoughts. It is no coincidence that he commissioned the 1975 history and contributed significantly to this current book.

  I also benefited from the support of two great institutions: the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. The bulk of the research and interviews for this book was conducted in 2012–2013, while I was a fellow at the Wilson Center. I am grateful to the entire staff, and particularly Kent Hughes and Robert Litwak for believing in my project. Cole Thomas and Ryan Ricks, my interns there, contributed invaluably to the research, and my colleague from that year, Laura Gomez-Mera, has been a continuing source of moral support and friendship.

  The Radcliffe Institute hosted me during the final stages of this book, in 2015–2016. The staff, including its director, Judith Vichniac, and the dean, Lizabeth Cohen, has created an unparalleled atmosphere for scholars, writers, and artists. At Radcliffe, I was fortunate to have unbelievably talented research partners, particularly Paul Banks, whose careful fact-checking saved me from many embarrassing errors (and he is in no way responsible for any that remain). I also thank my other partners, Caleb Lewis, Pat O’Hara, and Jordan Feri.

  Special thanks go to my friends and colleagues at Radcliffe, and in particular the second-floor “sherry hour” crew, including Ayesha Chaudhry, Elliott Colla, Ann-Christine Duhaime, Wendy Gan, Sarah Howe, William Hurst, Raúl Jiménez, Philip Klein, Valérie Massadian, Scott Milner, Michael Pollan, and Licia Verde. They taught me about issues ranging from Arabic poetry to polymer physics. They encouraged me to pursue my obsessions. Most important, they made me laugh. For those nine months, I owe them perhaps the greatest debt.

  Sharon Weinberger

  Cambridge, Massachusetts

  March 2016

  Notes

  PROLOGUE: GUNS AND MONEY

  In June 1961: Godel/Wylie trial transcript, United States of America v. William Hermann Godel, John Archibald Wylie, and James Robert Loftis, R. Criminal No. 4171, National Archives, Atlanta.

  called Godel an “operator”: Bundy, interview with William Moss, John F. Kennedy Library.

  “He was one of the more glamorous”: Huff, interview with author.

  more than five hundred in Thailand alone: This number is based on a directory of ARPA personnel in Thailand, dated 1968, provided to the author. The number is also supported by documents held in the National Archives, though the directory provides the most specific count.

  whose seminal work: David Galula, Pacification in Algeria, 1956–1958 (Santa Monica, Calif.: Rand, 1963). Rand released a new addition in 2006 to respond to a surge of interest in Galula’s work on counterinsurgency. Both the original and the reprint acknowledge that the research for the book was supported by the Advanced Research Projects Agency.

  personally signed off: J. Ruina, ARPA Order 471, April 15, 1963; J. C. R. Licklider, ARPA Program Plan 93, April 5, 1963. It is worth noting that these documents, posted online by the National Archives, College Park, are part of a record series not yet declassified.

  The final document was regarded: Huff, interview with author.

  the new director was aghast: George Heilmeier, interview with author.

  CHAPTER 1: SCIENTIA POTENTIA EST

  Michiaki Ikeda was a chubby-faced: Ikeda, interview with author.

  more than twenty kilotons: The most reliable estimate appears to be twenty-one kilotons. John Malik, The Yields of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Nuclear Explosions (Los Alamos, N.M.: Los Alamos National Laboratory, 1985).

  the majority of the people: U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, The Effects of Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1946).

  seventy thousand people: The estimates vary widely and a precise number would be impossible to know. This figure comes from the Department of Energy’s Manhattan Project: An Interactive History, www.osti.gov.

  “You have known for several years”: Alvarez (Headquarters Atomic Bomb Command) to Ryokichi Sagane, Aug. 9, 1945.

  “We have spent two billion dollars”: Statement by President Harry Truman, White House, Aug. 6, 1945.

  “We have made war obsolete”: York, Making Weapons, Talking Peace, 25.

  The V-2, a liquid-propelled rocket: Chertok, Rockets and People, 2:242.

  “This is absolutely intolerable”: Quoted in G. A. Tokaty, “Soviet Rocket Technology,” Technology and Culture 4, no. 4, The History of Rocket Technology (Autumn 1963): 523.

  The Soviets’
hunt for technical expertise: “While inspecting German factories and laboratories, don’t get carried away with intellectual achievements, but first and foremost compile a list of the types and number of machine tools, industrial engineering equipment, and instruments,” was one directive. Chertok, Rockets and People, 2:218.

  “The Americans looked for brains”: Paul H. Satterfield and David S. Akens, Historical Monograph: Army Ordnance Satellite Program (Fort Belvoir, Va.: Defense Technical Information Center, 1958).

  “Do you realize”: Tokaty, “Soviet Rocket Technology,” 523.

  William Hermann Godel was born: William Godel, compiled military service record, National Archives, St. Louis.

  At one point, the younger Godel: Kathleen Godel-Gengenbach, e-mail correspondence with author.

  He was wounded twice: Godel, compiled military service record, National Archives, St. Louis.

  The wound in his left leg: Ibid.

  He made enough of a name: Godel-Gengenbach, correspondence with author.

  In the United States, computer scientists: See Redmond, From Whirlwind to MITRE.

  In 1947, President Truman: McDougall, Heavens and the Earth, 97.

  when von Braun proposed research: Ward, Dr. Space, 70.

  “professional gloom”: Ibid., 73.

  “It’s a boy”: York, Making Weapons, Talking Peace, 69.

  “a blinding white fireball”: Rhodes, Dark Sun, 508.

  ignite the atmosphere: The possibility of igniting the atmosphere was raised in an early technical report. E. J. Konopinski, C. Marvin, and E. Teller, “Ignition of the Atmosphere with Nuclear Bombs” (Los Alamos National Laboratory, LA-602, 1946). However, Teller later dismissed the possibility. Arthur Compton discussed the idea of the explosion creating a chain reaction in the ocean in his memoir, Atomic Quest: A Personal Narrative (New York: Oxford University Press, 1956).

  “World War II should have taught us”: Dwight D. Eisenhower, “I Shall Go to Korea Speech,” Oct. 25, 1952.

  In the past two decades: McDougall, Heavens and the Earth, 113.

  Rand, a newly established think tank: That report was preceded by Preliminary Design of an Experimental World-Circling Spaceship (Santa Monica, Calif.: Rand, 1946).

  Back in Washington: Godel-Gengenbach, correspondence with author; Godel, interview with Huff.

  Frustrated by the lack of coordination: W. H. Lawrence, “Board to Conduct Psychology War: Gordon Gray Will Head Group to Direct Open and Covert Strategy of ‘Cold War,’ ” New York Times, June 21, 1951.

  appointed Godel: Frank Pace Jr. (secretary of the army) to Raymond B. Allen (director, Psychological Strategy Board), April 15, 1952, Harry S. Truman Library.

  Official correspondence: Executive Assistant to the Director (name excised by the CIA), CIA Memorandum for the Record, Conversation with Mr. Godel, Department of Defense, Re: Mr. John Drew, June 25, 1956.

  But the infighting was bad enough: Sarah-Jane Corke, US Covert Operations and Cold War Strategy (New York: Routledge, 2007), 202.

  In 1955, Donald Quarles: Godel, unpublished interview with Huff.

  In a later unpublished interview: Ibid.

  “Glad to know”: Wilson to Hoover, July 11, 1957, Department of Defense, Office of the Secretary of Defense, Security Division Personal Interview, Mr. Raymond A. Loughton with William Godel, Nov. 27, 1953. Freedom of Information Act Request 13-F-0963.

  Godel’s role by then: Donald Hess, interview with author; Godel, interview with Huff.

  “This is not a design contest”: Quoted in Ward, Dr. Space, 96.

  the CIA and the NSA were monitoring Soviet launches: McDougall, Heavens and the Earth, 117; Rand Araskog, interview with author.

  CHAPTER 2: MAD MEN

  age of nuclear Armageddon: Oliver M. Gale Papers, box 1, Washington Journal, vol. 1, July 1957 to Dec. 1958, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library.

  “Soap manufacturer Neil McElroy”: United Press, “Ike to Name Ohioan as Chief of Defense,” Milwaukee Journal, Aug. 7, 1957, 1.

  “vital activities in persuading housewives”: Associated Press, “Ike Names Neil McElroy, Head of Soap Firm, Defense Secretary,” Lewiston Morning Tribune, Aug. 8, 1957, 1.

  At Strategic Air Command: Gale, Washington Journal, Sept. 17, 1957, Eisenhower Library.

  “extremely able”: Ibid.

  “where horror is as much”: Ibid.

  “become a sort of czar”: Medaris, Countdown for Decision, 153.

  who sported a black mustache: Sheehan, Fiery Peace in a Cold War, 324.

  “salesman, promoter”: Gale, Washington Journal, Oct. 4, 1957, Eisenhower Library.

  “Von Braun was still wistful”: Ibid.

  Even in Huntsville, the Germans: For the political struggles over the rocket launch, see McDougall, Heavens and the Earth.

  “scientific boondoggles”: Huff and Sharp, Advanced Research Projects Agency, II-1.

  When Wilson had visited Huntsville: Medaris, Countdown for Decision, 155.

  “There was an instant”: Ibid.

  “Vanguard will never make it”: Ibid.

  The conversation did impart: It is interesting to compare Medaris’s and Gale’s accounts of the cocktail party and dinner. Though factually similar, Medaris believed that he and von Braun had succeeded that evening in persuading McElroy to let them proceed with a space launch, while Gale’s account is clear that McElroy came away with no particular decision, or even urgency of decision.

  “Two generations after the event”: Roger D. Launius, “Sputnik and the Origins of the Space Age” (NASA, 1997), history.nasa.gov.

  In fact, the headline had nothing: Cyrus F. Rice, “Today We Make History,” Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct. 5, 1957, 1.

  “hysterical”: National Security Council, “Discussion at the 339th Meeting of the National Security Council, Thursday, October 10, 1957,” Oct. 11, 1957, NSC Series, box 9, Eisenhower Papers, 1953–1961, Ann Whitman File, Eisenhower Library.

  “just a hunk of iron”: McDougall, Heavens and the Earth, 145.

  “In the West”: Lyndon Johnson, The Vantage Point (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971), 272.

  “Soon, they will be dropping bombs”: Dickson, Sputnik, 117.

  Though the Soviets were somewhat ahead: McDougall, Heavens and the Earth, 184. McDougall writes that the Soviets were actually behind in all areas except for large boosters and space medicine.

  “Now, so far as the satellite”: Dwight D. Eisenhower, President’s News Conference, Oct. 9, 1957.

  “Russians captured”: Ibid.

  “The same missile that launched”: Drew Pearson, “Space Talk Taboo for the Air Force,” Tuscaloosa News, Oct. 20, 1957, 4.

  The launch sparked panic: “No event since Pearl Harbor set off such repercussions in public life,” wrote McDougall. Heavens and the Earth, 142.

  None of the suggestions: Huff and Sharp, Advanced Research Projects Agency, II-2.

  Ernest Lawrence, the famed: Ibid.

  “upstream research”: Procter & Gamble, “A Company History 1837–Today” (2006).

  “vast weapon systems”: U.S. House, Department of Defense Ballistic Missile Programs, 7.

  “no urgency on Mars”: Wang, In Sputnik’s Shadow, 94.

  They eventually acquiesced: James Killian is sometimes erroneously credited with coming up with the idea of ARPA, but all the available evidence indicated it was McElroy’s idea, though he did discuss it with Killian. Huff and Sharp, Advanced Research Projects Agency, II-4.

  “when and if a civilian space agency”: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Memorandum for the Secretary of Defense, March 24, 1958, Eisenhower Library.

  “very great mistake”: Huff and Sharp, Advanced Research Projects Agency, II-13.

  When Sputnik launched: “A New Realm of Flight,” Flight, Oct. 18, 1957, 511.

  The Japanese newsmen: “Setback for U.S. Prestige—the Satellite Effort That Failed,” New York Times, Dec. 8, 1957, 1.

  The few dozen or so official viewers: The descripti
on of the launch comes from the Associated Press, “Rocket Strains, Takeoff Fails,” Salt Lake Tribune, Dec. 7, 1957, 1–2.

  “The Agency is authorized”: Department of Defense Directive, “Subject: Advanced Research Projects Agency,” Feb. 7, 1958, No. 5105.15.

  “We must be forward looking”: Dwight D. Eisenhower, State of the Union address, Jan. 9, 1958.

  CHAPTER 3: MAD SCIENTISTS

  “Let me dismiss my cab”: Gale, Washington Journal, Jan. 4, 1958, Eisenhower Library.

  “They’re coming!”: York, interview with Williams/Gerard.

  “basically frantic”: York, interview with Finkbeiner.

  “the crazy Greek”: John W. Finney, “Atomic Inventor Was Held a Crank,” New York Times, Feb. 14, 1958, 1, 8.

  “an Astrodome-like defensive shield”: York, Making Weapons, Talking Peace, 130.

  “His purpose was of epic proportions”: Ibid., 131.

  “nutty”: Robert Le Levier, interview with Finn Aaserud, American Institute of Physics.

  McElroy that month met with: Gale, Washington Journal, Jan. 15, 1958, Eisenhower Library.

  After briefly considering: Huff and Sharp, Advanced Research Projects Agency, II-25.

  It was an expedient solution: Senior administration officials “never had in mind that it would survive,” Godel later recounted. “It was a stop gap to get pressure off the [Pentagon] and the White House.” Godel, interview with Huff.