31 “the numbers”: Jason Division, IDA, Tactical Nuclear Weapons in Southeast Asia, 27.
Chapter Twelve The Electronic Fence
1 “I stepped on”: Interviews and email correspondence with Richard “Rip” Jacobs, June–August 2013. Information is from interviews with VO-67 crew members and the VO-67 Association digital archive and website.
2 Nine men KIA: VO-67 Crew 2 Memorial Pictures, VO-67 Crew 2 Summary-KIA, VO67A. Personnel in this incident: Denis Anderson, Delbert A. Olson, Richard Mancini, Arthur C. Buck, Michael Roberts, Gale Siow, Phillip Stevens, Donald Thoresen, Kenneth Widon.
3 Crew Five was lost: VO-67 Crew 5 Memorial Pictures, VO-67 Crew 5 Summary-KIA, VO-67A. Personnel in this incident: Glenn Miller Hayden, Chester Coons, Frank Dawson, Paul Donato, Clayborn Ashby, James Kravitz, James Martin, Curtis Thurman, James Wonn.
4 acoubuoys: For a technical discussion, see Office of the Secretary, Joint Staff, MACV, Military History Branch. Command History, United States Military Assistance Command Vietnam: 1967. Volume 3, 1105–1106; for a narrative discussion, see Rego 11–17, with photographs.
5 “how it happens”: Interview with Tom Wells, June 2013.
6 “We couldn’t control”: Interview with Barney Walsh, June 2013.
7 Captain Milius: Milius was first listed MIA, but his status was later changed to PKIA (Presumed Killed in Action); the USS Milius is named in his honor.
8 McNamara… looked: Ruina oral history interview, 28; Pentagon Papers (Gravel), vol. 4, chap. 1, sec. 3, subsection 1.C. The idea had first been proposed by Harvard Law School professor Roger Fisher.
9 “Secretary McNamara asked me”: Sullivan oral history interview, 53; Rego, 1.
10 high-technology sensors: Sensors are small, self-powered machines designed to measure physical qualities by mimicking biological senses including sight, hearing, smell, and touch. ARPA became an early pioneer in modern sensor technology when, in 1958, before NASA was created, it was put in charge of all U.S. space programs. The first American satellite, Explorer I, carried a sensor into space, a tiny Geiger counter that confirmed the presence of the Van Allen radiation belts.
11 classified sensor programs: MacDonald, “Jason and DCPG—Ten Lessons,” 10, York Papers, Geisel.
12 listen for Vietcong: Gatlin, Project CHECO Southeast Asia Report, 32; Mahnken, 112.
13 the campus grounds: Interview with Goldberger; Fitch oral history interview. In defense of the Jasons’ role in creating the barrier, Goldberger said the intention was to “kill fewer people” than the Air Force was killing with its two-thousand-pound bombs.
14 SADEYE cluster bombs: The bombs are discussed in Jason Division, IDA, Air-Supported Anti-Infiltration Barrier, 3–4.
15 held a seminar: Richard Garwin oral history interview.
16 “aspirin-size” mini-bombs: Jason Division, IDA, Air-Supported Anti-Infiltration Barrier, 30.
17 “20 million Gravel mines”: Ibid., 5.
18 “It is difficult to assess”: Ibid., 6, 9, and 13.
19 roughly one billion: In September 1966, the official figure the Jasons gave McNamara was $860 million. By the time the fence was operational, costs had reached $1.8 billion.
20 McNamara was impressed: Interview with Murph Goldberger, June 2013.
21 “The occasion”: MacDonald, “Jason and the DCPG-Ten Lessons,” 10.
22 belittled by most of the generals: All quotes from Office of the Secretary, Joint Staff, MACV, Military History Branch, Command History, United States Military Assistance Command Vietnam: 1967, Volume 3, 1072–1075.
23 with or without the support: Ibid., 1073.
24 General Starbird: Details are from Foster, “Alfred Dodd Starbird, 1912–1983,” 317–321; interview with Edward Starbird, the general’s son.
25 Joint Task Force 728: Office of the Secretary, Joint Staff, MACV, Military History Branch. Command History, United States Military Assistance Command Vietnam: 1967. Volume 3, 1072-1075.
26 “highest national priority”: Document 233, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume IV, Vietnam, 1966, DSOH.
27 “We are on the threshold”: Cited in Vernon Pizer, “Coming—The Electronic Battlefield,” Corpus Christi Caller-Times, February 14, 1971.
28 “system of systems”: MacDonald, “Jason and the DCPG—Ten Lessons,” 8.
29 electronic battlefield concept: Half a century later, the results of the electronic fence are ubiquitous—not just on the battlefield but across America, in the civil sector. The legacy of the electronic fence is everywhere: home, phone, computer, car, airport, doctor’s office, shopping mall.
30 “From its outset”: Gatlin, Project CHECO Southeast Asia Report, 38.
Chapter Thirteen The End of Vietnam
1 received a tip: Quotes are from Finney, “Anonymous Call Set Off Rumors of Nuclear Arms for Vietnam,” New York Times, February 12 and 13, 1968.
2 “It was a scary place”: MacDonald, “Jason and the DCPG—Ten Lessons,” 8–12.
3 “I had probably”: Garwin oral history interview.
4 also allegedly stolen: James N. Hill, “The Committee on Ethics: Past, Present, and Future,” 11–19. In Handbook on Ethical Issues in Anthropology, edited by Joan Cassell and Sue-Ellen Jacobs, a special publication of the American Anthropological Association number 23, available online at aaanet.org.
5 “staggering 32K of memory”: Maynard, 257n.
6 journalists also revealed: Princeton Alumni Weekly, September 25, 1959, 12.
7 students chained… shut: Maynard, 193; “Vote of Princeton Faculty Could Lead to End of University Ties to IDA,” Harvard Crimson, March 7, 1968.
8 rare declassified copy: Quotes are from ARPA, Overseas Defense Research: A Brief Survey of Non-Lethal Weapons (U) (page numbers are illegible).
9 nonlethal weapons: Steve Metz, “Non-Lethal Weapons: A Progress Report,” Joint Force Quarterly (Spring–Summer 2001): 18–22; Ando Arike, “The Soft-Kill Solution: New Frontiers in Pain Compliance,” Harper’s, March 2010.
10 famously gave birth to: LAPD, “History of S.W.A.T.,” Los Angeles Police Foundation, digital archive.
11 came under fire: Barber, VIII-63–VIII-67; Van Atta, Richard H., Sidney Reed, and Seymour Deitchman, DARPA Technical Accomplishments, Volume 1. 18-1–18-11; Hord, 4–8.
12 developed his first thoughts: Hord, 245, 327.
13 a billion instructions per second: “A Description of the ILLIAC IV,” Interim Report, IBM Advanced Computing Systems, May 1, 1967. The machine never actually achieved a billion operations per second, but it was at the time the largest assemblage of computer hardware ever amassed in a single machine.
14 designed to cut down: New to the mix was the concept of building a large-scale SIMD (single instruction, multiple data) machine. This would change the way data were stored in the computer’s memory and how data flowed through the machine. University of Illinois Alumni Magazine 1 (2012): 30–35.
15 “ballistic missile defense”: Roland and Shiman, 12; Hord, 9.
16 still-classified ARPA program: Author’s FOIA requests were rejected by the departments of Commerce, Energy, and Defense.
17 “all the computational requirements”: Cited in Muraoka, Yoichi. “Illiac IV.” Encyclopedia of Parallel Computing, Springer US, 2011, 914–917.
18 Defense Department contract: Barber, VIII-63.
19 headline in the Daily Illini: Patrick D. Kennedy, “Reactions Against the Vietnam War and Military-Related Targets on Campus: The University of Illinois as a Case Study, 1965–1972,” Illinois Historical Journal 84, 109.
20 “The horrors ILLIAC IV”: All quotes are from the Daily Illini, January 6, 1970.
21 “If I could have gotten”: Barber, VIII-63.
22 firebombed the campus armory: Kennedy, “Reactions Against the Vietnam War,” Illinois Historical Journal 84, 110.
23 guarantee the safety: O’Neill, 31; Barber, VIII-62. According to ARPA, it was the agency that pulled ILLIAC IV, not the university.
; 24 classified program to track submarines: “US Looks for Bigger Warlike Computers,” New Scientist, April 21, 1977, 140. By 1977, the ILLIAC IV was outdated. DARPA sought to build a new machine, one that could produce 10 billion instructions per second (BIPS).
25 Acoustic sensors: “U.S. Looks for Bigger, Warlike Computers.” New Scientist, April 21, 1977, 140.
26 “practical outcomes”: Roland and Shiman, 29.
27 “the epitome”: Barber, IX-2.
28 “It wouldn’t surprise me”: Ibid., IX-19.
29 “The staff just didn’t know”: Ibid., VIII-79.
30 “chicken-and-egg problem”: Ibid., VIII-74–77.
31 “the devil”: Finkbeiner, 102.
32 “I’ll talk about China”: Interview with Murph Goldberger; Finkbeiner, 104.
33 “Jason made a terrible mistake”: Joel Shurkin, “The Secret War over Bombing,” Philadelphia Inquirer, February 4, 1973.
34 No Jason scientist: Interview with Charles Schwartz; file on “Jason controversy,” York Papers, Geisel.
35 “This is Dick Garwin”: Finkbeiner, 104.
36 “perfect occasion”: Bruno Vitale, “The War Physicists,” 3, 12.
37 European scientists: “Jason: survey by E. H. S. Burhop and replies, 1973,” Samuel A. Goudsmit Papers, 1921–1979, Niels Bohr Library and Archives, digital archive.
38 “tried for war crimes”: Ibid.
39 “We should”: Interview with Murph Goldberger, June 2013.
40 “intellectual forefront”: Lukasik oral history interview, 27, 32–33.
41 “an agreeable move”: Interview with Murph Goldberger, June 2013.
Chapter Fourteen Rise of the Machines
1 in keeping with the Mansfield Act: Barber, IX-23. Staff supervision would remain under the control of DDR&E.
2 three former ARPA directors: Barber, VIII-43, VIII-50.
3 “high-risk projects”: Barber, IX-7
4 “It was most difficult”: Barber, IX-37. Lukasik would become a senior vice president of RAND for national security programs.
5 altered the opinions: Commanders Digest, September 20, 1973, 2.
6 radar cross-section: Interviews with Edward Lovick, 2009–2015; Jacobsen, Area 51, 97.
7 acoustically undetectable: Reed et al., DARPA Technical Accomplishments. Volume 1. 16-1–16-4.
8 “high-stealth aircraft”: DARPA: 50 Years of Bridging the Gap, 152.
9 asked the CIA: Interviews with Ed Lovick, 2009–2015. After Heilmeier was briefed by Lockheed, the Skunk Works division was given a $1 contract by DARPA to “study” stealth, which essentially amounted to Lockheed handing over reports already done for CIA. I write about this in Area 51, having interviewed a number of program participants. The subject is discussed in DARPA: 50 Years of Bridging the Gap but because Project Oxcart had not been declassified by CIA when the monograph was written, most of the narrative refers to the SR-71.
10 “We designed flat, faceted panels”: Interviews with Ed Lovick, 2009; Jacobsen, Area 51, 340.
11 Two significant ideas: RG 330, ARPA, Memo from George H. Lawrence to Deputy Director of Procurement, Defense Supply Service, Contract DAHC15-70-C-0144, NACP.
12 Doubling is a powerful concept: Garreau, 49.
13 “In a few years”: J. C. R. Licklider and Robert W. Taylor, “The Computer as a Communication Device,” Science and Technology (April 1968), 22.
14 text messages: K. Fisch, S. McLeod, and B. Brenman, “Did You Know, 3.0,” Research and Design (2008): 2.
15 “Is it going to be”: Taylor oral history interview.
16 “the most successful project”: DARPA, A History of the Arpanet: The First Decade, I-2–5.
17 “to identify and characterize”: Kaplan, Daydream Believers, 11. For a detailed discussion of Assault Breaker, see Van Atta et al., Transformation and Transition, Volume 1, Chapter Four.
18 Wohlstetter concluded: See Paolucci, “Summary Report of the Long Range Research and Development Planning Program.”
19 “a circular error probable”: Cited in Watts, “Precision Strike: An Evolution,” 3, footnote 6.
20 best example was the bombing: Lavalle, 7.
21 “It appears”: Kaplan, Daydream Believers, 13.
22 love of model airplanes: Van Atta et al., Transformation and Transition, Volume 1, 40.
23 Praerie and Calere: Ibid., 40–41.
24 forward-looking infrared: Interview with John Gargus, September 2011.
25 “more complicated” drone: Cited in Barber, VIII-53.
26 Nite Panther and Nite Gazelle: Gyrodyne Helicopter Historical Foundation, “Nite Panther: U.S. Navy’s QH-50 Drone Anti-Submarine Helicopter (DASH) System,” (n.d.).
27 TRANSIT: Reed et al., DARPA Technical Accomplishments, Volume 1, 3-1–9.
28 planning countermeasures: Watts, “Precision Strike: An Evolution,” 12.
29 a master game theorist: Jardini (unpaginated). Andrew Marshall served eight consecutive U.S. presidents, thirteen secretaries of defense, and fourteen DARPA directors. After forty-two years of military forecasting, Marshall retired in January 2015 at the age of ninety-two. He was the longest-serving director inside the Office of Secretary of Defense in Pentagon history.
30 Soviets felt so threatened: Watts, “Precision Strike: An Evolution,” 5, 7, 11–13.
31 “military-technical revolution”: Marshal N. V. Ogarkov, “The Defense of Socialism: Experience of History and the Present Day,” Red Star, May 9, 1984, trans. Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Daily Report, May 9, 1984.
32 “technology leadership”: Interview with Richard Van Atta, May 2014.
33 being pursued, in the black: Barber, VIII-36, IX-7, IX-32–40; Reed et al., DARPA Technical Accomplishments, Volume 1, S-1–9.
34 got a radical idea: Interviews and email correspondence with Jack Thorpe, May 2014–March 2015. The idea, says Thorpe, developed over time while he was working at the Air Force Office of Scientific Research in Washington D.C.
35 hydraulic motion system: Michael L. Cyrus, “Motion Systems Role in Flight Simulators for Flying Training,” Williams Air Force Base, AZ, August 1978.
36 “The other flyer’s aircraft”: Quotes are from interview with Jack Thorpe, May–October 2014; See also Thorpe, “Trends in Modeling, Simulation, & Gaming.”
37 “a place where”: Interview with Jack Thorpe, clarifying his original paper.
38 reviewed by senior Pentagon staff: Cosby, Simnet: An Insider’s Perspective, 3.
39 TCP/IP: Roland and Shiman, 117.
40 C2U: Thorpe clarifies that C2U was a term that originated with DARPA’s Command Post of the Future program.
41 “allowed to fail”: DARPA: 50 Years of Bridging the Gap, 68.
42 “networked war-fighting system was impossible”: Interview with Neale Cosby, March 2014.
43 “William Gibson didn’t”: Fred Hapgood,“Simnet,” Wired Magazine, Vol. 5, no. 4, April 1997; Deborah Solomon, “Back From the Future Questions for William Gibson,” New York Times Magazine, August 19, 2007.
44 Project Reynard: Interview with Justin Elliott; Justin Elliott and Mark Mazzetti, “World of Spycraft: NSA and CIA Spied in Online Games,” New York Times, December 9, 2013.
Chapter Fifteen Star Wars and Tank Wars
1 He had just flown in: Teller, 531.
2 Poindexter suggested: Broad, 164.
3 lead agency: DARPA: 50 Years of Bridging the Gap, 67. The program would not be called SDI until later. DARPA’s research and development efforts focused on directed energy systems and were later continued by the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization.
4 “But is it a bomb?”: Robert Scheer, “X-Ray Weapon,” Los Angeles Times, June 4, 1986.
5 a laser is: Interview with Charles Townes, March 2014; Townes, 4–6; Beason, 15.
6 had been inspired to create the laser: Interview with Charles Townes; Townes, 6. Charles Townes died in January 2015.
7 “array of small reflectors”: Quotes are from in
terview with Charles Townes; Townes, 3.
8 “like an imaginary story”: Hey, 95–96.
9 Fiscal Times: Merrill Goozner, “$100b and Counting: Missiles That Work… Sometimes,” The Fiscal Times, March 24, 2012; Mark Thompson, “Why Obama Will Continue Star Wars,” Time Magazine, November 16, 2008.
10 “capture the sense of tankness”: Interviews with Jack Thorpe, May–October, 2014.
11 “The high rankers”: Quotes are from interviews with Neale Cosby, May–October 2014.
12 DARPA and the Army spent: Cosby, 4.
13 The Internal Look war games: Interview with General Paul Gorman (retired), October 2014.
14 “We played Internal Look”: Schwartzkopf, 10.
Chapter Sixteen Gulf War and Operations Other Than War
1 what struck him: Atkinson, Crusade, 25.
2 stealth fighter aircraft: For a comprehensive story of the DARPA stealth program, see Van Atta et al., Transformation and Transition, Volume 2, I-1–9.
3 “give them the full load”: Atkinson, Crusade, 31.
4 “Two thoughts”: Crickmore, 63.
5 “sophisticated video game”: Ibid. Feest also discusses how war is like playing a video game in Richard Benke, “Right on Target,” AP, January 14, 1996.
6 “video game was over”: Crickmore, 63.
7 tactical advantage: Defense Department New Briefing, January 17, 1991, C-SPAN.org; Robert F. Dorr, 312. Numbers vary slightly, according to different sources.
8 Iraqi Scuds: Major General Jay Garner, “Army Stands by Patriot’s Persian Gulf Performance,” Defense News 7, no. 26 (1-4): 3; Atkinson, Crusade, 182; “Intelligence Successes and Failures in Operations Desert Shield/Storm,” Report of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, Committee on Armed Services, U.S. House of Representatives, August 1993.
9 surrendering to a machine: Ted Shelsby, “Iraqi soldiers surrender to AAI’s drones.” Baltimore Sun, March 2, 1991.
10 JSTARS: U.S. Air Force, Fact Sheet, E-8C, Joint Stars (2005).
11 600,000 lines of code: Mahnken, 130.
12 “real-time tactical view”: JOINT STARS, Transitions to the Air Force, Selected Technology Transition, 68.