operation paperclip

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pages: 612 words: 181,985

Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program That Brought Nazi Scientists to America by Annie Jacobsen

Albert Einstein, anti-communist, Apollo 11, death from overwork, disinformation, Dr. Strangelove, experimental subject, military-industrial complex, operation paperclip, Ronald Reagan, Seymour Hersh, éminence grise

“I also know that he strictly refused to take part [in] or permit scientific research work which was damaging to human health,” Schäfer wrote. The following year, Dr. Konrad Schäfer would be on a boat headed for America, an Operation Paperclip contract in hand. As for Dr. Blome, he was seen as a highly desirable recruit for Operation Paperclip. Blome allegedly knew more about bubonic plague research than anyone else in the world. But, given his former position in Hitler’s inner circle, coupled with the fact that Blome had worn the Golden Party Badge, bringing him to America as part of Operation Paperclip remained too difficult for the U.S. Army to justify. But as the Cold War gained momentum and intense suspicion of the Soviets increased, even someone like Kurt Blome would eventually be deemed eligible for Operation Paperclip.

—Heraclitus CHAPTER TWENTY In the Dark Shadows The Cold War became a battlefield marked by doublespeak. Disguise, distortion, and deception were accepted as reality. Truth was promised in a serum. And Operation Paperclip, born of the ashes of World War II, was the inciting incident in this hall of mirrors. But in 1952, the heedless momentum of Operation Paperclip began to slow as conflicts emerged between the JIOA and the CIA over policies with the new West German government. German officials warned High Commissioner John J. McCloy that Operation Paperclip violated NATO regulations and even America’s own policies for governance in Germany. On February 21, 1952, McCloy sent a memo to the U.S.

Considered one of the Reich’s top ten pilots, he was asked by armaments minister Albert Speer to pilot Speer’s escape to Greenland. Under Operation Paperclip, he worked at Wright Field from 1947 until 1977. Major General Hugh Knerr: Post-war commanding general at Air Technical Service Command, Wright Field. An early advocate of Operation Paperclip, he sent a memo to the War Department encouraging them to overlook German scientists’ Nazi pasts. “Pride and face saving have no place in national insurance,” he said. Karl Krauch: Chairman of IG Farben board of directors and Göring’s Plenipotentiary for Special Questions of Chemical Production. Courted for Operation Paperclip while incarcerated at Nuremberg, he was convicted alongside colleague Otto Ambros.


Chasing the Moon: The People, the Politics, and the Promise That Launched America Into the Space Age by Robert Stone, Alan Andres

affirmative action, Albert Einstein, anti-communist, Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, Apollo 11, Apollo 13, Apollo Guidance Computer, Charles Lindbergh, cuban missile crisis, desegregation, disinformation, Dr. Strangelove, Easter island, feminist movement, Gene Kranz, General Motors Futurama, invention of the telephone, Lewis Mumford, low earth orbit, military-industrial complex, more computing power than Apollo, Neil Armstrong, New Journalism, Norman Mailer, operation paperclip, out of africa, overview effect, RAND corporation, Ronald Reagan, the scientific method, traveling salesman, Works Progress Administration

The plan progressed so rapidly that the first group of German scientists and engineers arrived on American soil before President Truman became aware of the program’s existence. It began as Operation Overcast, an initiative focused on taking possession of Nazi scientific knowledge and technology for use in the war against Japan. However, after the Japanese surrender, the larger program was renamed Operation Paperclip and included many more former Third Reich engineers, technicians, and scientists. The code name arose from the Office of Strategic Services’ use of paperclips to mark the intelligence files of scientists and engineers selected for inclusion in the program. Willy Ley assumed his unique knowledge of rocket science and his experience working with Hermann Oberth would help him obtain a financially secure job with either the United States government or an American corporation expanding into rocket development.

For decades, significant details about how they and other German scientists were vetted and cleared for entry were shrouded in secrecy. But it is undeniable that the United States government concealed the fact that it gave preferential treatment to some German scientists and engineers who had been Nazi Party members or suspected of complicity in war crimes. The first public news of Operation Paperclip came in an understated press release issued by the War Department on October 1, 1945. It announced that a carefully selected number of “outstanding German scientists” would be brought to the United States to impart technical knowledge vital to the nation’s security. The one-page release said that they would be in the United States on a temporary basis and all had made the journey voluntarily.

Not long afterward, Lasser was ridiculed on the floor of the House of Representatives as “a crackpot with mental delusions that we can travel to the Moon!” The War Department’s decision to bring scientists and engineers from Hitler’s Third Reich to work for the U.S. government did not go unopposed. Prominent physicists such as Albert Einstein and Hans Bethe as well as former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt criticized Operation Paperclip. But the larger looming reality of the Soviet Union’s brutal domination of Eastern Europe, legitimate fears of domestic espionage, and reports of a possible Russian nuclear-weapons program silenced most public resistance to the program. No congressmen delivered speeches questioning whether the German scientists posed a security risk or held contrary political views.


pages: 572 words: 179,024

Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base by Annie Jacobsen

Albert Einstein, anti-communist, Apollo 11, Berlin Wall, cuban missile crisis, data acquisition, disinformation, drone strike, Jim Simons, Maui Hawaii, military-industrial complex, mutually assured destruction, Neil Armstrong, operation paperclip, orbital mechanics / astrodynamics, Project Plowshare, RAND corporation, Ronald Reagan, Seymour Hersh, South China Sea, Strategic Defense Initiative, uranium enrichment, urban sprawl, zero day

It had come off the same German slave-labor production lines as the rockets that the Third Reich had used to terrorize the people of London, Antwerp, and Paris during the war. The U.S. Army had confiscated nearly two hundred V-2s from inside Peenemünde, Germany’s rocket manufacturing plant, and shipped them to White Sands beginning the first month after the war. Under a parallel, even more secret project called Operation Paperclip—the complete details of which remain classified as of 2011—118 captured German rocket scientists were given new lives and careers and brought to the missile range. Hundreds of others would follow. Two of these German scientists were now readying Hermes for its test launch. One, Wernher Von Braun, had invented this rocket, which was the world’s first ballistic missile, or flying bomb.

Allegations of sabotage by the German scientists who were in charge of the top secret project overwhelmed the workload of the intelligence officers at White Sands. Attitudes toward the former Third Reich scientists who were now working for the United States tended to fall into two distinct categories at the time. There was the let-bygones-be-bygones approach, an attitude summed up by the Army officer in charge of Operation Paperclip, Bosquet Wev, who stated that to preoccupy oneself with “picayune details” about German scientists’ past actions was “beating a dead Nazi horse.” The logic behind this thinking was that a disbanded Third Reich presented no future harm to America but a burgeoning Soviet military certainly did—and if the Germans were working for us, they couldn’t be working for them.

The idea that the American military and its intelligence agents would overlook war crimes and crimes against humanity in the name of advancing American science was, and continues to be, an odious one. It is likely that this is the reason why the federal government has never fully declassified the Operation Paperclip files. In 1999, a government panel released 126,000 pages of previously classified documents on former German Paperclips, but the panel also revealed that there were over six hundred million still-classified pages waiting “for review.” No significant release has occured since. In March of 1957, Bevacqua finally passed his tests and arrived at Area 51, where the living conditions had improved.


pages: 558 words: 164,627

The Pentagon's Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency by Annie Jacobsen

Albert Einstein, Berlin Wall, Boston Dynamics, colonial rule, crowdsourcing, cuban missile crisis, Dean Kamen, disinformation, Dr. Strangelove, drone strike, Edward Snowden, Fall of the Berlin Wall, game design, GPS: selective availability, Herman Kahn, Ivan Sutherland, John Markoff, John von Neumann, license plate recognition, Livingstone, I presume, low earth orbit, megacity, Menlo Park, meta-analysis, Mikhail Gorbachev, military-industrial complex, Murray Gell-Mann, mutually assured destruction, Neil Armstrong, Norman Mailer, operation paperclip, place-making, RAND corporation, restrictive zoning, Ronald Reagan, Ronald Reagan: Tear down this wall, social intelligence, stem cell, Stephen Hawking, Strategic Defense Initiative, traumatic brain injury, zero-sum game

The survival of so many of the Nazi high command in Berlin was predicated on the underground engineering skills of a few top Nazi scientists, including Franz Xaver Dorsch, Walter Schieber, and Georg Rickhey, all three of whom were hired by the U.S. Army to work on secret U.S. underground engineering projects after the war, as part of Operation Paperclip. Plans for Raven Rock were first drawn up in 1948, including some by Rickhey. Work began shortly after the Russians detonated their own atomic bomb, known in the West as Joe-1, in August 1949, and by 1950, construction crews with top secret clearances were working around the clock to build the first underground presidential bunker and command post.

Von Braun was nothing if not entitled, and in his discussions regarding the new position, he insisted that were he to transfer his services over to the Pentagon, a sizable group of his German rocket scientist colleagues would have to accompany him there. Army intelligence had classified dossiers on each of von Braun’s 113 German colleagues. They were all part of Operation Paperclip, the secret intelligence program that had brought Nazi scientists to America after the war. Many of von Braun’s rocket team members had been ardent Nazis, members of ultra-nationalistic paramilitary organizations, including the SS and the SA. “For a while Wernher von Braun appeared to have the job but to get him it was necessary to take his 10–15 man package of [German] associates and that was not acceptable,” wrote ARPA administrator J.

And my fellow writers from group: Kirston Mann, Sabrina Weill, Michelle Fiordaliso, Nicole Lucas Haimes, and Annette Murphy. The only thing that makes me happier than finishing a book is the daily joy I get from Kevin, Finley, and Jett. You guys are my best friends. ALSO BY ANNIE JACOBSEN Operation Paperclip Area 51 NOTES Abbreviations Used in Notes ARCHIVES CIA Central Intelligence Agency Library, digital collection DSOH U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, digital collection Geisel Geisel Library, University of California, San Diego, CA JFK John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston, MA LANL Los Alamos National Laboratory Research Library, Los Alamos, NM LOC Library of Congress, Washington, DC NACP National Archives and Records Administration at College Park, MD NAR National Archives and Records Administration at Riverside, CA UCSB American Presidency Project, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA VO67A VO-67 Association, Navy Observation Squadron Sixty-Seven, digital collection GOVERNMENT AGENCIES & AFFILIATES ARPA Advanced Research Projects Agency DARPA Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency DNA Defense Nuclear Agency GAO General Accounting Office IDA Institute for Defense Analyses Prologue 1 DARPA as an agency: Inspector general’s report, “Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Ethics Program Met Federal Government Standards,” January 24, 2013; “Breakthrough Technologies for National Security,” DARPA 2015. 2 “We are faced”: DARPA press release,“President’s Budget Request for DARPA Aims to Fund Promising Ideas, Help Regain Prior Levels,” March 5, 2014. 3 eighty-seven nations: Interview with Noel Sharkey, August 2013.


pages: 476 words: 144,288

1946: The Making of the Modern World by Victor Sebestyen

anti-communist, Ayatollah Khomeini, Berlin Wall, Bretton Woods, British Empire, centre right, classic study, clean water, colonial rule, disinformation, Etonian, European colonialism, Fall of the Berlin Wall, full employment, Herbert Marcuse, illegal immigration, imperial preference, Kickstarter, land reform, long peace, Mahatma Gandhi, mass immigration, Mikhail Gorbachev, Monroe Doctrine, moral hazard, operation paperclip

If the Allies, with their judges’ courts and fine rhetoric about punishing the guilty, found pragmatic reasons to let some Nazis thrive, why should the Germans be more rigorous about prosecuting less serious malefactors? This was a question that informed Germans repeatedly asked Allied officials. They never received convincing answers. In the US Army’s highly efficient Operation Paperclip, around four hundred scientists and technicians were arrested, interrogated and, if they were of any potential use, shipped out of Germany, whatever their political beliefs or human-rights records might have been. The Third Reich’s top technical brains were plundered and shared out between the US and Britain – partly as war booty, but just as important, to keep them and their work out of the hands of the Russians.

Cordell Hull, The Memoirs of Cordell Hull, Macmillan, 1948; Churchill quoted by Moran, Winston Churchill, p. 399; Cadogan memo, TNA: CAB 122. 65. 53. 18. Kennan, Memoirs, p. 465. 19. TNA: PREM 4. 109. 102. 28. 20. Shawcross to Attlee, 20 January 1946, TNA: PREM 4 108. 203.34; Attlee to Shawcross, 22 January 1946, TNA: PREM 4 108. 203. 63. 21. Report about Operation Paperclip, FRUS, 1945, vol. 4, p. 455; quote about Rudolph, OMGUS Intelligence Department, RG 19.357. 22. OMGUS Intelligence Department, RG 16. 454. 23. Applebaum, Iron Curtain, p. 279. 24. Ibid., p. 242. 25. Andreas-Friedrich, Battleground Berlin, 26 April 1946. 26. Zubok, Inside the Kremlin, p. 312. 20.

K. ref1 Azerbaijan Democratic Party (ADP) ref1 Azerbaijan–Iran conflict ref1, ref2, ref3 Bagirov, Mir ref1 Bagramyan, Ivan ref1 Balfour Declaration (1917) ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5 Barker, Evelyn ref1 Barraclough, Brigadier John ref1 Bavaria ref1 Bednarczuk, Wincenty ref1 Begin, Menachem ref1, ref2, ref3 Belsen camp ref1 Ben Gurion, David ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7 Beneš, Edvard ref1, ref2 Bengal famine (1943–4) ref1 Beria, Lavrenti ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6 Beria, Sergo ref1 Berlin ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4 black market ref1 crime in post-war ref1 Berman, Jakob ref1 Bernard, Henri ref1 Betar movement ref1 Bevan, Aneurin ref1 Bevin, Ernest ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11, ref12, ref13 Big Freeze ref1 Biriya, Mohammed ref1, ref2 black market France ref1 Germany ref1 Japan ref1 Blankenhorn, Herbert ref1 Błaszczyk, Henryk ref1 Bohlen, Charles ‘Chips’ ref1 Bohr, Niels ref1 Böll, Heinrich Kreuz ohne Liebe ref1 Boris Godunov (opera) ref1 Botting, Bernhard ref1 Bowers, Faubion ref1, ref2 Bracken, Brendan ref1 Brecht, Bertolt The Threepenny Opera ref1 Britain ref1 anti-Semitist attacks in ref1 and atomic bomb ref1 Attlee’s reforms and social provisions ref1 campaign to help Germans by public and press ref1 and de-Nazification ref1 economic problems and debts ref1, ref2 election (1945) ref1 food rationing ref1, ref2 and forced repatriation of Soviet citizens ref1 and German occupation zone ref1 see also Germany: Western Zone and Greece ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4 and India ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5 and Iran ref1 and Jewish immigration to Palestine issue ref1, ref2 loan negotiations with United States ref1 and Palestine ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5 and Poland ref1, ref2 post-war military force ref1 relationship with United States ref1, ref2, ref3 ‘shrinking loaf’ scandal ref1 view of Russian threat ref1 wanting Jewish refugees to return to Eastern Europe ref1 and war-crime trials ref1 withdrawal from India ref1, ref2 see also Attlee, Clement; Churchill, Winston Brooke, Sir Alan ref1 Brooks, Louise ref1 Buck, Pearl S. ref1 Bulgaria ref1, ref2 Bullard, Sir Reader ref1, ref2 Burrows, Sir Frederick ref1 Bush, Vannever ref1 Byrnes, James ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4 Cadogan, Sir Alexander ref1, ref2, ref3 Caffery, Jefferson ref1 Cairncross, John ref1 Calcutta riots ref1 Callaghan, James ref1 Cameron, James ref1 Camus, Albert ref1, ref2 Caro, Robert ref1 Castle, Barbara ref1 Catholic Church ref1 Cavan, Frederick Lambart, Earl of ref1 Cavendish-Bentinck, Victor ref1, ref2 Celler, Emmanuel ref1 Channon, Henry ‘Chips’ ref1n Chaudhuri, Nirad ref1 Chiang Kai-shek ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8 Chiang Mei-ling ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4 China ref1, ref2 corruption of Nationalist government ref1, ref2 economy ref1 Mao’s rectification campaigns ref1 occupation of by Japan ref1, ref2 opium trade ref1 poverty ref1 Chinese Civil War ref1, ref2, ref3 communist victory (1949) ref1 peace negotiations and cease-fires ref1, ref2, ref3 and Soviet Union ref1, ref2 and United States ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4 Chinese People’s Liberation Army ref1, ref2 Christian Democratic Union ref1 Churchill, Winston ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7 and Atlantic Charter ref1 and Big Freeze ref1 and French ref1 Fulton (‘Iron Curtain’) speech ref1, ref2, ref3 and Gandhi ref1 and Greece ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4 and India ref1, ref2 loss of 1945 election ref1 opposition to war-crimes trials ref1 and Palestine ref1 and ‘percentages deal’ ref1, ref2, ref3 and Poland ref1, ref2, ref3 relations with Eleanor Roosevelt ref1n Stalin’s view of ref1 view of Molotov ref1 view of Soviet Union ref1 view of Stalin ref1 CIA ref1 Clare, George ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4 Clark Kerr, Sir Archibald ref1, ref2 Clarke, Frank ref1 Clay, General Lucius ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4 Cold War ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6 and Long Telegram ref1 origins of phrase ref1 Colmer, William ref1 communism in France ref1 and Jewish–Bolshevik conspiracy ref1 support of in Czechoslovakia ref1 United States anti-communist stance ref1, ref2, ref3 Conant, Professor James ref1 Connolly, Cyril ref1 Control Commission Germany ref1 Cooper, Duff ref1, ref2 Cooper, Susan ref1 Coward, Noël ref1 ‘Don’t Let’s Be Beastly to the Germans’ ref1 Cowles, Gardner ref1n Cripps, Sir Stafford ref1, ref2 Croats forced repatriation of and killing of by Tito ref1 Crosland, Anthony ref1 Crossman, Richard ref1, ref2 CROWCASS (Central Registry of War Criminals and Security Suspects) ref1, ref2 Cunningham, Sir George ref1 Curzon, Lord ref1 Curzon Line ref1 Czechoslovakia ref1, ref2 expulsion and internment of Germans ref1 and Soviet Union ref1 support of communism in ref1 Daily Mirror ref1 Dalton, Hugh ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7 de Beauvoir, Simone ref1, ref2, ref3 de Gaulle, General Charles ref1, ref2, ref3 Dean, Patrick ref1 Debus, Kurt ref1 Decembrist rising (1825) ref1 Democratic League ref1 de-Nazification ref1 and Britain ref1 and clergy ref1 criticism of ref1 and Fragebogen questionnaire ref1, ref2 and German institutions ref1 and Nuremberg trials ref1, ref2 and Operation Paperclip ref1 and Persilschein certificates ref1, ref2 and the police ref1 problems facing Allies ref1, ref2 scientists and business leaders escaping ref1 Spruchkammer tribunals ref1, ref2, ref3 Dimitrov, Georgi ref1 displaced persons (DPs) camps ref1, ref2 Djilas, Milovan ref1, ref2, ref3 Dönhoff, Marion, Countess von ref1 Dorman, Baruch ref1 Dos Passos, John ref1, ref2 Douglas, Air Marshal Sir Sholto ref1 Drtina, Prokop ref1 Dwarkadas, Kanji ref1 EAM (National Liberation Front) ref1, ref2, ref3 East Germany see Germany Eastern Europe ref1 anti-Jewish massacres ref1 and Soviet Union ref1, ref2 Economist, The ref1 Eden, Anthony ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5 EDES (National Republican League) ref1 Edward VIII, King ref1 Edwards, Corwin D. ref1 Ehrenberg, Ilya ref1 Eisenhower, Dwight D. ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6 Eisenstein, Sergei ref1 ELAS (Greek People’s Liberation Army) ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5 Ertegün, Mehmet Münir ref1 Etzel see Irgun European Union ref1 Fellers, Brigadier-General Bonner ref1 Fish, Hamilton ref1 Flanner, Janet ref1, ref2, ref3 Flerov, Georgi ref1 food rationing Britain ref1, ref2 France ref1 Germany ref1, ref2 Japan ref1 United States ref1 Foot, Michael ref1 Foreign Ministers’ Conference (Moscow) (1945) ref1 Forrestal, James ref1 Fragebogen ref1, ref2 France ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4 anti-Americanism ref1 black market ref1 communism in ref1 food rationing ref1 loan from United States ref1 Nazi-occupied ref1 occupation zone in Germany ref1 post-war conditions ref1 revenge taken out on collaborators (savage purge) ref1 French Communist Party ref1 Frick, Wilhelm ref1 Frings, Joseph ref1 Fuchs, Klaus ref1 Fuhrman, Johan ref1 Galbraith, J.


pages: 385 words: 112,842

Arriving Today: From Factory to Front Door -- Why Everything Has Changed About How and What We Buy by Christopher Mims

air freight, Airbnb, Amazon Robotics, Amazon Web Services, Apollo 11, augmented reality, autonomous vehicles, big-box store, blue-collar work, Boeing 747, book scanning, business logic, business process, call centre, cloud computing, company town, coronavirus, cotton gin, COVID-19, creative destruction, data science, Dava Sobel, deep learning, dematerialisation, deskilling, digital twin, Donald Trump, easy for humans, difficult for computers, electronic logging device, Elon Musk, Frederick Winslow Taylor, fulfillment center, gentrification, gig economy, global pandemic, global supply chain, guest worker program, Hans Moravec, heat death of the universe, hive mind, Hyperloop, immigration reform, income inequality, independent contractor, industrial robot, interchangeable parts, intermodal, inventory management, Jacquard loom, Jeff Bezos, Jessica Bruder, job automation, John Maynard Keynes: Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren, Joseph Schumpeter, Kaizen: continuous improvement, Kanban, Kiva Systems, level 1 cache, Lewis Mumford, lockdown, lone genius, Lyft, machine readable, Malacca Straits, Mark Zuckerberg, market bubble, minimum wage unemployment, Nomadland, Ocado, operation paperclip, Panamax, Pearl River Delta, planetary scale, pneumatic tube, polynesian navigation, post-Panamax, random stow, ride hailing / ride sharing, robot derives from the Czech word robota Czech, meaning slave, Rodney Brooks, rubber-tired gantry crane, scientific management, self-driving car, sensor fusion, Shenzhen special economic zone , Shoshana Zuboff, Silicon Valley, six sigma, skunkworks, social distancing, South China Sea, special economic zone, spinning jenny, standardized shipping container, Steve Jobs, supply-chain management, surveillance capitalism, TED Talk, the scientific method, Tim Cook: Apple, Toyota Production System, traveling salesman, Turing test, two-sided market, Uber and Lyft, Uber for X, uber lyft, Upton Sinclair, vertical integration, warehouse automation, warehouse robotics, workplace surveillance

An Impossibly Perfect Map,” Wall Street Journal, October 11, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-key-to-autonomous-driving-an-impossibly-perfect-map-1539259260. launched in New Mexico in 1932: “Dr. Robert H. Goddard, American Rocketry Pioneer,” NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, February 11, 2015, https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/about/history/dr_goddard.html. Operation Paperclip: Annie Jacobsen, Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program That Brought Nazi Scientists to America (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2015). getting humans to the moon: “The Inertial Measurement Unit: Mechanical Engineering Wizardry,” Hack the Moon, https://wehackthemoon.com/tech/inertial-measurement-unit-mechanical-engineering-wizardry.

His ideas were elaborated by Wernher von Braun, whose V-2 rocket production program in Nazi Germany worked to death more than 10,000 slave laborers but did not, in the eyes of the U.S. government, outweigh his potential utility to America in winning various Cold War races against the Soviets. (At the close of World War II, Braun was shipped to the United States as part of Operation Paperclip and would prove instrumental in helping capitalists beat communists to the moon.) On the V-2 rocket, Braun gave the world its first real inertial navigation system, as it was then known. One of the “vengeance weapons” that Hitler thought would be so devastating and terrifying that it would force the Allies to call off their attack and press for peace, the V-2 was primitive by today’s standards but effective.

See also Bezosism; scientific management Mao Zedong, 278 Marcus, Gary, 142 Marine Exchange of Southern California, 48, 50 Marketplace (Amazon business), 236 Marx, Karl, 87 Marzougui, Hedi, 28 Mason, George, 264 mass production, development of, 99–101, 214, 215 McAdam, John London, and macadam roadbuilding, 129 McDonald’s, 123, 205, 220 McKaye, Benton, 130 McLean, Malcolm, 14 McNamara, Robert, 222 Mechanization and Modernization Agreement, 71 Melville, Herman, 30 MEMS (microelectromechanical systems), 145 Mendez, Marc, 68, 78 Microsoft, 204 “the middle mile,” 251–62; Amazon warehouses, delivery of goods from, 170, 184, 188, 195; defined and described, 251–53; delivery service companies involved in, 252; delivery stations, 261–62; sortation centers for, 252–61 Midvale Steel Works, 96 Mississippi River, freight carriage on, 128 Mitsubishi Electric, 95 mobile shelving units, 172, 174, 175, 179, 181, 183, 185–86, 201, 214, 215, 227, 231 monkey’s fist knot, 64–65 monopsony, 137 Moore’s law, 145, 153 Moravee, Hans, Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence, 178 Moravee’s paradox, 178–79, 243 Morreale, Austin, 197–98, 200, 208, 209–10 Motor Carrier Act (1980), 110 Motorola, 164, 228, 286 Mountz, Mick: Amazon warehouses and, 164–66, 168–69, 173, 174; Bezosism and management systems, 201, 211–14, 228; robotic warehousing and, 178, 182, 183, 191 MSC (shipping company), 22, 70 MSC Industrial Supply, 241–45, 248–49 MSDs (musculoskeletal disorders), 237, 238 muda, 226 Mujin (robotics company), 246 Municipal Warehouse No. 1, Port of Los Angeles, 46 Muro, Marc, 76 Murray, Matt, 209 Musk, Elon, 79, 155 MWPVL International, 201 N95 masks, 8, 10 NASA, 144, 248 natural gas supply chain, 91–92 navigating shipping vessels, 37–43 Nazi-era German technology, 131, 143–44 NBC News, 276 Nelson, Daniel, 98, 102 Neopanamax vessels, 27 Netherlands (container ship), 48–50, 52, 54, 55, 57, 60–62 New York and New Jersey, Port of, 48, 55, 61 New York Herald, 129 New York Herald Tribune, 104 New York Times, 112, 114, 276 NEXT Trucking, 74 Nieves, Erik, 244, 247, 249 NIKE system at Amazon, 174–75 Nvidia, 153, 154 Oakland, CA, port of, 52 Obama, Barack, 279 Ocado, 186 OfficeMax, 168 oil crisis of 1970s, 9 Omar, Nimo, 171 Onetto, Marc, 221–26, 228, 229–30, 232, 248 OOCL, 22, 26, 29, 36 OOIDA (Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association), 111 Operation Paperclip, 144 ORION (On-Road Integrated Optimization and Navigation) system, 283–84 Osaro, 246 OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration), 233, 240, 279 Pacific Maritime Association, 71 Pacific Ocean. navigating, 40–43 Pacino, Al, 277 Paltrow, Gwyneth, 184 Panama, as flag state, 32 Panama Canal, 26–27, 38 Panttila, John “JP,” 148–49 parallelization, 154 Pennsylvania Turnpike, 132 PepsiCo, 136 physical demands: on Amazon workers, 171–76, 197–98, 200, 202, 235–37; on delivery drivers, 272–73 “pick” (extraction of items from storage) at Amazon warehouses, 184–88, 202 pick towers, 160 Pickle (robotics company), 246 Piggly Wiggly, 167 pilot card, 57 Plus One Robotics, 243–46 pods, at Amazon, 175 Portable Pilot Unit, 59 Porter, Brad, 175, 181, 183, 227, 239 Portland, OR, port of, 52 ports.


pages: 192 words: 63,813

The End of Astronauts: Why Robots Are the Future of Exploration by Donald Goldsmith, Martin Rees

Apollo 11, Biosphere 2, blockchain, Colonization of Mars, cosmic abundance, crewed spaceflight, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, en.wikipedia.org, gravity well, hydroponic farming, Isaac Newton, James Webb Space Telescope, Jeff Bezos, Johannes Kepler, Kuiper Belt, low earth orbit, Menlo Park, microplastics / micro fibres, Neil Armstrong, operation paperclip, Peter H. Diamandis: Planetary Resources, place-making, Planet Labs, planetary scale, Ronald Reagan, satellite internet, self-driving car, South China Sea, SpaceX Starlink, Stephen Hawking, UNCLOS, V2 rocket, Virgin Galactic, Yogi Berra

After World War II, the most prominent Nazi rocketeers surrendered to the Allies, hoping—­quite correctly, in the event—­that the Americans in par­tic­u­lar would judge them so useful that their war­ time activities would be overlooked. ­ Under interrogation, von Braun cited as their inspiration not only the Nazis’ own rocket man, Hermann Oberth, but also Robert Goddard, saying, “­Don’t you know about your own rocket pioneer? Dr. Goddard was ahead of us all.”3 Brought to Amer­i­ca by Operation Paperclip, which resettled about 1,600 Nazi scientists and engineers in the United States, von Braun helped to launch the remaining V-2 rockets for scientific purposes, and in 1950 he became the leader of a rocket team at the US Army’s Redstone Arsenal in Alabama that developed new rockets with liquid-­f ueled engines for military use.

., 144 Enceladus, 24, 148, 149 escape velocity, 27, 28, 30 Europa, 24, 148, 149 Eu­ro­pean Space Agency (ESA), 5, 24, 32, 37, 51, 65, 81, 89, 121, 125–128, 149 Executive Order 13914, 141, 142 exploration, motivations, 2, 14, 88 Falcon, 34, 38, 120, 122 Flammarion, Camille, 57, 75 Franklin probe, 127 Gagarin, Yuri, 4, 33 gamma rays, 44 Gemini, 32 geostationary orbits, 25, 28 Glenn, John, 4 Goddard, Robert, 2, 3 Goddard Space Flight Center, 2 gold, 98, 99, 101–103 gravitational force, 29, 41, 60, 78, 94, 99 gravitational well, 26–29, 56, 94, 99, 102, 121 green­house effect, 92 Grunsfeld, John, 91, 92 habitats, 6, 23–25, 32, 35, 39; on Mars, 39, 75, 85, 86, 89, 92; on moon, 50, 55, 57, 72, 75, 97; in space, 32, 35, 105–109, 111 Hawking, Stephen, 108, 148 Hayabusa, 96 helium-3, 59–61; helium-4, 59–61 high-­energy particles, 1, 28, 43, 44, 57, 60, 61, 69, 106 Hoffman, Jeffrey, 82 Hope spacecraft, 78 Hubble Space Telescope, 1, 17, 41, 82, 126 ice: on asteroids, 97; on Enceladus, 149; on Europa, 149; on Mars, 86, 92; on moon, 52, 55–57 India, 7, 37, 52, 55, 57, 129 Infrared Space Telescope, 126 Ingenuity, 78, 79 InSight, 78 Institute for Defense Analyses, 118 International Aeronautical Congress, 108 International Court of Justice, 135, 137 International Lunar Research Station, 65 International Seabed Authority, 133 International Space Station, 30–38, 42, 82, 84, 101, 117, 122–128 interstellar travel, 113 Italian Space Agency, 121 Itokawa, 96 INDEX Japa­nese Space Agency, 5, 37, 96, 121, 129, 130 JAXA, 5 Jezero crater, 79, 87 John, Elton, 93 Johnson, Lyndon, 45 JUICE mission, 89 Juno, 24 Jurvetson, Steve, 39 Kelly, Scott, 33 Kennedy, John, 4, 10, 13, 119 Kepler, Johannes, 49 Kessler, David, 47 Kessler effect, 47, 48 Kimball, Dan, 124 Korolev, Sergei, 4 Lagrange points, 108; L4 and L5, 25, 144 Law of the Sea Convention, 133 laws in space, 131–133, 136–139, 143 LCROSS, 55 Leary, Timothy, 106 Lederberg, Joshua, 71 Leonov, Alexei, 4 Levania, 49 Levinthal, Elliott, 71 Lewis, John, 110 low-­Earth orbit (LEO), 6, 25, 28, 29, 31–37, 41–48, 84, 101, 103, 120–122, 125, 126, 129, 151 Lowell, Percival, 75, 76 Luna program, 51, 52 Lunar and Planetary Institute, 17 Lunar Prospector, 51 Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, 51 lunar rover, 62, 63, 129 Mangalyaan, 129 manufacturing in space, 35–37, 58 Mars, atmosphere, 78, 79, 86, 90; colonization, 88, 91, 104; ­humans on, 15, · 183 81–85, 87–93; ice on, 86, 92; robots on, 17, 77, 82, 88, 116, 118, 127, 147, 149; ­water on, 75, 76, 86, 90, 93, 149 Marshall Space Flight Center, 37 Mars One, 117, 118 Martian, The, 86, 116 McAuliffe, Christa, 32 McKay, Chris, 83 McPhee, John, 77 Melroy, Pamela, 125 Mercury, 5, 74 Meteorites, 53, 80, 97 MeV, 44 micro­waves, 46 mining: on asteroids, 23, 99–103, 107; on moon, 57, 61, 63, 110 Mir, 40 moon: colonies on, 39, 50, 55, 57, 72, 75, 88, 97; formation of, 50, 53; habitats on, 50, 55, 57, 72, 75, 97; ­humans on, 4, 12, 20, 51, 54–66; mining on, 57, 61, 63, 110; peaks of eternal light, 57, 147; robots on, 51–53, 59, 61–67 Moon Treaty, 137–140 Morton, Oliver, 13 Mount Everest, 12 Musk, Elon, 34, 38, 90, 99, 108, 120, 131, 148 Mutations, 44 National Acad­emy of Sciences, 21, 150 National Aeronautics and Space: Administration (NASA), 2, 5, 15, 18–24, 31–39; limiting astronaut risks, 44, 47, 68; missions to Mars, 79–81, 85; to moon, 51, 52, 55, 65–68 Near-­Earth orbit (NEO). See low-­Earth orbit Nelson, Bill, 31, 107, 121 Nereus, 98–100 neutrino, 59 18 4 · INDEX neutron, 59, 60 Newton, Isaac, 49 Newton’s laws, 27 Niven, Larry, 103 Oberth, Hermann, 3 O. Henry, 40 Olympus Mons, 92 O’Neill, Gerard, 106–109, 111 Operation Paperclip, 3 Opportunity, 84, 114, 116 orange soil, 54 orbits, around Earth, 1–6, 15, 18, 23–25, 28–35, 37, 40–45, 50; geostationary, 25, 28; around Mars, 17, 37, 76–78, 81, 84, 86, 116; around moon, 51–53, 55, 59, 66, 67; around other stars, 73; overcrowding of, 45–48; around sun, 18, 26, 94–97, 100–103, 105, 108, 113 Orion spacecraft, 119 OSIRIS-­Rex, 96, 97 Outer Space Treaty, 66, 71, 136–138, 140 Pantheon, 30 Peaks of Eternal Light, 57, 147 Peijian, Yi, 124, 126 Perseverance rover, 13, 18, 62, 78–81, 87, 116 Phobos, 27 Planetary Resources Corporation, 101 Plate tectonics, 56 polls, 19–21, 24 Polyakov, Valery, 33 Polynesians, 12 Psyche, 100 public attitudes t­ oward space exploration, 2–4, 6, 8–13, 16–21, 30, 32, 76, 83, 92, 94, 102, 104, 106, 128, 147 Purdue University, 21 Quegiao, 125 radiation damage, 29, 43–46, 60, 69, 70, 84, 85, 118 Redstone Arsenal, 3 regolith, 61, 96, 143 robots, comparison with ­humans, 64, 65, 115, 146, 149; on Mars, 79, 81–83, 86, 93, 94, 102; on moon, 51–53, 59, 61–67; for space manufacturing, 6, 35–37 Roscosmos, 129 Ryumin, Valery, 40 Sagan, Carl, 71, 72 sample return, from asteroids, 24, 96, 97; from Mars, 14, 77, 80, 81, 127, 128, 147; from moon, 52–54, 56, 63, 125, 128, 139 Schmitt, Harrison, 54, 59, 61, 62 Schwartz, James, 11 Shackleton crater, 57, 129 Shorty crater, 54 Simonyi, Charles, 101 SKA (Square Kilo­meter Array), 59 SLS, 119, 120 Smart-1, 51 Smith, O.


pages: 469 words: 124,784

Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America's Apollo Moon Landings by Jay Barbree, Howard Benedict, Alan Shepard, Deke Slayton, Neil Armstrong

Apollo 11, Apollo 13, Charles Lindbergh, clockwatching, Gene Kranz, gravity well, invisible hand, Kickstarter, low earth orbit, MITM: man-in-the-middle, Neil Armstrong, operation paperclip, orbital mechanics / astrodynamics, place-making

Arriving in Huntsville, they were confident they could exceed their past performance. Nobody questioned his or her expertise. The American military was without any missile skills and considered these Germans to be the most valuable booty from the defeated Third Reich. They had been recruited through Operation Paperclip, a secret U.S. Army program created to scour Germany for rocket, atomic, and aircraft specialists who could be brought to America and kept together as a team. The lead German scientist was Dr. Wernher von Braun, a brilliant propulsion engineer with a dynamic, commanding presence. He was a visionary who from his youth had dreamed of developing rockets to explore outer space.

., 14, 86, 207, 280, 335, 336, 352, 362, 376 North American Aviation, 164, 177, 181, 189, 194, 202 North American Rockwell, 280 North Korea, 19 North Ray Crater, Moon, 334-35 N-1 rocket, 213, 224-25, 339-40 O Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies, 195 Obama, Barack, 362-63 Ocean of Storms, Moon, 259, 260, 300, 309 Odyssey (Apollo 13 command module), 265, 269, 270, 275, 276, 277 Office of Naval Research, 20 O’Hara, Dee, 129 O’Malley, Tom (T.J.), 132, 133 Operation Paperclip, 17 orbital flights, first. See Friendship Seven; Vostok I Orbiter project. See Friendship Seven Orion (Apollo 16 lunar module), 334-35 oxygen pressurization, 179, 181, 183-87, 377 P Paine, Thomas O., 207, 216-17, 335-36 Patrick Air Force Base, 128 Patsayev, Viktor, 333 Patuxent River Naval Air Base, 28, 43-44 Pentagon, 20, 21, 33 Petrone, Rocco, 182, 183, 185, 189-90, 206-7 Phillips, Maj.

Air Force: Astronaut Maneuvering Unit (AMU), 172-74 astronauts, 50-51, 65, 122-23 facilities, 152-53, 155 lighthouse “launch” film, 69 missile development programs, 19, 132, 195 rescue planes, 172 review of Slayton’s health status, 141-42 U.S. Army: campaign to launch a U.S. satellite, 17, 21, 26-27, 31-33 communications satellite system, 123 Operation Paperclip, 17 rocketry program, 16-17, 18-19, 19-20, 27, 123 U.S. Congress in 2010, 362-63 Kennedy’s address to, 121 and Mercury program, 57, 58 NASA funding, 18, 124, 130, 153-54, 286, 341-42 opposition to space program, 18, 340-41 Spacecraft Center site selection, 152-53, 153-55 U.S. “firsts” in space docking in orbit, 183-84 manned lunar landing and return. see Apollo 11 manned lunar orbit. see Apollo 8 manual control of spacecraft, 106-7 U.S.


pages: 288 words: 92,175

Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, From Missiles to the Moon to Mars by Nathalia Holt

Apollo 11, Apollo 13, Bill Gates: Altair 8800, British Empire, computer age, cuban missile crisis, Dennis Tito, desegregation, financial independence, Grace Hopper, Isaac Newton, labor-force participation, low earth orbit, Mars Rover, music of the spheres, Neil Armstrong, new economy, operation paperclip, Richard Feynman, Richard Feynman: Challenger O-ring, space junk, Steve Jobs, Watson beat the top human players on Jeopardy!, women in the workforce, Works Progress Administration, Yogi Berra

Like Frank Malina, JPL’s acting director, he’d received his PhD at Caltech, and almost immediately was attracted to the Suicide Squad. Though he was a quiet man, something about the audacious group drew him in. He’d been involved with JPL since its inception, playing a key role in its success before serving in the U.S. Army. It was in the army, while serving as an honorary colonel, that Tsien consulted for Operation Paperclip, which aimed to capture key Nazi scientists after the war before Russia could get hold of them. The United States was desperate to get their hands on Nazi rocket technology, whose sophistication far outstripped that of the Allies’. Tsien, an accomplished, well-respected rocket scientist, was a natural choice to interview the enemy scientists.

Originally a chemical weapons–manufacturing facility, producing such toxic products as mustard gas, the Redstone army post in Huntsville, Alabama, became home to von Braun and 126 other German scientists in 1950. They were sent there from Fort Bliss, Texas, the former base of operations for Operation Paperclip, the program that brought Nazi scientists to the United States after the war. Nestled in the Tennessee Valley, the lab was fertile soil for rocket research. By 1956, von Braun’s contributions were appreciated, and he was made director of the development operations program at the new Army Ballistic Missile Agency at Redstone.


Shoot for the Moon: The Space Race and the Extraordinary Voyage of Apollo 11 by James Donovan

Apollo 11, Apollo 13, Apollo Guidance Computer, Charles Lindbergh, drop ship, Gene Kranz, Hans Lippershey, Kickstarter, low earth orbit, military-industrial complex, Monroe Doctrine, mutually assured destruction, Neil Armstrong, Norman Mailer, operation paperclip, orbital mechanics / astrodynamics, white flight

They also located the mine shaft where von Braun had hidden the program’s most important plans and blueprints—fourteen tons of crates—and at the last minute they found another cache of valuable V-2 documents that Dornberger had hidden himself. The final treasures were shipped out just two days before the June 1 handover of the area to the Soviets. A few weeks later, the transfer of von Braun and a hundred and twenty-six of his top rocketeers to the United States was officially approved as part of Operation Paperclip, a quickly planned and executed evacuation of thousands of German scientists, engineers, and technicians. They were soon granted security clearances and began arriving in September as “wards of the Army,” requiring no entry permits—but first they were provided with false employment histories, and their Nazi Party affiliations were expunged from their records.

(Author’s collection) Von Braun (center, with cast) surrendered to the U.S. Army on May 2, 1945. At left is Charles Stewart, CIC agent; Magnus von Braun is at right in leather jacket. The others are members of von Braun’s rocket team. When von Braun and his rocketeers were brought into the U.S. as part of Operation Paperclip (above, with von Braun in the first row, seventh from the right), they spent years assembling and launching V-2s, built from parts shipped from Germany, and improving their rocket expertise. The Redstone and Jupiter missiles were essentially larger V-2s with extra stages. On January 31, 1958, von Braun’s Redstone launched the first American satellite, Explorer 1.


pages: 523 words: 143,639

Red November: Inside the Secret U.S.-Soviet Submarine War by W. Craig Reed

Albert Einstein, Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, cable laying ship, centre right, cuban missile crisis, en.wikipedia.org, fixed-gear, nuclear winter, operation paperclip, Ronald Reagan, Saturday Night Live, Silicon Valley, undersea cable, upwardly mobile

The Soviets built nineteen more sites throughout the 1950s, with many installed in pairs within a few miles of one another for navigation purposes. Four Krugs were installed near Moscow, and some were used to track Sputnik satellites via 10 and 20 MHz beacons. Although the Allies snatched up their own Wullenweber engineers after the war under Operation Paperclip, they were slow to the game. Antenna researcher Dr. Rolf Wundt, along with his wife and parents, arrived in New York City on the same ship as Wernher von Braun in March 1947, but he did not work on this technology until many years later. The Air Force, and later GT&E Sylvania Electronics Systems, made some progress on Wullenweber antenna technology, but more than a decade passed before the first site became operational.

., 351n Murray, USS, 150 Mystic, 229–30 Naftali, Timothy, 157 Napier, Russ, 159 National Photographic Interpretation Center, 86–87 National Press Club, 157 National Security Council (NSC), 118 National Security Operations Center (NSOC), 62 Naumov, Sergei, 75, 85, 97, 108–9, 113, 166 Nautilus, USS, 8–10, 13–14, 15, 20–21, 62–63, 180, 193, 231, 351n Naval Electronics Laboratory, 185 Naval Reactors Branch, 9–10 Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), 40–45, 50, 145, 147, 191, 253 Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC), 11 Naval Scientific and Technical Intelligence Center (NAVSTIC), 20 Naval Security Group (NSG), 22, 146, 232 Navy Expeditionary Medal, 9, 338 Navy SEALs, 234, 296–99, 338–39, 340 Nea Makri Station, 212–13 Nelson, Elroy, 163, 168 Net Control (NC), 29–30 New York Herald Tribune, 157 New York Times, 227 New York Yankees, 100 Nicholson, Jack, 264 Niebuhr, Reinhold, 318 Nissho Maru, 316–17 Nitrogen narcosis, 229 Nitze, Paul, 216 Nixon, Richard, 80, 217, 225, 352n Noisemaker torpedoes, 163, 164 Norfolk Naval Communications Area Master Station, 199–200 North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), 191 North Korea, and USS Pueblo, 200–205 North Pole, 15, 193 Novaya Zemlya, 62–63, 139, 231 November–class subs, 188, 193 Nuclear Non–Proliferation Treaty, 277 Nuclear–powered submarines, 8–10, 13, 14, 20–21, 180 Odell, Carl, 81–82, 141–45 Office of Collection and Signals Analysis, 40–44 Office of Undersea Warfare, 215 “Off–line,” 255 Ohio, USS, 340 Okinawa Bulls Eye, 48–49 Oliver, Michael, 295–96, 302, 307–16 Omnidirectional sound viewpoint, 142, 253–54 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (movie), 264 One Hell of a Gamble (Fursenko and Naftali), 157 Onslow Beach, North Carolina, 176 OP–20–G (Office of Chief of Naval Operations), 45 Operational Reactor Safeguard Exam (ORSE), 304 Operation Anadyr, 58–61. See also Operation Kama Operation Eagle Claw, 319 Operation Falling Leaves, 118 Operation ICEX, 254 Operation Kama, 57–77, 82–86, 88–100, 107–15, 118–21, 130–34, 148, 149–55, 157–78. See also B-4; B-36; B-59; B-130 Operation Paperclip, 46 Operation Sand Dollar, 216 Operations specialists (O-Branchers), 29 Orel, Vice Admiral, 66 Orestes, 200 Orlov, Pavel, 150–55 Ortolan, USS, 237 Orwell, George, 332 OSNAZ, 77, 94, 121, 133 Oxford, USS, 61–62, 63, 86, 101, 106 Packard, David, 221 Palm Beach International Airport, 115 Pancho Villa, 265 Pankov, Lieutenant avoiding detection, 108–15, 161, 170–71 operation onboard, 82–84, 90–91 Parangosky, John, 217, 220–23 Parche, USS, 289–93 cable–tapping missions, 248–49, 288, 291–93, 319–22, 333–34, 338, 372–74n Parshin, Viktor, 131–33 Pasha (cat), 72–73 Passive sonar systems, 16–21, 272–73 Patton, George, 188 PCS–1380, 139–40 Pearlman, Stanley, 357n Pearson, J.


pages: 891 words: 253,901

The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government by David Talbot

Albert Einstein, anti-communist, Berlin Wall, Bletchley Park, Bretton Woods, British Empire, Charles Lindbergh, colonial rule, Cornelius Vanderbilt, cuban missile crisis, disinformation, Dr. Strangelove, drone strike, independent contractor, information retrieval, Internet Archive, land reform, means of production, Naomi Klein, Norman Mailer, operation paperclip, Ralph Waldo Emerson, RAND corporation, Ted Sorensen

Silver, “Questions, Question, Questions: Memories of Oberursel,” Intelligence and National Security 8, no. 2 (April 1993): 81–90. 291the camp was operating as an extreme interrogation center: Annie Jacobsen, Operation Paperclip (New York: Little, Brown & Co., 2014), 317–21. 292Beecher even began drawing on the work done by Nazi doctors: Alfred McCoy, Torture and Impunity: The U.S. Doctrine of Coercive Interrogation (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2012), 75–80. 293“I never gave a thought to legality”: John Marks, The Search for the Manchurian Candidate: The CIA and Mind Control (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1991), 49. 293“He had a tough time”: Jacobsen, Operation Paperclip, 367. 294Olson was suffering a “moral crisis”: Family Statement on the Murder of Frank Olson, Aug. 8, 2002, http://www.frankolsonproject.org/Statements/Family Statement2002.html. 294“fear of a security violation”: Ibid. 295dosed with acid for seventy-seven straight days: Marks, Search for the Manchurian Candidate, 67. 295“We were in a World War II mode”: Sidney Gottlieb obituary, New York Times, March 10, 1999. 295“Well, he’s gone”: H.

At Camp King, CIA scientists and their German colleagues subjected victims to dangerous combinations of drugs—including Benzedrine, Pentothal-Natrium, LSD, and mescaline—under a research protocol that stipulated, “Disposal of the body is not a problem.” More than sixteen hundred of the Nazi scientists recruited for U.S. research projects like this would be comfortably resettled with their families in America under a CIA program known as Operation Paperclip. One of the CIA-sponsored researchers who worked on the Artichoke interrogations in Germany, a Harvard-trained physician named Henry Knowles Beecher, was brought to Camp King by the agency to advise on the best way to induce amnesia in Soviet spies after they had been subjected to the agency’s interrogation methods.


pages: 256 words: 73,068

12 Bytes: How We Got Here. Where We Might Go Next by Jeanette Winterson

"Margaret Hamilton" Apollo, "World Economic Forum" Davos, 3D printing, Ada Lovelace, Airbnb, Albert Einstein, Alignment Problem, Amazon Mechanical Turk, Anthropocene, Apollo 11, Apple's 1984 Super Bowl advert, artificial general intelligence, Asilomar, augmented reality, autonomous vehicles, basic income, Big Tech, bitcoin, Bletchley Park, blockchain, Boston Dynamics, call centre, Cambridge Analytica, Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty, cashless society, Charles Babbage, computer age, Computing Machinery and Intelligence, coronavirus, COVID-19, CRISPR, cryptocurrency, dark matter, Dava Sobel, David Graeber, deep learning, deskilling, digital rights, discovery of DNA, Dominic Cummings, Donald Trump, double helix, driverless car, Elon Musk, fake news, flying shuttle, friendly AI, gender pay gap, global village, Grace Hopper, Gregor Mendel, hive mind, housing crisis, Internet of things, Isaac Newton, Jacquard loom, James Hargreaves, Jeff Bezos, Johannes Kepler, John von Neumann, Joseph-Marie Jacquard, Kickstarter, Large Hadron Collider, life extension, lockdown, lone genius, Mark Zuckerberg, means of production, microdosing, more computing power than Apollo, move fast and break things, natural language processing, Nick Bostrom, Norbert Wiener, off grid, OpenAI, operation paperclip, packet switching, Peter Thiel, pink-collar, Plato's cave, public intellectual, QAnon, QWERTY keyboard, Ray Kurzweil, rewilding, ride hailing / ride sharing, Rutger Bregman, Sam Altman, self-driving car, sharing economy, Sheryl Sandberg, Shoshana Zuboff, Silicon Valley, Skype, Snapchat, SoftBank, SpaceX Starlink, speech recognition, spinning jenny, stem cell, Stephen Hawking, Steve Bannon, Steve Jobs, Steven Levy, Steven Pinker, superintelligent machines, surveillance capitalism, synthetic biology, systems thinking, tech billionaire, tech worker, TED Talk, telepresence, telepresence robot, TikTok, trade route, Turing test, universal basic income, Virgin Galactic, Watson beat the top human players on Jeopardy!, women in the workforce, Y Combinator

V-2 might sound techy and sci-fi – in reality it was shorthand for Vergeltungswaffe 2, which means ‘vengeance weapon’, and it was personally ordered by Hitler to be used against Britain. The V-2 was built by concentration-camp prisoners in conditions so foul that more were killed making the rockets than were killed by V-2 blasts. The USA rehabilitated von Braun, and many other prominent Nazi scientists, in President Truman’s Operation Paperclip. The programme was designed to give the USA an edge against the Soviets. As early as 1952, von Braun began working for the USA on the Mars Project. At the same time, he became a technical director for Disney Studios, reporting directly to Walt himself. Transferred to the just-created NASA in 1958, von Braun gave up Mars for the moon.


pages: 589 words: 197,971

A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon by Neil Sheehan

Albert Einstein, anti-communist, Berlin Wall, Boeing 747, Bretton Woods, British Empire, Charles Lindbergh, cuban missile crisis, disinformation, double helix, Dr. Strangelove, European colonialism, it's over 9,000, John von Neumann, Menlo Park, Mikhail Gorbachev, military-industrial complex, mutually assured destruction, Neil Armstrong, Norman Macrae, nuclear winter, operation paperclip, RAND corporation, Ronald Reagan, social contagion, undersea cable, uranium enrichment

Mettler was fortunate to have someone experienced in rocketry to serve as his deputy—a forty-year-old Austro-German aeronautical engineer named Adolf Thiel, another veteran of the V-2 program and a refugee from the Redstone Arsenal. Although “Dolf” Thiel had come to the United States in 1946 with the original group of German rocketeers under the clandestine Operation Paperclip, he had never been part of the von Braun coterie. A slender man of medium height, with a prominent nose and thinning brown hair, Thiel had a friendly if intense manner that hid a quick temper. He had been born in Vienna and grew up there, but went to Darmstadt, just south of Frankfurt, for his higher education, because Darmstadt’s university offered courses in aeronautical engineering.

That month, just twenty-four hours before the Soviets were due to move into the Nordhausen area as part of their occupation zone, the five trunks filled with Dornberger’s plans and research were retrieved from the abandoned salt mine and sent off to Antwerp. Toftoy then instigated a clandestine project code-named Operation Paperclip. He and his team drafted a cable to Washington, which General Eisenhower signed, recommending that “100 of the very best men of this research organization be evacuated to US immediately.” Cordell Hull, the secretary of state, whose consent was necessary under the law, approved. The number grew to 127 rocket specialists when Toftoy and von Braun selected those who were to come.


pages: 308 words: 87,238

Apollo 11: The Inside Story by David Whitehouse

Albert Einstein, Apollo 11, Apollo 13, Berlin Wall, Charles Lindbergh, Gene Kranz, low earth orbit, Neil Armstrong, operation paperclip

How and why was this allowed to happen?’ On 2 May von Braun fled from Oberammergau. His brother, Magnus, was with him, and when they saw an approaching soldier, Magnus approached the man on a bicycle, calling out: ‘My name is Magnus von Braun. My brother invented the V-2. We want to surrender.’ The Americans were delighted. Operation Paperclip was the code name for the secret removal of scientists from Nazi Germany, undertaken not only for the direct benefit of the Americans but also to deny the USSR. Forty railway carriages containing the spoils – tons of documents, a hundred V-2s, test-firing rigs, a liquid oxygen plant and over 300 tons of other equipment – were dispatched to Antwerp and Navy cargo ships.


pages: 745 words: 207,187

Accessory to War: The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military by Neil Degrasse Tyson, Avis Lang

active measures, Admiral Zheng, airport security, anti-communist, Apollo 11, Arthur Eddington, Benoit Mandelbrot, Berlin Wall, British Empire, Buckminster Fuller, Carrington event, Charles Lindbergh, collapse of Lehman Brothers, Colonization of Mars, commoditize, corporate governance, cosmic microwave background, credit crunch, cuban missile crisis, dark matter, Dava Sobel, disinformation, Donald Trump, Doomsday Clock, Dr. Strangelove, dual-use technology, Eddington experiment, Edward Snowden, energy security, Eratosthenes, European colonialism, fake news, Fellow of the Royal Society, Ford Model T, global value chain, Google Earth, GPS: selective availability, Great Leap Forward, Herman Kahn, Higgs boson, invention of movable type, invention of the printing press, invention of the telescope, Isaac Newton, James Webb Space Telescope, Johannes Kepler, John Harrison: Longitude, Karl Jansky, Kuiper Belt, Large Hadron Collider, Late Heavy Bombardment, Laura Poitras, Lewis Mumford, lone genius, low earth orbit, mandelbrot fractal, Maui Hawaii, Mercator projection, Mikhail Gorbachev, military-industrial complex, mutually assured destruction, Neil Armstrong, New Journalism, Northpointe / Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions, operation paperclip, pattern recognition, Pierre-Simon Laplace, precision agriculture, prediction markets, profit motive, Project Plowshare, purchasing power parity, quantum entanglement, RAND corporation, Ronald Reagan, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, skunkworks, South China Sea, space junk, Stephen Hawking, Strategic Defense Initiative, subprime mortgage crisis, the long tail, time dilation, trade route, War on Poverty, wikimedia commons, zero-sum game

., 123–26, 127–28, 448nn myopia, 442n Mysteries of the Sun and Soul (Kritzinger), 427–28n Nagasaki, Japan, 111, 263, 301, 302, 303, 474n, 505n Naked and the Dead, The, 387 NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) aerospace budget, 533n budget, 232, 282, 289–90, 320, 345, 510n competition with Air Force, 289 contact with China prohibited, 376 cooperation with Pentagon in Vietnam War, 290 creation of, 270, 271 critiques of non-science budget, 369–70 funding of space research, 21 mandate for Moon landings, 289 Manned Spaceflight Center (Johnson Space Center), 286 National Academy of Sciences, 231–32, 251, 267, 269 National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, 270, 277, 279, 287 National Bureau of Standards, 192, 453n, 455n National Defense Education Act, 270 National Endowment for the Arts, 289 National Nuclear Security Administration, 390 National Priorities Project, 14 National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), 21, 204, 225, 228, 231–32, 500n, 501n, 517n National Science Foundation, 21, 227, 267, 271, 533n national science laboratories, 28–29 National Security Act of 1947, 265, 481n National Security Agency/Central Security Service (NSA/CSS), 13–14, 413n National Security Council, 265, 268, 270, 276 national security, defined, 13–14, 413nn National Space Program, The, 283 National Space Symposium, 16–20, 24–25, 26, 414n, 415n, 417n Natural Magick (Porta), 107 Nauplius (king), 446n Nautical Almanac (Maskelyne), 94 Navajo resistance to westward expansion, 124 navigation by ancient mariners, 66–74 challenges in fifteenth century, 84–85, 86–87 clues used by wayfinders, 64–66, 82 dead reckoning, 77, 82, 86 defined, 65–66 ephemerides and, 82, 94 instruments and devices of early navigators, 74–75 magnetic compass development, 75–78 in the Mediterranean in 1320, 77–78 questionnaires on longitude and latitude, 90, 438n running down the latitude, 82 see also charts, maritime NAVSTAR Global Positioning System (GPS), 278, 332, 335–36 Nazi Germany astrology and, 57–63, 427–28nn, 429nn Grossdeutschland as driving vision, 64 Nostradamus used for propaganda, 59, 428–29nn near-Earth objects (NEOs), 253–54, 255, 256 Necho (king), 73, 434n Nehru, Jawaharlal, 351 Nelson, Horatio, 115–16, 122 Netherlands military use of telescopes, 110–11 Twelve Years’ Truce with Spain, 104, 107 New Astronomy, The (Langley), 148 Newell, Homer, 369 New Guinea, 64, 430n Newton, Isaac colors and, 145, 166–67 longitude and, 93, 95 on necessity of experiments, 460–61n on particle nature of light, 146, 169 spectrum produced from white light, 145, 166–67, 461n telescope design, 444n on twinkling of stars, 152 New-York Convention of August 1776, 113 New Zealand, 65, 78 NII-4 think tank, 264 Nimbus satellites, 291 1984 (Orwell), 317, 508n Nixon, Richard, 271, 281, 473n Noah’s use of a dove, 65 no-first-use policies, 309, 507n noise in CCDs, 203 cooling of telescopes to avoid, 170, 203 defined, 220 infrared noise, 170 jamming and, 260, 515n static in radio communications, 177, 178 from Van Allen radiation belt, 216 non-financial business sector, 4 nonlethal weapons using nonvisible wavelengths, 201–2, 470–71n North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), 16, 353–54 North Atlantic Treaty, 265 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), 265, 305–6, 309–10, 328 North Korea ASAT (antisatellite weapon) program, 259 satellite surveillance of missile-launch sites, 379, 482n Sohae Satellite Launching Station, 206 Taepodong-1 intermediate-range ballistic missile, 256 tension over missile and nuclear programs, 253, 299, 310, 356, 530n Northrop Grumman B-2 stealth bombers, 198, 303, 470n campaign contributions, 412n in Colorado Springs, 16 James Webb Space Telescope, 23 military-related projects and sales, 18, 23 overview, 22–23 prosperity after September 11, 2001, 11, 12 Starshade screen, 21 Nostradamus, 53, 59, 428–29nn NSC 162/2, 304–5, 506n NSC 68, “A Report to the National Security Council,” 266, 314, 499n nuclear accidents, 255–60, 484–85n nuclear explosions damage from, 302 gamma-ray bursts, 215, 473–74n peaceful (PNEs), 499n see also atomic bombs; fusion bombs; nuclear tests Nuclear Operations doctrine document, 308, 311 “nuclear Pearl Harbor,” 411n Nuclear Posture Review Report, 308 nuclear tests Bikini Atoll nuclear bomb tests, 402–3 Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, 313–14, 508n Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, 215, 273, 285, 287, 293, 313, 498n moratorium under Eisenhower, 307 problems from, 284–85, 302, 496–97n as “psychosis,” 302–4 Sedan, 496n Starfish Prime, 302, 496–97n, 505n Tsar Bomba, 307, 505–6n unclassified data from, 402 yields of, 303–4, 505–6n Obama, Barack national security strategy, 323 nuclear policy, 308 space budget, 510n space policy, 503n summit with Hu Jintao, 376 UN General Assembly speech, 387–88, 528n Wall Street speech, 4–5 obelisks, 40 Obering, Trey, 481n Oberkochen, Germany, 132 “October effect” in stock market, 56 Odysseus, 45, 67 Oliver, Bernard, 470n Olson, Roy, 217 On the Ocean (Pytheas), 71–72, 434n On the Sphere of the World (Sacrobosco), 77, 83 On War (Clausewitz), 238 Operation Desert Shield, 340 see also Gulf War Operation Desert Storm absence of moonlight, 7, 79 aircraft used, 7, 332, 512n, 514n bomb hit rates, 332, 514n casualties due to fratricide, 334 news coverage and public reaction, 7–8, 341 shortage of GPS receivers, 333–34 stealth aircraft, 7, 197, 332, 514n see also Gulf War Operation Fishbowl, 290–91 Operation Iraqi Freedom, 16–17, 19, 24, 197, 346–47 see also Iraq War Operation Overcast, 262 Operation Paperclip, 262, 468n optical glass about, 130–31 British production in World War I, 135–36 cost, 131, 451n demand in World War I, 134–36, 139–40, 452n fuel used in production, 131, 450–51n US production in World War I, 139–40, 454–55n optical munitions, 132, 134, 135, 136, 140 optical telegraphs, 118–19, 120–28, 446–47nn see also telescopes Opticks (Newton), 166–67 Order of Christ, 79 Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, 327 Orient and Occident, 68 Orion Nebula, 103, 203 Orkney Islands, 71 Orwell, George, 317 Ostara, 421n Outer Space Treaty negotiations and diplomacy, 274, 313, 382, 503n omissions and limitations, 313, 314 provisions of, 273, 286, 287, 296–97, 313–14, 486n, 493n signing and ratification of, 292–93, 295–96, 314, 501n, 503n US space doctrine and, 296–97, 503–4n Owen, Wilfred, 387 ozone, 214, 225 Pakistan, 206, 310 Panama, 331, 499n Paris Agreement, 388, 528–29n Paris Observatory, 93, 94, 98, 133, 142 Parker, Hyde, 115–16 PAROS (Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space), 293–94 Parra Mantois et Cie.

budget proposals, 378, 527n on “fake news,” 509n “fire and fury” rhetoric, 306 immigration policy, 377 inauguration, 377 on NATO, 328 nuclear arms policy, 308 Paris Agreement and, 529n reaction against, 377–79 threats of nuclear escalation, 395, 530n truculence, 396, 530n Tsar Bomba, 307, 505–6n Tsiolkovsky, Konstantin, 263–64, 486–87n Turnbull, David, 92 Twelve Years’ Truce, 104 Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), 222 Two-Micron Sky Survey, 221 2001: A Space Odyssey (movie), 494n Tyson, Miranda, 8 Tyson, Neil deGrasse Commission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry, 15, 318, 411n Hayden Planetarium, 15 Natural History (magazine), 15 President’s Commission on Implementation of United States Space Exploration Policy, 323 reaction to battle for Baghdad, 19–20 reaction to protestors against “weapons bazaar,” 17–18 Space Foundation board, 15–16, 20 Ufimtsev, Pyotr, 198 Uhuru satellite, 226 Ujjain, India, 94 ultraviolet radiation discovery of, 146, 168 Earth’s atmosphere and, 199, 214 experienced by humans or animals, 169–70 United Launch Alliance, 371 United Nations calls for peaceful use of space, 272–73, 382 concerns about space debris, 260, 486n treaties and proposals addressing space, summary, 293–95 treaty proposed to ban nuclear weapons, 310 see also Outer Space Treaty United States balance-of-trade deficit with China, 372–73 demand for military production in World War I, 135 experience of modern war avoided, 386–87 military spending, 12–13, 353, 412n, 519n, 533n, 534n optical glass production in World War I, 139–40, 454–55n Russian rocket engine ban, 371–72 Russian rocket engine sales to, 363, 364, 371 space spending, 520n see also Civil War United States Military Telegraph, 123 Universal Time (UT1), 99, 441n Uranus, 52, 62, 167, 304, 444n Urban VIII (pope), 51 Ursa Major (the Great Bear), 67–68, 432nn US Defense Mapping Agency, 99, 343 US economy competitiveness in global economy, 30, 31 research and development spending, 30 science and engineering, percentage of US employment, 21 share of world economy, 31, 419n technical industries, share of gross domestic product, 21 Ushant, France, 72 US Presidents and the Militarization of Space 1946–1967 (Kalic), 290 USS Abraham Lincoln, 24 U-2 spy plane, 198, 276, 278, 492n Van Allen radiation belt, 216, 302 van Creveld, Martin, 116, 117, 445–46nn Vedic astrology, 54 Vega, daguerreotype of, 144 Vela Hotel satellites, 216–17, 474n Vela Sierra and Vela Uniform programs, 474n Velázquez, Diego, 107 Venera probes, 211, 364 Venus albedo, 196 in astrology, 50 radar echoes from, 191 recorded in Mesopotamian tablets, 41 transit in 1769, 91, 92, 440n VERITAS (Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System), 199 Very Large Array, New Mexico, 199 Very Long Baseline Array, 182 Vespucci, Amerigo, 436n Victoria (ship), 88 Vidal, Gore, 35 Vietnam War antiwar movement and, 8, 410n author’s revulsion at, 9 in Johnson era, 289, 290, 500n in Kennedy era, 284 NASA cooperation with Pentagon, 290 photograph of naked Vietnamese girl (1972), 9, 17 and reaction to Desert Storm, 7–8 US troop numbers, 320 Vikings, 68, 78, 432n Vinland, 78 visible light, 100, 101, 165–66, 169, 199 von Braun, Wernher American space program, 267, 366, 488–89n, 523–24n Operation Paperclip and, 262, 468n V-2 rocket and, 193, 264, 468n Voting Rights Act of 1965, 288 V-2 Rocket Panel, 193 V-2 rockets, 58, 183, 193–94, 468–69nn Waiting for the Barbarians (Coetzee), 35 Wallace, David, 423n Wallenstein, Albrecht von, 49 war as stimulus for creativity, 4, 5–6 War of the Worlds (Wells), 242–43 Washington Crossing the Delaware (Leutze), 114–15, 445n Washington, George American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 112 command of the Continental Army, 112–15, 116 telescopes and, 111, 112–13, 115, 116, 130 water hole, 200–201, 470n Watson-Watt, Robert, 190, 194, 244–45, 465–66n, 467nn wavelength, defined, 100, 169 wave–particle duality, 169 Waxahachie, Texas, 29 wayfinders, clues used by, 64–66 weapons ASATs (antisatellite weapons), 257–59, 283, 291, 294, 356, 485n atomic bombs, 151, 190, 263, 303, 457n, 474n directed-energy weapons, 240–41, 242 evolution and development of, 238–40 fusion bombs, 304, 389, 390, 391, 474n kinetic-energy weapons, 240, 241 space weapons, 256–60, 286, 297–301, 312–13, 397, 485n Weeden, Brian, 397 Weinberg, Stephen, 368–69 Weston, Scott A., 393–94 “When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again,” 10 Whipple, John Adams, 144 White, Theodore, 56 Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), 232 wigwaggers, 125 Wilkins, Arnold, 244–45 Wilkins, John, 119–20 Wilson, Heather, 325 Wimperis, Henry, 244, 245 Wise, Donald U., 369 Wohl, Louis de, 61 Wolfowitz, Paul, 346–47 Wollaston, William Hyde, 145, 146 Wolter, Detlev, 295 Wood, John, 437n Worden, Simon P.


pages: 370 words: 97,138

Beyond: Our Future in Space by Chris Impey

3D printing, Admiral Zheng, Albert Einstein, Alfred Russel Wallace, AltaVista, Apollo 11, Apollo 13, Berlin Wall, Biosphere 2, Buckminster Fuller, built by the lowest bidder, butterfly effect, California gold rush, carbon-based life, Charles Lindbergh, Colonization of Mars, cosmic abundance, crowdsourcing, cuban missile crisis, dark matter, Dennis Tito, discovery of DNA, Doomsday Clock, Edward Snowden, Elon Musk, Eratosthenes, Great Leap Forward, Haight Ashbury, Hans Moravec, Hyperloop, I think there is a world market for maybe five computers, Isaac Newton, Jeff Bezos, Johannes Kepler, John von Neumann, Kickstarter, Kim Stanley Robinson, Late Heavy Bombardment, life extension, low earth orbit, Mahatma Gandhi, Marc Andreessen, Mars Rover, Mars Society, military-industrial complex, mutually assured destruction, Neal Stephenson, Neil Armstrong, Nick Bostrom, ocean acidification, Oculus Rift, operation paperclip, out of africa, Peter H. Diamandis: Planetary Resources, phenotype, private spaceflight, purchasing power parity, quantum entanglement, radical life extension, RAND corporation, Ray Kurzweil, RFID, Richard Feynman, Richard Feynman: Challenger O-ring, risk tolerance, Rubik’s Cube, Scaled Composites, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Searching for Interstellar Communications, seminal paper, Silicon Valley, skunkworks, Skype, Snow Crash, space junk, SpaceShipOne, Stephen Hawking, Steven Pinker, supervolcano, technological singularity, telepresence, telerobotics, the medium is the message, the scientific method, theory of mind, There's no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home - Ken Olsen, Virgin Galactic, VTOL, wikimedia commons, world market for maybe five computers, X Prize, Yogi Berra

He left Shanghai to study at MIT at the same time that Mao Zedong began the Long March, a bloody retreat from the Nationalist forces that helped cement his grip on the Communist Party. Qian then worked at Caltech, where he helped famed rocket scientist Theodore von Kármán found the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. At the end of World War II, Qian and von Kármán went to Germany and helped coordinate “Operation Paperclip,” which brought Wernher von Braun and other Nazi rocket experts to the United States. Qian became the foremost theorist on rocket propulsion in the country. Then seismic forces of politics intervened. In 1950, Korea became a bloody battleground, with the United Nations and the United States supporting the South and China and the Soviet Union supporting the North.


pages: 308 words: 97,480

The Undertow: Scenes From a Slow Civil War by Jeff Sharlet

2021 United States Capitol attack, Airbnb, Big Tech, Black Lives Matter, cognitive dissonance, Colonization of Mars, Columbine, Comet Ping Pong, coronavirus, COVID-19, critical race theory, disinformation, drone strike, Elon Musk, fake it until you make it, fake news, false flag, gentrification, George Floyd, Howard Zinn, intentional community, Jeffrey Epstein, lockdown, Occupy movement, operation paperclip, Parler "social media", prosperity theology / prosperity gospel / gospel of success, QAnon, sensible shoes, social distancing, Upton Sinclair, W. E. B. Du Bois, We are the 99%, white flight, white picket fence, young professional

It was time to proceed down what Diane called the “rabbit holes.” These were like secret pathways to spiritual truths. She had a long riff, for instance, about how Disney draws on satanic influences to control the minds of America’s youth (an increasingly mainstream view within right-wing media criticism), and a discussion of Operation Paperclip, the post–World War II program by which the U.S. government really did secretly import Nazi war criminals to work on biological weapons, and, yes, the possibility of mind control. That actually happened. And the connection Diane drew between Disney and these secret Nazis, while not true, wasn’t as farfetched as one might think.


pages: 338 words: 112,127

Leaving Orbit: Notes From the Last Days of American Spaceflight by Margaret Lazarus Dean

affirmative action, Apollo 11, Apollo 13, company town, Elon Musk, helicopter parent, index card, Joan Didion, Jon Ronson, low earth orbit, Mars Rover, Neil Armstrong, Nelson Mandela, New Journalism, Norman Mailer, operation paperclip, orbital mechanics / astrodynamics, private spaceflight, Richard Feynman, Richard Feynman: Challenger O-ring, risk tolerance, sensible shoes

Public education was one of the first areas to feel the effects—high schools revamped their curricula to include more math and science, as well as Russian-language instruction. At the end of World War II, the best of Germany’s rocket designers had been recruited to the United States by a covert government group that later became the CIA. The project was called Operation Paperclip because the Germans’ affiliation with the Nazi party and/or the SS had to be covered up through fake documents, which were paperclipped to their files. The most important German rocket expert was Wernher von Braun, who had been responsible for the development of the V-2 rocket used to bomb Allied cities.


pages: 431 words: 118,074

The Ultimate Engineer: The Remarkable Life of NASA's Visionary Leader George M. Low by Richard Jurek

additive manufacturing, affirmative action, Apollo 11, Apollo 13, Charles Lindbergh, cognitive dissonance, en.wikipedia.org, Ford Model T, fudge factor, Gene Kranz, human-factors engineering, it's over 9,000, John Conway, low earth orbit, Mars Rover, Neil Armstrong, operation paperclip, orbital mechanics / astrodynamics, private spaceflight, Ronald Reagan, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley ideology, Stewart Brand, undersea cable, uranium enrichment, Whole Earth Catalog, Winter of Discontent, women in the workforce

The approach was further solidified for Borman when he consulted with one of von Braun’s colleagues after the fire. “I remember a long conversation with Dr. Alexander Lippisch,” Borman said about his time working with Low and others to fix the Apollo spacecraft. Lippisch was a legendary German aeronautical engineer brought over with von Braun during Operation Paperclip after World War II to White Sands Missile Range. Inspired to go into the field of aviation after seeing a Wright brothers flight demonstration, Lippisch is the engineer who designed and built the first aircraft to fly under rocket power, and he designed the Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket-powered plane.


Checkmate in Berlin: The Cold War Showdown That Shaped the Modern World by Giles Milton

Alistair Cooke, anti-communist, Berlin Wall, British Empire, centre right, clean water, operation paperclip, post-war consensus, V2 rocket, wikimedia commons, éminence grise

They also seized a primitive nuclear reactor, drums of heavy water (deuterium-enriched water used in nuclear energy research), and what Pash described as ‘nearly the entire core of the Nazi atomic pile in uranium ingots’.10 Colonel Pash’s mission was but one of many, with the most spectacular being Operation Paperclip: it would eventually lead to the capture of more than 1,600 German scientists across Germany, including the rocket scientist, Wernher von Braun. Frank Howley was aware of this and wisely dropped the issue of the scientists snatched by Kotikov’s agents. Yet the atmosphere in the Kommandatura remained poisonous and Howley warned the Soviets that they were treading on thin ice.


pages: 592 words: 133,460

Worn: A People's History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser

Airbnb, back-to-the-land, big-box store, business process, business process outsourcing, call centre, Caribbean Basin Initiative, colonial rule, Community Supported Agriculture, corporate social responsibility, cotton gin, COVID-19, deindustrialization, Deng Xiaoping, Dmitri Mendeleev, Donald Trump, export processing zone, facts on the ground, flying shuttle, global supply chain, Great Leap Forward, haute couture, Honoré de Balzac, indoor plumbing, invention of the sewing machine, invisible hand, microplastics / micro fibres, moral panic, North Ronaldsay sheep, off-the-grid, operation paperclip, out of africa, QR code, Rana Plaza, Ronald Reagan, sheep dike, smart cities, special economic zone, strikebreaker, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, trade liberalization, trade route, transatlantic slave trade, Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, union organizing, upwardly mobile, Whole Earth Catalog, women in the workforce

Indeed, it was such an effective nerve agent that rayon specialists moonlighted as war criminals. Walter Scheiber, who had been deeply involved with the Nazi yeast protein project (Biosyn-Vegetabil-Wurst), had worked on nerve agents at IG Farben before moving into rayon. After the war, Scheiber was recruited to work for the American postwar chemical weapons effort, Operation Paperclip. Rayon production was closely linked, via carbon disulfide, to poison gas and munitions manufacture. In Hungary, rayon plants were converted to munitions factories at the beginning of World War II. Munitions plants in New Castle, Delaware, had been repurposed by Delaware Rayon after the war.


pages: 526 words: 160,601

A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America by Bruce Cannon Gibney

1960s counterculture, 2013 Report for America's Infrastructure - American Society of Civil Engineers - 19 March 2013, affirmative action, Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, Alan Greenspan, AlphaGo, American Society of Civil Engineers: Report Card, Bear Stearns, Bernie Madoff, Bernie Sanders, Black Lives Matter, bond market vigilante , book value, Boston Dynamics, Bretton Woods, business cycle, buy and hold, carbon footprint, carbon tax, Charles Lindbergh, classic study, cognitive dissonance, collapse of Lehman Brothers, collateralized debt obligation, corporate personhood, Corrections Corporation of America, currency manipulation / currency intervention, Daniel Kahneman / Amos Tversky, dark matter, DeepMind, Deng Xiaoping, Donald Trump, Downton Abbey, Edward Snowden, Elon Musk, ending welfare as we know it, equal pay for equal work, failed state, financial deregulation, financial engineering, Francis Fukuyama: the end of history, future of work, gender pay gap, gig economy, Glass-Steagall Act, Haight Ashbury, Higgs boson, high-speed rail, Home mortgage interest deduction, Hyperloop, illegal immigration, impulse control, income inequality, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), invisible hand, James Carville said: "I would like to be reincarnated as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody.", Jane Jacobs, junk bonds, Kitchen Debate, labor-force participation, Long Term Capital Management, low interest rates, Lyft, Mark Zuckerberg, market bubble, mass immigration, mass incarceration, McMansion, medical bankruptcy, Menlo Park, Michael Milken, military-industrial complex, Mont Pelerin Society, moral hazard, mortgage debt, mortgage tax deduction, Neil Armstrong, neoliberal agenda, Network effects, Nixon triggered the end of the Bretton Woods system, obamacare, offshore financial centre, oil shock, operation paperclip, plutocrats, Ponzi scheme, price stability, prosperity theology / prosperity gospel / gospel of success, quantitative easing, Ralph Waldo Emerson, RAND corporation, rent control, ride hailing / ride sharing, risk tolerance, Robert Shiller, Ronald Reagan, Rubik’s Cube, Savings and loan crisis, school choice, secular stagnation, self-driving car, shareholder value, short selling, side project, Silicon Valley, smart grid, Snapchat, source of truth, stem cell, Steve Jobs, Stewart Brand, stock buybacks, survivorship bias, TaskRabbit, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, Tim Cook: Apple, too big to fail, War on Poverty, warehouse robotics, We are all Keynesians now, white picket fence, Whole Earth Catalog, women in the workforce, Y2K, Yom Kippur War, zero-sum game

You may expect that well-educated, motivated immigrants would be precisely the sort of people preferred by the system. Their improvement, after all, was paid for by some other country’s tax dollars and represents an outright transfer of value to the United States. These realities motivated Operation Paperclip, which held the national nose and vacuumed up German scientists after the war. And yet, visas like the H-1B for skilled immigrants (now unburdened by Nazi pasts) are notoriously difficult to get, capped at 85,000 (65,000 standard, 20,000 related to master’s degrees), though various administrative quirks manage to accommodate about 130,000 such persons annually.*,20 These individuals—as well as those on student visas—receive training at the partial expense of American corporations and universities.


pages: 546 words: 164,489

Beyond: The Astonishing Story of the First Human to Leave Our Planet and Journey Into Space by Stephen Walker

anti-communist, Apollo 11, Apollo 13, Berlin Wall, Charles Lindbergh, cuban missile crisis, fake news, Gene Kranz, lockdown, lost cosmonauts, Neil Armstrong, operation paperclip, South China Sea, Ted Sorensen

Keith 60, 63 Glenn, John 33, 106, 107, 120, 258; Atlas rocket, on 68; death 406; Discovery Space Shuttle flight 405; first American to fly in orbit 405; Gagarin space flight, reaction to 368, 383–4; Korean War service 24, 237–8; Mercury Seven selection process 24, 25–6, 27, 28, 34, 86, 144, 145, 147–8, 152, 238; Mercury Seven training 65, 71, 72, 107, 120, 145, 146, 147, 155, 238–42, 243, 368; Name That Tune, appearances on 24, 67; physical fitness 145, 155; president, runs for 405; press conference introducing Mercury Seven astronauts and 67–8; press conference reveals as one of three possible pilots for first US manned space flight 147–8, 152, 238; Senator 383, 405; Shepard and 25, 28, 34, 147, 238–9, 240, 241, 368; Titov and 411; weight 145 Glushko, Valentin 93, 94, 95, 104, 150–1, 292, 408 GMVK (State Inter-Agency Departmental Commission) 82 Goddard Space Flight Center, Maryland, US 129, 132, 145 Golovanov, Yaroslav 219–20, 223, 249, 375 Golyakhovsky, Vladimir 184, 185, 188 Goodall, Jane 134 Graybiel, Captain Ashton 113 Great Terror, Stalinist 92–3 Greenfield, Terry 144 Grissom, Virgil ‘Gus’ 26, 27, 30, 67, 68, 144, 146, 148, 152, 189, 238, 239, 240, 241, 243 Gromov Flight Research Institute (LII) simulator 30 Gurovsky, Nikolai 79 Gzhatsk Communist Party 329 Ham (chimpanzee) 108–11, 112–13, 115, 116–21, 124, 125, 126, 127–35, 139, 141, 142, 148, 151, 193, 241, 307, 309, 313, 406 Hatcher, Andrew 256 Hawkins, Colonel Jack 216 Henry, Jim 111–12 Hiroshima, bombing of (1945) 4, 45 Hitler, Adolf 39, 56, 92, 124, 408 Holloman Aeromedical Research Laboratory, New Mexico, US 107, 108, 109, 113, 406 Hornig, Donald 140–1, 197, 240, 241, 378 House Science and Astronautics Committee, US 262–3, 367, 383 Humphrey, Jack 129 Hungary 45 ‘Hymn to the Space Ship Vostok’ (poem) 382 IBM 98, 129, 132, 145, 294 Ilyushin, Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir 261, 262 Institute of Aviation and Space Medicine, Moscow 15, 79, 116, 157, 164, 168, 186, 221 Instructions from the Central Party Committee to the Cosmonaut on Use and Control of the Spacecraft Vostok 3A 173 International Geophysical Year 52–3 Isayev, Aleksey 226 isolation chambers 156–7, 158, 186–9, 209, 246, 262, 319 Ivan Ivanovich (mannequin) 161–2, 164, 165, 166, 167–8, 170, 171–2, 175, 176, 189, 192, 199–201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 208, 209, 210, 249, 262, 283, 407 Ivanov, Colonel 184, 185 Ivanovsky, Oleg 96, 151, 228, 235, 257, 258, 288, 289–90, 291, 295, 296, 297, 311, 348, 356 Ivashutin, Pyotr 207, 210, 234 Izvestia 189, 365 Jackson, Henry 52 Jacobs, Jerry 330 Johnson, Lyndon B. 1, 7, 46–7, 48, 49, 52, 91, 399–400 Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, US 125 Judica-Cordiglia, Achille and Gian Battista 139–40 Juno rocket 57, 59, 69, 123–4 Jupiter-C rocket 56, 57, 59 Kalb, Marvin 256, 261 Kamanin, Lieutenant General Nikolai 37, 243, 410; Bondarenko and 188; Gagarin’s celebrity, on 374–5, 412, 413; Gagarin’s death and 414; Korolev, on 149–50, 309, 408, 409–10; mannequin flights and 167–8, 169, 190, 191–2, 201, 205, 206, 207; Moscow victory parade for Gagarin and 384–5, 389; selection of astronaut for Vostok 3A/first manned space flight and 172, 210–11, 212, 213, 222, 224, 248–9, 251, 252, 259, 390; Seryogin and 414; Vostok 3A Gagarin flight and 287, 288, 291, 309, 356–7, 373–4, 375; Vostok 3A launch, preparations for 205, 207, 208, 218, 220, 221, 225, 232, 234, 235, 269, 270, 271–2, 273, 277; Vanguard Six training and 34–5, 36–7, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176, 210–11, 212, 213, 222, 224, 248–9, 251, 259 Kamanina, Misyul (Musya) 218 Karpov, Colonel Yevgeny 35, 38, 153, 156, 222, 223, 235, 269, 271, 272, 277, 278, 283, 286 Kartashov, Anatoly 33 Kazakova, Irana 324 Kazansky, Viktor 104 Keldysh, Mstislav 190, 244 Kennedy, Jackie 5, 19, 20, 21, 70, 285, 366, 401 Kennedy, John F. 5, 47–8, 102, 143, 197, 318; Apollo programme and 396–7, 399–400, 403–4; assassination 44, 47; Bay of Pigs and 198–9, 215–18, 255, 376, 397–9, 401; ‘disproportionate risk’ of manned space flight, on 140, 141, 152; Freedom 7 and 401–2, 403; Glenn and 405; inauguration 19–21, 27, 29, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 75, 198; NASA budget and 197–9, 367, 383, 395–6; pitches opening ball of 1961 major league baseball season 254–6; Soviet first manned space flight, responses to 256, 262–3, 284–5, 329–30, 366–8, 375–7, 383, 393; Wiesner/Hornig report on the US manned space programme and 48–9, 70–1, 140–1, 197 Kennedy, Joe 21 Kennedy Space Center, US 404 Kerr, Robert 375–6 KGB 5, 13, 14, 15, 17, 82, 103, 156, 163, 179, 207, 210, 226, 234, 235, 353, 371, 374, 375, 387, 414 Khilchenko, Vladimir 299, 300 Khrushchev, Nikita 31–2, 45, 46, 95, 171, 247, 382, 408; Bay of Pigs and 397–8; Belka and Strelka orbital flight and 69–70; Gagarin Vostok 3A flight and 312, 323–4, 348, 362, 363–4; Gagarin as perfect poster child for 413; Gagarin promotion to Major, possible role in 323–4; Gagarin victory parade and 380, 384, 385, 386, 387–8, 389–90; Gary Powers and 181; Kennedy and 141, 143, 375, 377; Korolev and 97–9, 100–1, 102, 103, 104–5, 150, 151, 206, 210, 348, 356; Laika flight and 54; Luna probes and 59–60; selection process for Vostok 3A astronaut and 223, 250; space victories, realises importance of 47; Titov and 411 Khrushchev, Sergei 98, 99, 150, 223, 247, 312, 323–4, 380, 385, 387–8 Kilgallen, Dorothy 55 Kirillov, Anatoly 292, 299, 300, 301, 302, 304, 311–12 Kistiakowsky, George 144 Komarov, Anatoly 13, 14–15 Komarov, Vladimir 413–14, 415 Komsomol 249, 328 Korean War (1950–3) 24, 237–8 Korolev, Sergei 88, 89–106, 119, 169, 172, 174, 175, 407; appearance 96, 163–4; arrested by NKVD 92–3; Chief Designer of OKB-1 title and remit 90–1, 150; childhood 92; death 409, 413; dog space flight programmes and 115, 150, 152, 235; Gagarin and 105, 200, 229–30, 249–50, 266, 267, 271, 282, 288, 304, 375, 409, 413, 414, 415; Glushko and 93, 94, 95, 104, 150–1, 292, 408; Gulag, experience of 93–5, 97, 104, 230, 292, 413; health 94, 95, 97, 104, 230, 267, 408–9, 413; Instructions from the Central Party Committee to the Cosmonaut on Use and Control of the Spacecraft Vostok 3A and 173; Khruschev and 97–9, 100–1, 102, 103, 104–5, 150, 151, 206, 210, 348, 356; Kotovskaya and 164–5; manned space programme, USSR, importance to 90–2; mannequin space flights and 152, 158, 163–5, 166, 169–70, 200, 206, 208; moon landings, drive for USSR 408; Nesterenko and 178; OD-2 and 104; R-7 and 95–6, 119–20, 150, 177, 179; R-9 and 253, 256; secrecy of life 88, 97, 101, 102–3, 149, 163, 391, 409; storable fuels and 150–1; superstitious nature 253; Suvorov and 163–4; temper 96; Titov and 229; Tyuratam Cosmodrome and 177, 178, 179; Tyuratam Cosmodrome cottage 89–90, 91, 101, 139, 165, 175, 267, 269, 272; Vanguard Six training and 105, 158, 172, 192, 222, 225, 235, 249–50, 258, 259; Venera 1 and 91, 139, 149–50; victory parade for Gagarin, Moscow (1961) and 391–2; von Braun and 90, 92, 95, 96, 97, 102, 150, 408; Vostok 3A, authorisation for launch of manned flight and 207–9, 210, 212, 215, 218; Vostok 3A, choice of astronaut for manned flight and 222; Vostok 3A dehumidifying system and 225, 226; Vostok 3A emergency manual control system and 226–9, 247, 248, 268; Vostok 3A emergency survival package and 209; Vostok 3A flight/orbit and 304–13; Vostok 3A landing and 244–5, 348, 355, 356, 372; Vostok 3A launch and 291–303, 316; Vostok 3A launch preparations and 218, 225–6, 228–31, 232, 235, 247, 256–7, 258, 264–5, 266–7, 271, 272, 278–9, 280, 282, 287, 288; Vostok 3A mission naming of spacecraft and 208–9; Vostok spacesuits and 174; Voskhod and 408–9; wife and see Korolev, Nina; workload 206–7, 228–9, 230, 408–9 Koroleva (née Vincentini), Kseniya 92, 97, 410 Koroleva, Natalya 91–2, 94, 97, 102, 153, 206–7, 229–30, 250, 391–2, 409, 410 Koroleva (née Kotenkova), Nina 89, 91, 97, 101, 104, 106, 151, 206, 230–1, 264, 300, 391, 408, 409, 410 Kotovskaya, Adilya 32, 33, 91, 97, 164–5, 200, 269–70, 280–1, 286, 289, 306, 339 Kozlov, Frol Romanovich 223, 367 Kraft, Chris 68–9, 117, 125–6, 127–8, 130, 131, 132, 135, 143, 144, 145, 194, 195, 196, 402 Kranz, Gene 74, 129, 401 Kraskin, Vladimir 179, 300, 307–8 Kraskina, Khionia 179, 182, 183, 192, 305 Krivanchikov, Nikolai 7 Kryazh air base, USSR 373, 390–1 Kuettner, Joachim 135, 143 Kurennoi, Igor 252 Kuybyshev, Russia 167–8, 171–2, 221, 333–5, 351, 353, 355, 357, 365, 366, 372, 373, 374, 380, 390–1 Laika (dog) 53–4, 79–80, 115 Laos 45–6, 140, 198, 215 Lenin, Vladimir 7, 383, 389, 411 Leninsky 4, 175, 178, 182, 257, 305 Leonov, Aleksey 32–3, 83, 85–6, 87, 88, 105, 106, 251, 315–17, 414 Levitan, Yuri 322–5, 326, 327, 329, 331, 334, 345, 346, 351, 357–8, 359, 366 Life magazine 22, 23, 25, 27, 54, 55, 81, 86, 102, 106, 134, 145, 147, 154, 382, 388, 400 Lovelace Clinic, Albuquerque, New Mexico, US 64–6, 84 Lovelace, Mary 65, 195 Lovelace, William Randolph 65 Luna 1 (lunar probe) 59 Luna 2 (lunar probe) 59–60 Luna 3 (lunar probe) 60, 101 Lunney, Glynn 69, 195 Lysenko, Yakov 351–2 Makarycheva, Tatiana 369–70, 372 Malygin, Viktor 373 Man In Space Soonest (MISS) programme, USAF 61 Manhattan Project 396 mannequin space flights 17, 105, 116, 152, 158, 160, 161–70, 171–2, 173, 175–6, 189, 191, 192, 199–204, 205, 206, 208, 209, 210, 249, 262, 283, 292, 338, 407 see also individual flight and vehicle name Mars 103, 150, 197, 246, 407, 417 Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, US 135, 142, 193, 383, 407 McDonnell 72, 143 McNamara, Robert 217 Menshikov, Mikhail 44 Mercury capsule 72–4, 81, 109, 116, 117, 118, 125, 131, 141, 142, 145, 156, 194, 227, 241–2, 290, 307, 313, 376, 400, 405 Mercury Control Center, Cape Canaveral, US 125, 128, 145, 194, 402 Mercury, Project 17, 22–8, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 37, 38, 48–9, 63–4; Hornig panel of inquiry, report on 140–1, 197, 378; Kennedy and 140, 141, 152, 198, 367; Mercury-Redstone (MR-BD) (unmanned) 192, 193, 194–8, 204; Mercury-Redstone 1 (MR-1) (Four-Inch Flight) 72–4, 75, 111, 126, 128, 142; Mercury-Redstone 1A (MR-1A) 74–5, 126; Mercury-Redstone 2 (MR-2) 107–35, 139, 141, 142, 143, 151, 193, 194; Mercury-Redstone 3 (MR-3) (Freedom 7) (first US manned space flight) 400–3; Mercury Seven and see Mercury Seven; origins of 17, 61–2; Space Task Group, NASA and 27, 37, 38, 64, 135, 142, 143, 147, 148, 156, 194; Wiesner and 48–9, 70–1, 140–1, 197, 378 Mercury Seven (astronauts) 22, 24–8, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 37, 38, 63–4; astronaut selection process for first space flight 24–8, 29, 34, 37, 38, 43, 63, 64–5, 66, 67, 75, 86, 147–8, 152, 238; Atlas rocket launch and 68; fame of 22, 31, 67–8, 283; ‘First Team’ press conference (1961) 147–8, 152, 238; Freedom 7 (first manned space flight) and 400–3; Moon landings and 404–5; press conference unveils, Washington (1959) 22, 63, 67–8, 78–9, 80, 105; selection process for entry into 63–7; training 21–8, 30, 31, 32, 68–9, 71–5, 80, 86, 107–8, 117–18, 144–8, 155, 238–42, 243 see also individual astronaut name Merritt, General Samuel T. 246, 247 MiG-15 42, 76, 77, 86, 216, 414 MiG-17 379 MiG-19 33, 86–7 Military-Industrial Commission, USSR 207–10, 212 Mishina, Galina 388 Miss Baker (monkey) 113 missile gap 44, 47–8 Mitchell, Edgar 404 Montazhno-Ispytatelnyj Korpus (Assembly and Test Facility) (MIK) see Tyuratam Cosmodrome Moon 57, 408; Apollo programme and see Apollo programme; Mercury programme and 404; probes 59–60, 101, 150; US and race to the 47–8, 50, 55, 59, 61, 74, 198, 396–7, 399–400, 403–5, 407, 408, 412, 417; USSR and race to the 59–60, 91, 101, 103, 150, 197, 407 Moscow, victory parade for Gagarin in (1961) 379–80, 384–92 Moskalenko, Kirill 243–4, 246, 258, 287, 288, 292, 300, 301 Multiple Axis Space Test Inertia Facility (MASTIF) (‘vomit machine’) 71, 240–1 Murrow, Edward 69, 70, 123, 284 Mushka (dog) 11–12, 167, 209–10, 226 NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) 21 Nagy, Imre 45 NASA: Apollo programme see Apollo programme; budget 197–9, 367, 383, 395–6; chimpanzee flights 17, 107–35, 139, 141, 142, 143, 151, 193, 194; Gagarin/Vostok 3A flight, reaction to 330, 367, 375–7, 383–4, 395–6; Gemini spacecraft and 408; manned space flight, first US 400–3; Mercury Program and see Mercury, Project; Moon landings and 395–7, 399–400, 403–4; origins of 21–2, 60, 61; Space Task Group 27, 37, 38, 64, 135, 142, 143, 147, 148, 156, 194; von Braun and see von Braun, Werner; Wiesner and 48–9, 70–1, 140, 141, 197, 284, 318, 329, 367, 378, 395, 396, 404; X-20 Dyna-Soar (hypersonic glider) and 61, 119 see also individual NASA site name National Aeronautics and Space Act (1958) 60 National Security Agency, US 167 NATO 76, 208, 209 Naval Air Development Center, Pennsylvania, US 71, 237–42 Naval Photographic Intelligence Center, US 181 Nazi Party 40, 56, 74, 124, 186, 249, 285, 367, 407 Nedelin, Marshal Mitrofan 16, 181, 207 Nelyubov, Grigory 388; death 410; MiG-19, flies 33, 86–7; Vanguard Six selection process and 33; Vanguard Six selection process for first space flight and 37, 172, 174, 211, 220, 221, 222, 249, 251, 286; Vanguard Six training 232, 233, 234, 240; wife see Nelyubova, Zinaida Nelyubova, Zinaida 153, 410 Nesterenko, General Aleksey 178 New York Daily News 19, 134, 197, 204, 261, 285, 382, 402 New York Times 141, 197, 204, 205, 217, 329, 366–7, 387, 409 Nikitin, Nikolai 281 Nikolayev, Andriyan 32, 173, 174, 211, 220, 286, 287–8 Nixon, Richard 47–8 NKVD secret police 92–3, 94, 409 N-1 rocket 407 North American X-15 61 Novikov, Mikhail 187 NII-4 (secret missile computation centre, Bolshevo) 294, 312–13, 323, 325 nuclear missiles 4, 12, 30, 44–5, 47, 48, 52, 58–9, 70, 72, 73, 94, 99–100, 150, 175, 398 Obama, Barack 406 Ogden, Dennis 261–2 Ogonyok 23, 86 OKB-1, Kaliningrad 16, 31, 90, 98–9, 105, 190, 205–7 OKB-124 (engineering bureau) 190–1, 226 Ostrander, Don 143 Pace, Joe 134 Pallo, Arvid 9–10, 13–16, 31, 70, 115, 168, 202, 203, 369, 370, 372 Paperclip, operation 56, 211 Pathet Lao rebels 198 Pavlov, Ivan 115 Pchelka (dog) 11–12, 167, 209–10, 226 Pentagon 64 People’s Commissariat for Labour, USSR 30 Perot, Ross 407 Petrovsky, Boris 409 pigs 113–14 Pioneer space probe 59, 82 Pisarenko, Nikolai 346–7 Plant 918, USSR 190 Ponomarev, Gennady 267 Ponomareva, Irina 189 Popovich, Marina 34–5, 36, 87, 153 Popovich, Pavel 211, 220, 221, 234, 250; Bondarenko and 185, 186; fear and Vanguard Six, on 235–6; humour 34; Korolev and 88, 90; R-7 and 173, 200–1; Ukrainian folk songs, loves to sing 34, 35, 86, 158, 186; Vanguard Six selection process and 82, 86, 87, 88; Vanguard Six selection process for space flight and 34, 174, 252; Vostok 3A flight and 292–4, 295, 296, 297, 305; wife and see Popovich, Marina Powers, Francis Gary 4, 181, 200, 209, 283, 333 Powers, John ‘Shorty’ 148, 330 Pravda 77–8, 86, 102, 169, 235, 251, 255, 359, 365, 371, 381, 382, 402, 409 President’s Science Advisory Committee, US 140 Price, George 54 Pushinka (Fluffy) 69–70 Pyatnitsky Choir 165, 166, 199 Raushenbakh, Boris 229, 265, 266 Reaction Propulsion Institute (RNII), USSR 93 Redstone missile 59, 148, 158, 173, 238, 241, 265; Mercury-Redstone (MR-BD) (unmanned) 192, 193, 194–8, 204; Mercury-Redstone 1 (MR-1) (Four-Inch Flight) 72–4, 75, 111, 126, 128, 142; Mercury-Redstone 1A (MR-1A) 74–5, 126; Mercury-Redstone 2 (MR-2) 107–35, 139, 141, 142, 143, 151, 193, 194; Mercury-Redstone 3 (MR-3) (Freedom 7) (first US manned space flight) 400–3 R-5 missile 95 rhesus monkeys 111, 112–13 Rigell, Ike 69, 73, 123–4 Rigell, Kathy 124–5 Rivera, Jim 254 R-9 missile 253, 256 Roosa, Stuart 404 Rorschach tests 66 R-7 rocket 10, 16, 30, 99–102, 104, 139, 158, 162, 166, 176, 201, 209, 253; CIA ‘kidnap’ upper propulsion stage of 101–2; CIA photographs 4, 101, 180, 181–2, 215, 245; Gagarin first sees 173; Gagarin/Vostok 3A flight and 4–6, 256, 257, 263–6, 280, 282, 288, 292, 297, 298, 300, 302, 303, 307–10, 313; Korolev and 95–6, 119–20, 150, 177, 179; mated to Vostok 3A capsule 263–4; third-stage engine 11, 12, 191, 200, 299, 307–10, 313 R-16 missile 16, 181–2, 300 R-2 missile 95 Rudenko, Sergei 190 Rudnev, Konstantin 207, 287 Rusk, Dean 215, 217 Russian Revolution (1917–23) 54, 353, 414 Sakharov, Andrei 94 Salinger, Pierre 283–4, 318, 329–30, 367, 397, 398, 399 satellites 46, 51–4, 55, 56, 57, 58, 69, 70, 78, 100, 101, 103, 104, 105, 148, 150, 182, 396 Saturn rocket 59 Saturn V rocket 404, 407 Savchenko, Yuri 345, 352, 353 Schirra, Walter ‘Wally’ 26, 27, 34, 66, 72, 402 Schlesinger, Arthur 217, 218 Second World War (1939–45) 24, 27, 39–40, 41, 42, 51, 53, 56–7, 68, 69, 73, 91, 123, 124, 142, 144, 178, 180, 182, 186, 205, 216, 235, 243, 249, 250, 278, 292, 294, 323, 363, 387, 388, 396, 407–8 Sedov, Leonid 103 Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, US 46 Serbin, Ivan Dmitrievich 223 Seryogin, Vladimir 414 769th Fighter Aviation Regiment, 122nd Fighter Aviation Division USSR 76–88 Shemya, US ELINT station on 166–7, 318 Shepard, Alan 31, 33, 49, 71, 91, 106, 107, 147, 242, 258, 330; Apollo 14, commands 404; car racing 146, 155; death 405; Distinguished Service Medal, awarded 403; Freedom 7 (first space flight) 400–1, 402–3; Gagarin’s flight, learns of 368, 383–4; Glenn and 24–5, 147, 238–9, 240, 241, 368; love affairs, rumours of 146–7; Mercury-Redstone (MR-BD) (unmanned) and 158–60, 196; Mercury-Redstone 2 (MR-2) and 108–9, 117, 118, 120–1, 122, 125, 126, 129, 135; Mercury Seven selection process for first US manned space flight and 24–6, 27–8, 29, 34, 38, 43, 64–5, 66, 67, 75, 86, 147–8, 152, 238; Mercury Seven training 71, 72, 73, 75, 108, 144, 145, 146, 155, 239–41, 243; physical fitness 146, 155; Sputnik and 50–1 Shepard, Julie 50, 401 Shepard, Laura 50–1, 401, 405 Shepard, Louise 28, 43, 106, 147, 401, 405 Shonin, Georgy 78, 79, 82, 186 Sidey, Hugh 21, 43, 44, 396, 397, 401, 402, 403 Slayton, Donald ‘Deke’ 26, 27, 65 SMERSH 207 Smirnov, Boris 70, 188–9 Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, Washington, US 406, 407 Solliday, Bob 65–6 Solodkyi, Viktor 346–7 Solodukhin, Vladimir 176, 232, 264, 266, 287, 295, 300 Sorensen, Ted 398–9 Soviet Academy of Sciences 80, 190, 203, 244, 259 Soviet Air Force 30–1, 34, 76–88, 171, 189, 190, 248, 259, 324, 335, 353, 358, 362 Soviet Space Forces 252 Soyuz rockets 99, 413–14, 461 Space Shuttle, US 61, 405 Space Task Group, NASA 27, 37, 38, 64, 135, 142, 143, 147, 148, 156, 194 Spacecraft Number 5 118–20, 133 Spacecraft Number 7 120 spacewalk, world’s first 32 Sputnik 1 7, 9–10, 51–3, 55, 75, 91, 95, 103, 105, 115, 150, 151, 166, 203, 377, 382, 389, 401 Sputnik 2 53–4, 55, 57 Sputnik 3 58 SS 6, 56, 57, 124, 143, 285, 408 Stalin, Joseph 42, 92, 93, 94, 95, 97, 99, 207, 244, 322–3, 382, 413 Stapp, John 114 Star City (Zvyozdny Gorodok) 30–1, 412, 415, 416 State Department, US 215–18, 375, 403 Strategic Rocket Forces, USSR 243 Strelka (dog) 10–11, 23, 69–71, 115, 152, 166, 181, 406–7 Stuchenko, General Andrei 334 Studio for Science Films, Moscow 162 Sukhodrev, Viktor 387 Suvorov, Vladimir: Keldysh filmed by 244; mannequin flights, filming of 161–4, 165, 168, 202; Moscow victory parade for Gagarin, films 385; Vanguard Six, filming of 172, 173, 175, 221, 234–5, 258, 259, 266, 270, 271, 273; Vostok 3A flight preparations, filming of 278, 280, 286, 287, 289–90, 297–8; Vostok 3A launch, films 302 Takhtarova, Anna 349–50, 352, 354, 384 Takhtarova, Rumia 349–50, 352 TASS 12, 139, 141, 169, 181, 203, 204, 205, 206, 209, 212, 323, 324, 325, 328, 329, 371, 382 Thomas, George 366, 367 Tierney, John 66 Tikhonravov, Mikhail 119–20 Time magazine 21, 43, 57–8, 102, 114, 325–6, 396 Titov, Gherman 388, 390; celebrity 390–1, 411; death 412; Gagarin and 36, 37–8, 42, 84, 87, 249–50, 252, 373–4, 375, 388, 390, 411; individualism/rebellious nature 35, 155–6, 211, 229, 249; Korolev and 229, 409; Pushkin, love of 35, 84, 158, 172, 211, 250; space flight (August 6, 1961) 356, 410–11, 413; Vanguard Six selection process for first manned space flight and 35, 37–8, 42, 172, 211–12, 213, 222, 223, 224, 248–9, 250, 251–2, 258–60; Vanguard Six training and 84, 85, 87, 153, 154–6, 158, 172, 174, 203, 211–12, 213, 219, 220, 222, 223, 224, 229, 232–3, 234, 240; victory parade for Gagarin and 390–1; Vostok 3A launch and 302, 312; Vostok 3A launch preparations and 265, 266, 267, 269, 270–1, 272, 277, 278, 279, 280, 281, 282, 284, 286, 287, 288–9; wife and see Titov, Tamara Titov, Igor 36, 252 Titova, Tamara 35–6, 84–5, 87, 153, 154–6, 219, 252, 326–7, 390, 411 Topchiyev, Aleksandr 203 Tsiolkovsky, Konstantin 1, 41, 91, 275 Tupolev, Andrei 94 TV-3 (America’s first satellite) 54, 55 Tyuratam Cosmodrome, Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan 3–6, 89–106, 161–70, 177, 179–80, 225–31, 232–6, 243–53, 269–73, 277–313; CIA photographs 4, 101, 180, 181–2, 215, 245; construction of 178–9, 182–3; Korolev’s cottage 89–90, 91, 101, 139, 165, 175, 267, 269, 272; Montazhno-Ispytatel’nyj Korpus (Assembly and Test Facility) (MIK) 173, 175, 176, 178–9, 232–6, 244, 263–4, 280; Nedelin Cottage 269–73, 277–85; R-16 disaster at 16, 181–2, 300; Scientific and Testing Range No. 5 (NIIP–5) 3–6, 89–106, 101, 177; Site 1 91, 166, 176–7, 178, 179, 192, 253, 263, 264, 265, 266, 286–303; Site 2 161, 175, 179, 243–53, 269–73, 277–85; Site 10 175; Site 51 253; U-2 spy planes and 180–1, 215 Udacha (Lucky) (dog) (renamed, Zvezdochka (Little Starlet)) 164, 172, 173, 176, 199, 200, 202, 203, 205, 406–7 United Nations 45, 413 US Air Force 55, 61, 107, 109, 113, 114, 123, 143, 406 US Navy 24, 25, 26, 50, 52, 54, 55, 198 USS Donner 132, 133–4, 135 USS Essex 255 Ustinov, Dmitry 207 U-2 spy plane 4, 180–1, 215, 283, 334 Vanguard rocket 54, 55, 69 Vanguard Six: height of astronauts 81, 172; Korolev and see Korolev, Sergei; origins of programme 32; pay and lifestyle 154–5; selection process for 32–3, 76–87; selection process for first manned space flight 37–8, 42, 105, 210–12, 213, 222–4, 248–52, 253, 254, 258–60; training 30–8, 42, 75, 76–88, 105, 152–8, 171–92, 203, 210–12, 213, 218–24, 225–36, 240, 243–53, 258, 259 see also individual cosmonaut name Varlamov, Valentin 33, 220 Venera 1 91, 139, 141, 149–50, 210, 284, 299 Vershinin, Chief Marshal Konstantin 30–1, 362 Vishnevsky, General Alexander 188 Voas, Robert 64 Volynov, Boris 83–4, 87, 137, 156, 157, 188 Vomit Comet (KC-135) 71–2, 155 von Braun, Wernher 61, 71; appearance 55–6, 57–8; congratulates Russians on first manned space flight 383; death 407–8; Jupiter-C rocket and 57; Korolev and 90, 92, 95, 96, 97, 102, 150, 408; Mercury-Redstone (MR–BD) and 135, 142, 143–4, 158, 159, 192, 193, 194–5, 238; Mercury-Redstone (MR-2) and 124, 126, 130–1, 135, 142, 143–4, 158, 159; moon landings and 399, 403, 404, 407; Nazi Party and 56–7, 92, 95; Operation Paperclip and 56; Redstone rocket and 72, 73, 74, 111, 173; Saturn rockets and 59, 404, 407; SS and 56–7, 407–8; V-2 missile and 56–7, 74, 95, 111, 124, 407, 408 Voronin, Georgy 226 Voskhod 408–9 Vostok programme 91, 95, 120, 121; A.P.O. (Avariynyy Podryv Obyekta) (‘Emergency Object Destruction’) (on-board bomb/device) 11–12, 13, 14–15, 167, 169, 209–10, 226, 234, 257; braking engine 11, 170, 175, 191, 205, 206, 209–10, 226, 227–8, 233, 290, 313, 332, 333, 335, 336, 342; capsule 115–16, 120, 150, 152, 155, 156, 167, 170, 201, 203, 205; ejection from, landing and 156, 340–1, 342; emergency survival package 174, 190, 191, 205–6, 209; Globus device 174–5; ‘instrument module’ and ‘descent module’ 170; mannequin flights 17, 105, 116, 152, 158, 160, 161–70, 171–2, 173, 175–6, 189, 191, 192, 199–204, 205, 206, 208, 209, 210, 249, 262, 283, 292, 338, 407; simulator 155, 232, 243; size of and height of astronaut and 30, 32–3; spy satellite version 150; state commission responsible for 152, 168, 190–1, 192, 206, 207, 226, 243–50, 251, 258–9, 280, 287, 292, 356, 372, 374, 380–1; Vostok 1 9–16, 23, 31, 37, 69–71, 115, 150, 152, 172, 203, 235; Vostok 3 16–17, 30, 104; Vostok 3 (Gagarin flight) see Vostok 3 (Gagarin space flight) Vostok 3 (Vostok 1) (Gagarin space flight) 152, 190–1, 229, 230, 234, 240; altitude records 244–5, 364; A.P.O.


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God's Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican by Gerald Posner

Albert Einstein, anti-communist, Ayatollah Khomeini, bank run, banking crisis, book value, Bretton Woods, central bank independence, centralized clearinghouse, centre right, credit crunch, disinformation, dividend-yielding stocks, European colonialism, forensic accounting, God and Mammon, Index librorum prohibitorum, Kevin Roose, Kickstarter, liberation theology, low interest rates, medical malpractice, Murano, Venice glass, offshore financial centre, oil shock, operation paperclip, power law, rent control, Ronald Reagan, Silicon Valley, WikiLeaks, Yom Kippur War

“Klaus Barbie and the United States Government,” A Report to the Attorney General of the United States, August 1983, Office of Special Investigations, U.S. Department of Justice, 136; see also Mark Fritz, “The Secret History of World War II: From Hot Conflict to Cold War; US Made Moral Compromises in Using Former Nazi Spy Network Against Soviet Threat,” The Boston Globe, Part 9 of 9, December 26, 2001, 1. 97 Operations Paperclip and Overcast were OSS programs that recruited 765 Nazi rocket scientists and engineers in the decade following the war. The recruits ranged from Wernher von Braun, the “father of rocket science,” to Hubertus Strughold, who was involved in medical experiments at the Dachau concentration camp.