Secret Empire

ginormous writes "Philip Taubman's new book, Secret Empire: Eisenhower, the CIA and the Hidden Story of America's Space Espionage is perhaps the most exciting book ever written about the Eisenhower administration. (Did you know the Eisenhower administration was exciting?) It traces the story of how aerial reconnaissance developed from conventional planes (modified bombers and such) outfitted with cameras through the high-altitude, high-speed U-2 and SR-71 planes and the Corona satellite." Read on for more on this book. Secret Empire: Eisenhower, the CIA and the Hidden Story of America's Secret Espionage author Philip Taubman pages 370 (including fun photos!) publisher Simon & Schuster rating 10/10 reviewer ginormous ISBN 0684856999 summary A great historical thrill ride of the development of the U-2, the Corona satellite and more.

In the early days of the Cold War, the United States knew almost nothing about the Soviet's military capacity and had to risk the lives of hundreds of airmen in flights over Soviet airspace. Eisenhower, a five-star general, understood both that the human cost was too high and that the cost of not knowing how many missiles and bombs the Soviets had was even higher. He trusted a group of businessmen, engineers and professors -- including Polaroid's Edwin Land, Lockheed's Kelly Johnson and MIT's James Killian -- to help solve the problem.

Taubman, deputy editorial page editor at the New York Times, is a talented storyteller with an eye for good anecdotes. He spoke to dozens of the men who flew the planes and built the satellites, as well as those with an inside line to the thinking of the President himself. Although the story lacks the human drama of a tale like "The Right Stuff," it has more life than expected from a story where the heroes are machines. Even readers with background knowledge about the military or intelligence systems will learn a lot about what went on in the crucial first decades of the Cold War, when technology took spying to new levels and perhaps prevented World War III. The book is largely based on documentation that was declassified in the late 1990s, offering a fly-on-the-wall view of what went on in crucial, highly secret meetings. The writing transports readers through closed doors, allowing them the relive the urgency of the era.

A truly fascinating aspect of the book is how some of America's greatest scientific achievements and achievers were either unknown or had some of their work supressed during their lifetime for national security. These guys are heroes for their work and it's too bad they couldn't be recognized back in the 60s. It's great to do it now.

Secret Empire also is relevant to the current situation, and Taubman touches on spying in the post-Cold War world. Washington eventually became too dependent on satellites and technological spying, at the expense of human agents who are much more effective against bands of terrorists. Still, the book makes obvious that satellites have rightly become an essential piece of the nation's intelligence battery. The story of how they got there in the first place is fascinating, and Secret Empire is the first book with access to classified documents that does justice to the story.

FMI: see the website at www.secretempirethebook.com which has some really cool original documents from the book's research.

You can purchase Secret Empire: Eisenhower, the CIA and the Hidden Story of America's Secret Espionage from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Comments

U2..? High speed...?

[TWX]

In all of the PBS documentaries that I've seen on the U2, I don't remember any of them calling it 'high speed'. In fact, I remember several references to fighters keeping up with it as it flew over the Soviet Union, but they weren't able to get up to the level it was flying at.

I thought that the U2 was built to simply out-altitude the opponent planes, and the downfall of the aircraft was when missile technology allowed them to shoot it down anyway...

Military Industrial Complex

[Stargoat]

Eisenhower's presidency was always marked by contrasts. He really did build up the military to avoid war. He spied on the Soviets in order to prevent misunderstandings. The Soviets knew this. When the U2 with Gary Powers was shot down, Krushev initially wanted to allow Eisenhower to save face, as he knew Ike's motives.

The interesting thing of all is, even though Eisenhower built the military industrial complex that we have today, his last act of president was to condemn it, and warn Americans of its future activities.

Click here to read Ike's farewell speech

It is this same military industrial complex that gave rise to so many of the technologies that we use today, such as e-mail. Something for the /. community to think about.

A time of leaps and bounds

[DesScorp]

The U2 was very slow. It's essentialy a jet propelled glider designed to fly at the edge of space. This is why the CIA/USAF developed the A-12/SR-71. It had altitude AND speed. It's still probably the fastest jet powered aircraft ever flown (depending on what kind of powerplant the still-secret Aurora really has).

It still amazes me to think of all of the technological leaps that were taken between 1947 and the early 60's. In less than two decades, we went from piston powered prop planes to aircraft that cruised at Mach 3 to the very edge of space (the U2 and SR-71 travel at such high altitudes that the crews wear suits adapted from the space program).

Thinking of the Blackbird, and especially North American's absolutely beautiful XB-70 Valkrie bomber (which cruised at mach 3 and used canards, which are only now coming into common use on aircraft designs), it's hard to be terribly impressed with today's aircraft. In many ways, modern aircraft are a step back.

All in all, it was an exciting time. Ironic, since much of it occured during the "boring" Presidency of Ike.

Another example

[CausticWindow]

The story of Alan Turing is really tragic.

He was one of the main contributors to breaking the Enigma code, and also a true innovator in the field of computing.

Of course, his efforts were kept a secret until long after the war, and Turing never got any official recognition while he was alive. When the british government harrased him over his sexuality, he ended up taking his own life with cyanide. A sad story indeed.