The Imagineers of War

by Sharon Weinberger

  “urbane and handsome”: Ben Price, “ARPA Chief Is a Relatively Unknown Man,” Daytona Beach Morning Journal, Aug. 3, 1958, 7A.

  “looked every inch”: Huff and Sharp, Advanced Research Projects Agency, II-21.

  “He’d show up with these gorgeous tans”: Huff, interview with author.

  “Eight years”: Gale, Washington Journal, Feb. 13, 1958, Eisenhower Library.

  “I went over there as chief scientist”: York, interview with Ann Finkbeiner.

  “personal consultant”: Roy Johnson, address to the ARPA-IDA Study Group, National War College, Washington, D.C., July 14, 1958, RG 330, National Archives, College Park.

  Johnson was the chief spokesman: Araskog, interview with author.

  York, along with holding the title: York, interview with Gerard/Williams.

  Robert Truax, a navy captain: Robert L. Perry, Management of the National Reconnaissance Program, 1960–1965 (Chantilly, Va., NRO History Office, 1961). Truax was really working as technical adviser to Richard Bissell, the CIA’s deputy director for plans. Truax, described by Godel in his memoir as a “rocket nut,” also went on to a colorful post-military career that included an ill-fated attempt to help Evel Knievel jump over Idaho’s Snake River.

  “Roy Johnson set the pace”: Hess, interview with author.

  a signal emitted from a satellite: William Guier and George Weiffenbach, “Genesis of Satellite Navigation,” Johns Hopkins APL Technical Digest 19, no. 1 (1998): 14–71.

  “As gun powder”: Johnson, address to ARPA-IDA Study Group.

  In April 1958, shortly after arriving: York, interview with Gerard/Williams.

  “ARPA is the only place”: York, interview with Finkbeiner.

  “the possibility that events”: Loper to Brigadier General A. D. Starbird, Philip Farley, and Spurgeon Keeny, memo, “Subject: ARGUS Experiment,” April 21, 1958, Eisenhower Library.

  York made Argus his pet project: York, Making Weapons, Talking Peace, 149.

  “was interesting science”: D’Antonio, A Ball, a Dog, and a Monkey, 207.

  Task Force 88: This and other specific details of Argus come from a report prepared by the Defense Nuclear Agency, “Operation Argus 1958: United States Atmospheric Nuclear Weapons Tests Nuclear Test Personnel Review” (DNA 6039F, April 30, 1982).

  “historic experiment”: Killian to the president, memo, “Subject: Preliminary Results of the Argus Experiment,” Nov. 3, 1958, Eisenhower Library.

  “greatest experiment”: Walter Sullivan, “Called ‘Greatest Experiment,’ ” New York Times, March 19, 1959, 1.

  It was never clear who leaked: Kistiakowsky, Scientist in the White House, 72. York claimed the leaker was a physicist for the navy. York, interview with Finkbeiner.

  “There could, however, be”: York, Making Weapons, Talking Peace, 131.

  “screwball”: U.S. Senate, Investigation of Governmental Organization for Space Activities, 125.

  “egg-shaped and the height”: Dyson, Project Orion, 2.

  “so the inhabitants are not killed”: U.S. Senate, Investigation of Governmental Organization for Space Activities, 135.

  Freeman Dyson recounted: Dyson, Project Orion, 230.

  “appalled”: Ibid., 221.

  In ARPA’s version of history: Huff and Sharp, Advanced Research Projects Agency, III-39.

  “We were firm believers”: Von Braun, interview with Roger Bilstein and John Beltz. Glen E. Swanson, ed., “Before This Decade Is Out—”: Personal Reflections on the Apollo Program (Washington, D.C.: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA History Office, Office of Policy and Plans, 1999). The rocket scientist gives less credit to ARPA in an article he wrote for NASA, claiming that booster was his team’s idea and the Pentagon was simply in “just the right mood” to fund it. Wernher von Braun, “Saturn the Giant,” in Apollo Expeditions to the Moon (Washington, D.C.: NASA’s Scientific and Technical Information Office, 1975).

  “a sorry string of failures”: Huff and Sharp, Advanced Research Projects Agency, III-9.

  “If the DOD decides”: Ibid., III-27.

  “Beset by enemies internally”: Ibid., II-20.

  CHAPTER 4: SOCIETY FOR THE CORRECTION OF SOVIET EXCESSES

  According to heavily redacted: From “Monthly Activity Digest,” marked “top secret,” and addressed to the director of the National Security Agency, Nov. 7, 1957. Released to the author under FOIA Case No. 75066A. Godel, according to the document, was the chairman of the Robertson Committee of Alternates.

  “radical funding reductions”: 60 Years of Defending Our Nation (Fort Meade, Md.: National Security Agency, 2012).

  Sputnik caught the NSA: Cryptologic Almanac 50th Anniversary Series (Fort Meade, Md.: National Security Agency, 2000).

  “I don’t know how he got there”: Hess, interview with author.

  He knew his name had been dropped: Godel, interview with Huff.

  “Godel knew quite a bit”: Huff, interview with author.

  Godel said only: Godel “became involved in ARPA, through the intelligence channel,” recalled Rand Araskog, who worked for Godel in the Pentagon’s Office of Special Operations and then followed his boss to ARPA. A fluent Russian speaker, Araskog was only twenty-six years old but had already spent two years at the NSA listening to intercepts from the Soviet Union’s missile launches from Kapustin Yar. Shortly after ARPA was established, Araskog was asked to brief Roy Johnson on Soviet technology. Impressed by Araskog, Johnson asked him to transfer to ARPA, promising a good promotion. Araskog’s main responsibility was to keep the agency apprised of the latest in Russian missile technology, although he also soon found himself appointed the chief speechwriter for Johnson. Araskog, interview with author.

  “Since the Soviets”: Buhl, An Eye at the Keyhole. Godel does not specify who assigned him.

  “it was love at first sight”: Godel, interview with Huff.

  Godel admired Johnson’s vision: Ibid.

  “one of the early production”: Buhl, An Eye at the Keyhole.

  he chalked his name: “The Big Bird Orbits Words,” Life, Jan. 5, 1959.

  “The stated objective”: Buhl, An Eye at the Keyhole.

  “It’s a big empty shell”: Huff and Sharp, Advanced Research Projects Agency, III-24.

  “a publicity stunt”: Buhl, An Eye at the Keyhole.

  “felt that this young man”: York, interview with Martin Collins, American Institute of Physics. Though York and press articles attribute SCORE to Johnson, more reliable sources, including the Barber Associates history and Godel’s own memoir, make it clear it was Godel’s idea. Shortly after the launch, Life magazine featured a fourteen-page spread dedicated to Project SCORE, featuring exclusive photographs and a carefully staged insider’s look into the launch. The magazine said that 150 reporters and photographers contributed to the report.

  “It must remain secret”: Buhl, An Eye at the Keyhole.

  To maintain the ruse: Ibid. Godel says Sullivan asked to join ARPA because Hoover, the FBI director, wanted him to go to Cuba as a mole, an ill-advised mission that Sullivan thought best to avoid.

  “Only 88 people”: After the launch, the air force claimed only 35 people knew, a practical impossibility. In fact, according to Godel’s account, the number grew to more than 200 by the day of launch.

  “They had recently proposed”: Buhl, An Eye at the Keyhole.

  but built by RCA: Godel does not mention RCA, but Barbree’s recollection is backed up by the firsthand account of an engineer on the program. M. Walter Maxwell, Reflections: Transmission Lines and Antennas (Newington, Conn.: American Radio Relay League, 1990). Maxwell writes that ARPA “contracted out the entire communications package that flew on the ATLAS to the RCA Laboratories in Princeton, N.J. for the design and fabrication, while SDRL engineers watched over our shoulders.”

  “You know perfectly well”: Buhl, An Eye at the Keyhole.

  As a result, Wilber Brucker: Yet another version of this story maintains that a member of
the SCORE team at Fort Monmouth was the original voice on tape. Brigadier General Harold McD. Brown, “A Signals Corps Space Odyssey,” Army Communicator (Winter 1982).

  “You are the project manager”: Godel, interview with Huff.

  “So, hoping that no radios”: Buhl, An Eye at the Keyhole.

  “good old RCA”: Barbree, Live from Cape Canaveral, 20.

  The official story: It appears that at least one news outlet got advance word that the president’s voice would be broadcast. United Press International, “Eisenhower’s Voice May Be Beamed to Earth Stations from Outer Space,” Rome News-Tribune, Dec. 17, 1958, 1.

  “the longest of his life”: Buhl, An Eye at the Keyhole.

  “indistinct garble”: Associated Press, “Atlas Voices Ike’s Yule Wish,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Dec. 20, 1958, 1.

  “Biggest Moon”: “U.S. Orbits Biggest Moon,” Milwaukee Sentinel, Dec. 19, 1958, 1–2.

  “Giant Size”: Associated Press, “Ours Is Giant Size!,” Daytona Beach Morning Journal, Dec. 18, 1958, 1.

  “transcribing Christmas messages”: Godel, interview with Huff.

  “It was awkward”: York, interview with author.

  “We ought to consider”: U.S. Senate, Investigation of Governmental Organization for Space Activities, 249.

  “The guy who denied”: Huff and Sharp, Advanced Research Projects Agency, III-79.

  A May 27, 1959, article: John W. Finney, “Pentagon Lacks Firm Space Plan,” New York Times, May 27, 1959, 18.

  “had agreed that ‘ARPA’ ”: Johnson to Gale, note, Washington Journal, Eisenhower Library.

  York wrote to Johnson: Bilstein, Stages to Saturn, 39.

  “The date of the transfer”: Huff and Sharp, Advanced Research Projects Agency, III-41.

  “single most important act”: York, Making Weapons, Talking Peace, 176.

  “Saturn was the biggest”: Godel, interview with Huff.

  There were already calls: Ford Eastman, “Gen. Schriever Asks for ARPA Abolishment,” Aviation Week, May 4, 1959, 28.

  Other critics called: “Demise of ARPA Urged by Furnas,” Aviation Week, June 1, 1959, 37.

  “You could call the environmental capsule”: Kenneth Owen, “U.S. Missile Tour,” Flight, April 24, 1959, 579.

  code-named the Pied Piper: Alfred Rockefeller Jr., “Historical Report, Weapon System 117L, 1 January–31 December 1956” (Western Development Division Headquarters, Air Research and Development Command), 1.

  a concept proposed by the Rand Corporation: Perry, A History of Satellite Reconnaissance, XV.

  A satellite, on the other hand: In fact, in 1960, the Soviets succeeded in shooting down a U-2. Its pilot, Gary Powers, was captured after parachuting to the ground in the Soviet Union.

  In one launch, the mice died prior to liftoff: A second set of four mice did not fare much better. The launch was almost canceled when a humidity sensor inside the capsule went haywire. It turns out the sensor had been unfortunately placed under the mouse cage, and the mice promptly urinated on it. The launch proceeded, but the capsule with the live mice ended up in the ocean. National Reconnaissance Office, “Early ‘Discoverer’ History” (Oct. 20, 1966), 1.

  Killing mice in a program: One version of the story is that engineers put in real mouse droppings. Edward Miller and George Christopher, “The Spitsbergen Incident,” in Intelligence Revolution 1960: Retrieving the Corona Imagery That Helped Win the Cold War, ed. Ingard Clausen and Edward A. Miller (Chantilly, Va.: Center for the Study of National Reconnaissance, 2012), 97.

  The launch was a success: Owen, “U.S. Missile Tour,” 580.

  The plan was for the capsule: Dwayne A. Day, “Has Anybody Seen Our Satellite?,” Space Review, April 20, 2009.

  “two guys” in Longyearbyen: Ibid.

  “a gold bucket and light colored shrouds”: Miller and Christopher, “The Spitsbergen Incident,” 97.

  “The mission was foredoomed”: Buhl, An Eye at the Keyhole. Godel repeated the assertion that the Soviets never found the capsule in an unpublished interview with Lee Huff. In the years that have followed, no evidence has ever surfaced demonstrating that the Soviets found the capsule.

  grainy images of the Mys Shmidta air base: See Day, Logsdon, and Latell, Eye in the Sky.

  According to an official history: Dwayne Day argues that ARPA had no real power over Corona, but he bases that on an air force source. Day, correspondence with author.

  The air force was never happy: Perry, A History of Satellite Reconnaissance, vol. 1, NRO, 264.

  “mad as hell”: Kistiakowsky, Scientist in the White House, 91.

  “professional artist”: United Press International, “Convair Research Chief Named ARPA Director,” St. Petersburg Times, Nov. 5, 1959, 2A.

  After Congress raised concerns: “Critchfield Declines Space Job Appointment,” Washington Star, Nov. 15, 1959.

  “We mistreated [the scientists]”: Godel, interview with Huff.

  Just prior to his departure: Johnson’s final memo was revised and completed by William Godel and Lawrence Gise, a senior administrative official at the agency. Huff and Sharp, Advanced Research Projects Agency, III-71.

  CHAPTER 5: WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE

  “Le Viet Minh”: Buhl, An Eye at the Keyhole.

  “a piece of blackmail”: Melby, oral history interview with Robert Accinelli, Ontario, Canada, Nov. 14, 1986, Harry S. Truman Library.

  “row of dominos”: President Eisenhower, News Conference, April 7, 1954.

  In Melby’s view: The year after the mission, an investigation was launched into John Melby, whose criticisms of the CIA had earned him the enmity of Bedell Smith, the notoriously bad-tempered director of the CIA under Eisenhower. Melby, oral history with Accinelli.

  Godel’s memory: The subsequent quotations also come from Godel’s unpublished memoir. Buhl, An Eye at the Keyhole.

  The United States, he concluded: Godel, interview with Huff.

  So close were Godel’s relations: Godel/Wylie trial transcript.

  Godel also worked closely: Godel to Lansdale, Feb. 10, 1956, Hoover Institution Archive, Stanford. Godel and Lansdale were also friends from World War II, when they both worked in military intelligence. Godel-Gengenbach, e-mail correspondence with author.

  he persuaded Magsaysay’s government: Lansdale, In the Midst of Wars, 72.

  it cemented Lansdale’s reputation: The former CIA director Richard Colby named Lansdale among the top ten spies. Nashel, Edward Lansdale’s Cold War, 16.

  printing of an almanac: Lansdale, In the Midst of Wars, 226–27.

  helped Diem win a 1955 referendum: Ibid., 333.

  “father of his country”: Ibid., 330.

  “Please be assured”: Godel to Diem, Feb. 10, 1956, Hoover Institution Archive.

  “You’re going to be director”: Betts, interview with Williams/Gerard.

  “custodian”: York, interview with Williams/Gerard.

  “During my one year”: Betts, interview with Williams/Gerard.

  “ideas were a little wild”: Ibid.

  “We were trying to figure out”: Wilson, interview with author.

  “That’s it, let’s go home”: Ibid.

  Godel pitched York: Godel/Wylie trial transcript.

  “that could assist in improving”: Godel, Report on R&E Far East Survey, October–December, 1960, 2.

  “devoted inadequate attention”: Ibid., 3.

  A report written by: “The Kennedy Commitments and Programs, 1961,” in Gravel, Chomsky, and Zinn, Pentagon Papers, 1–39.

  “This is the worst yet”: Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, 320.

  On January 28, 1961, Lansdale: Langguth, Our Vietnam, 114–15.

  he even listed Fleming’s book From Russia, with Love: Hugh Sidey, “The President’s Voracious Reading Habits,” Life, March 17, 1961, 59.

  considerable skepticism: Ironically, Lansdale’s rise to fame as America’s foremost counterinsurgent was largely linked to his purported portrayal as Alden Pyle in Gr
aham Greene’s Quiet American, published in 1955, which depicts an idealistic young CIA officer posing as an aid worker in Vietnam.

  “A Program of Action”: Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, vol. 1, Vietnam, 1961, doc. 52.

  gave presidential approval: Captain Lawrence Savadkin to Godel, memo, “Subject: Project AGILE, a Joint Operation,” Advanced Research Projects Agency, April 23, 1963, RG 330, National Archives, College Park. Savadkin cites “A Program of Action to Prevent Communist Domination in Vietnam” as the authority for starting Project AGILE.

  “to acquire directly”: Godel/Wylie trial transcript.

  “policy options”: Godel, interview with Huff.

  Reporting directly to Lansdale: This statement is based on Bob Frosch, Don Hess, and Harold Brown, interviews with author. All three were in senior oversight positions, either at ARPA or in the Pentagon, and admitted they had little insight into Godel’s programs.

  “I believe that this nation”: President Kennedy, Address to Congress on Urgent National Needs, May 25, 1961.

  regarded Godel with fear: Deposition of Truong Quang Van, Godel/Wylie court records.

  “an airborne Volkswagen”: Foreign Relations of the United States, Vietnam, 1961–1963, doc. 96.

  In 1959, Diem had embarked: Lawrence Grinter, “Population Control in South Viet Nam, the Strategic Hamlet Study,” unpublished paper, May 1966, Pool Papers, MIT Archives. In Indochina, the French first dabbled in resettlement in 1951, when they moved some half a million peasants in the Kampot and Takeo area of Cambodia.

  The staff was still small: William Godel, “Progress Report: Vietnam Combat Development and Test Center,” Advanced Research Projects Agency, Sept. 13, 1961, Kennedy Library.

  “Godel has suggested”: Walt W. Rostow, “Guerrilla and Unconventional Warfare, 7/1/61–7/15/61,” National Security Files, Kennedy Library.

  By early 1962, Diem agreed: Gravel, Chomsky, and Zinn, Pentagon Papers, 128–59.

  The breathtaking goal: Advanced Research Projects Agency, “Research and Development Effort in Support of the Vietnamese Rural Security Program” (prepared in Vietnam by the Rural Security Study Team under Project AGILE, Dec. 19, 1962), 11.