The Imagineers of War: The Untold Story of DARPA, the Pentagon Agency That Changed the World by Sharon Weinberger. Sharon has written for Wired, Slate, the Financial Times and the Washington Post Magazine. Furthermore, Sharon is the former editor-in-chief of Defense Technology International. Today Sharon is an executive editor at Foreign Policy.
Obviously the simply amazing stories within The Pentagon’s Brain (my review) inspired me to read Sharon’s book. The Imagineers of War is a very worthy reading experience all by itself.
Unquestionably both books combine for an amazing one-two punch of DARPA history. The most astounding impact of DARPA technology? Many weapons developed for Vietnam are today a cornerstone of US troop technology in Afghanistan: precision weapons, drones, robots, and networked computing.
The first half of The Imagineers of War reveals the very large, looming role of William Godel. He certainly casts a long shadow across DARPA’s early history. However only Sharon can address Godel’s departure and later accusations that may have crippled DARPA.
For the most part, Sharon provides a deep dive into the lives of key players at DARPA. Godel is certainly no exception. Severely injured fighting as a Marine in World War II, he began working as a spy in 1949. Besides Godel’s assignment, he was recruiting former German scientists held in Soviet-controlled East Berlin. Godel is unquestionably acknowledged by American military leaders as an emerging key resource along with Edward Lansdale and William Colby.
Part One:
The opening chapters address the bombing of Nagasaki to post World War II goals. One focus was securing Germany’s key physicists including Wernher von Braun from the Soviets. The role of von Braun’s departure is quite amazing. His team was working at the Army Ballistic Missile Agency in Huntsville Alabama. This team would design Jupiter-C missiles. Then Sputnik changed everything.
Just as intriguing is the role of Eisenhower’s Secretary of Defense, businessman Neil McElroy. He ran Proctor and Gamble and had no previous military or government experience. McElroy was the father of brand management, a reputation that did not sit well within the Pentagon or the media:
‘Soap manufacturer Neil McElroy is president’s choice to succeed Wilson’
Page 51
The Milwaukee Journal, August 7, 1957.
Yet Eisenhower’s leadership, tempered by war in Europe offer a view that business leadership could help straighten out government. To a large extent that certainly meant cutting through political infighting within the Pentagon. Now we understand infighting cost the military money and resources. Sharon reinforces the technology impact of DARPA under Eisenhower. The move to strategic ICBMs was a dramatic shift from conventional forces.
Chapter 5: Welcome to the Jungle, is another deep dive into DARPA. As appointed by the Secretary of Defense in 1950, General Graves Erskin would instead bring Godel into DARPA. In return, Godel was pushing DARPA into an ambitious counterinsurgency technology programs in Southeast Asia.
Erskin was leading the Joint State-Defense Mutual Defense Assistance Program Survey Mission to Southeast Asia. Within this role DARPA technologies would be directed to Vietnam and Thailand. It was a pleasure learning more about DARPA technology developed and deployed during Vietnam War.
Drone technology
The details of DARPA’s development of drone technology is truly worth the price of admission. Sharon reveals drone technology, invented at DARPA and deployed across southeast Asia for testing. Perhaps the QH-50C is most impressive drone within a deployment timeframe. The image below is from the month of the Gulf of Tonkin incident. There is no evidence the drone was used during the attack.
Intergalactic Computer Network
J.C.R. Licklider’s project, the Intergalactic Computer Network could be the most valuable project within DARPA’s history. The internet, invented by Licklider as ‘ARPAnet‘ changed the world. To be frank both The Imagineers of War and The Pentagon’s Brain admirably address three of Licklider’s command and control projects as the most important developments in information technology: the creation of university computer science departments, time-sharing computing, and networking.
Part Two:
The second half of the book jumps into newly declassified insights in the development of Have Blue (aka Stealth F117A) to modern technology deployments post 9/11. Sharon’s attention to detail regarding advanced flight and drone technology is amazing. The stories of Kelly Johnson and Ben Rich are a wonderful recollection of Skunkworks.
Sources:
In short,William Godell remains a key, somewhat mystery player in both books. However Sharon reveals within her book’s sources a reason for Godel’s fall from grace:
Pages 778-779
Shortly after Godel’s death in 2000, Joseph Trento, an independent journalist, contacted the Godel family with allegations that Godel had been a Soviet mole. Trento and his wife in 1989 had published a controversial book on Soviet moles in the CIA. Their co-author on that book was William Corson, the marine officer assigned to DARPA, who later testified against Godel in the 1965 fraud trial. According to Trento, Corson was secretly working on behalf of the CIA to investigate Godel. Proof for the allegation, other than the purported words of Corson, who died the same year as Godel, was nonexistent. Nonetheless, Trento in 2001 published the account in his book The Secret History of the CIA.
Did the CIA believe Godel was a Soviet mole? That is impossible to say based on the available documents, though Corson was allegedly a confidant of James Angleton, the CIA’s famous Soviet mole hunter. The historical record does show that Godel had enemies in the CIA, and the investigation and his subsequent trial came amid a slew of Angleton’s obsessive counterintelligence investigations—a few deserved, and some driven by paranoia and political revenge. Likewise, Corson’s connections to the CIA are well established, though his exact assignments for the spy agency remain unclear.
What role suspicions of espionage actually played in Godel’s ouster remains mired in secret records that as of today the FBI and CIA have been unwilling to divulge, despite long-standing Freedom of Information Act requests. Those records, if eventually released, may ultimately have little bearing on DARPA’s place in history, but they would help shed light on Godel’s downfall and bring closure to his family.
In conclusion, Imagineers of War is a deep discovery that takes time. Certainly DARPA would change the world. Sharon has authored an amazing work. Regardless of your life’s path, read this book. Above all, this book is about the power of imagination. Enjoy!
Computer History Museum | Imagineers of War
Martha’s Vineyard Productions | The Imagineers of War
BookTV | The Imagineers of War
AM 950 | The Imagineers of War: The Untold Story of DARPA