From: yamauchi@ces.cwru.edu (Brian Yamauchi)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Von Braun -- Hero, Villain, or Both? (was Re: Controversy over V-2)
Date: 4 Oct 92 15:18:39
Organization: Case Western Reserve University
Distribution: world
	<3OCT199222334167@judy.uh.edu> <SHAFER.92Oct4084155@ra.dfrf.nasa.gov>
NNTP-Posting-Host: sartre.caisr.cwru.edu
In-reply-to: shafer@rigel.dfrf.nasa.gov's message of Sun, 4 Oct 1992 15:41:56 GMT

In article <SHAFER.92Oct4084155@ra.dfrf.nasa.gov> shafer@rigel.dfrf.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer) writes:
>On Sun, 4 Oct 1992 03:33:00 GMT, wingo%cspara.decnet@Fedex.Msfc.Nasa.Gov said:

>> If you really want to press the point and be so high and mighty about it
>> then why did we use the rocket team to build our rockets? Krafft Erike
>> was instrumental in the Atlas design and the Von Braun Team were instrumental
>> in the development of the Redstone, Jupiter, Saturn I and Saturn V.  The
>> rocket team was a spoil of war that we took from the Germans. In past wars
>> the spoils were the wealth of a nation.  The spoils that we took in WWII were
>> the most valuable of all, technology.

>I certainly wouldn't have treated them like mythic heroes, the way we
>did.

I suppose it depends on how you define "hero".

In a way, Von Braun was a lot like Columbus -- he did some
reprehensible things, but he also did some extraordinary things.  Many
people suffered as a direct result of his actions, and yet, through
his vision and force of will he managed to change the course of human
history.

Could we have gotten to the Moon without Von Braun?  Probably.  Would
we have?  I don't know.

I think there were certainly enough smart people in the U.S. to design
a manned lunar mission without the Germans' help, but as readers of
this newsgroup know, having the technical knowledge and ingenuity
alone isn't always enough when dealing with large government projects.
One also needs the ability to drive the project through all of the
political and organizational barriers that arise, and to mobilize an
army of technicians and workers towards a common goal.

Maybe the libertarians are right.  Maybe if the government had stayed
out, private and corporate interests would have already built personal
spacecraft and privately owned moon colonies.  Maybe, maybe not.  But
I do know that Von Braun was one of the leaders who made sure that the
government efforts that did occur achieved what they did -- that we
put a man of the Moon and not just billions of dollars down a rathole.

>> There are many other examples of things that we use and rely on every day
>> that came from that sorry episode in history. No ones hands are clean and
>> to beat this horse without an understanding of the history is to grossly
>> distort reality. 

>Are you old enough to remember the Cuban Missile Crisis?  I am.  I was
>in high school and I can remember going to bed not knowing if I'd wake
>up in the morning to an intact country.  

>I figure that if I feel like being a moral absolutist, I have the right.

Well, sure, but some of us grew up with Watergate in grade school,
Iran-Contra in college, and a continuous line of government scandals
in between.  I figure if we feel like being cynical about government,
politics, and morality, we have the right... :-)

>Furthermore, I think this attitude of yours that nobody's hands are
>clean so people can't be criticized without an understanding of their
>history is in large part responsible for the decline of modern
>morality.  You have to step up and take responsibility for your actions,
>no matter what--you can't wuss out with an unhappy childhood or a mean
>mommy or "everybody's doing it".  If it's wrong, it's wrong.

Maybe, it's a generational thing...

I think most young people today (with the exception of those belonging
to the religious right) tend to see the world more in shades of gray
than in the black-and-white morality of older generations.  The world
is a complex place...
--
_______________________________________________________________________________

Brian Yamauchi			Case Western Reserve University
yamauchi@alpha.ces.cwru.edu	Department of Computer Engineering and Science
_______________________________________________________________________________