INITIALS CIRCULATE 

/( ( :t'__ - ___ , ORGANIZATION AND LOCATION 'f(2_ DATE COORDINATION 

2 

k/.£~ 

FILE 

3 

5/~ , INFORMATION 

4 SEE ME 

SIGNATURE 

FROM NAME OR TITLE 

pp roved for Release by NSA on 12-16-2014 pursuant to .. CIPO 

.0. 13526 

7 
... 

THE WAS.HL_N 

. . ~' J ~~· s-.!>- . I 

Matter of Fact .. . . . . . . . . By Stewart Alsop' I 

The Race We 'Must_.Win. ________ _; _ _..,....._I 

BY THOSE WHO' should brought into the Air Force by Navaho, the ram-jet whi!!h is 

know,. this country is now given · Secretary Harold E. Talbott a true guided missile, flying 

about an even chance of beat- to get the long-range missiles rr.ore than twice the speed of 

ing the Soviet Union in the ·into the air. sound. Then comes the I race to be first to get an inter- In the. process, Gardner has mighty Atlas,-' the· tr.ue intercontinental ballistic missile stepped on a grea.t many toes continental ballistic . missile 

into the· air. ' · -so many ·that his appoint- which climbs an incredible 600 

Although this whole subjeGt inent as Assistant Secretary of miles irito space b'efore it 

may seem ._impossibly remote the Air Force has been held plunges to the kill. . ·And :.at.: 

fo most people, this should rate up iri the" Senate. But Talbott some point-depending ·on·· a· 1 

as ·about the· best news the and Air Force Chief ·Of Staff decision which has not yet 

country· has had for a Jong- Nathan F. Twining ,have been made_:there comes the 

tim.e, for until rather recently, backed him up, for which they first man-made artificial earthintel)igence studies of the So- also deserve credit. • satellite. But, for the immediviet effort in the field of long By dint of toe-stepping; ate future, Atlas is the derange guided missiles strong)y much has been accomplished. cisive weapon. 

suggested that we would al- Pentagon red tape has been THERE WILL be a further 

most .certair;ily lose the race fo_r slashed. An able Air Force report in this space on the~e·1 

the intercontinental ballisti:s man, Brig. (}en. Bernard strange and terrible gadgets. 

missile-the I.B.M. And this is Schriever, has gone to · the Here it is enough to say that a race which the United States West Coast to ride herd on in each case the prospects for 

simply cannot afford to lose. the big companies, 1 i k e early success are rneasurab\y 

The I.B.M., man:ied to a hy- Northrop,. North American, brighter .than they' were ·a'. 

i:lrogen warhead, is the true Convair and Lockheed, which year ago. But there·j5- still 

ultimate weapon. It can be are doing the actual work on no cause for comptacen¢y. 

fired from one continent to an- the missiles. ' Our chances of winning tlje .. other to destroy a great ·city, Totally unrealistic require- IBM face have improve.ct..:....· 

in much the way that a mur- ments-like the requirement but they are ·still no bette"-' 

'Clerer fires a bullet through limiting the margin Of permis- than even. his victim's head. The differ- sible error in an interconti" Those in a position to judge ence is that a man can hide, nental missile to 1500 yards:_ belit;!ve that we could be qland a dty cannot. have been rescinded. And most. certain of winning this 

As of today, at least, there funds for the missile efforts race we must win on one con- is hardly even a theoretical have 'been fairly and sharply dition." This co~dition is a defense .against the true inter- increas~d. '!'he a~ount of in-' national sense . of, urg~ncy, 

continental guided missile, f)X- crease is .hidden m the ove~-- leading. to a major effort ·on a cept to get the weapon first, all Air ·Force budget,. but it wartime scale to win the race. to make it better, and to make is .said . to be substantial: . This would involve greater ex- it in greater' numbers. Until As a result of all this ef- penditures. But the concen-, 

recently, the effort to win the fort, ~he timetable for our tration of energy and talent' 

I.B.M. race was strangled in entry mto the age of the long- which a, national sense of ur- red tape and hobbled for ran~e guided 'missile has beery. gency brings .forth is a, more funds. Today, a greater effort rev1s~d downward. a~l along important'. element in the 

co.uld, and u n d o 'u b tedly the lme. Most s1gmfi~antl~, equatip,n.. ":" · should, be mad!=!. But at Iellst th~ ~ta.te D~partment ·and· tl'!e 'Arid this sense· of urgency 

the effort is ·now a serious Bntis~ i:ore1gn Office a:r:e n?w is riow lacking. for a . very one. And it is already. begin- negot1atmg for a 5000-mile simple reason. T.he secrecy 

nin.g to pay off. . missile firing range, extend-· syndrome from :which this 

ing into the Atlantic from Administration suffers has 

IF WE BEAT the Russians Florida. to the Ascension Is-. made.'the IBM.an unmentiont~o the I.B.M.-and thereby lands. ·. . able subject. · This in turn 

'· avert what would surely be The. immediate reason for makes it impossible ,to ac- , · this negotiation is the Snark, 1 knowledge that the problem world catastrophe - a good the jet-propelled, pilotless air- of .winning the IBM race 

share of th; credit, according. craft guided by the stars, and really exists-or even to take 

to those who know, should go. which flies just under the .credit for the genuine ad-

'to a youngish California ·en- speed of sound. But the Snark vances which have· been· made. 

gineer-businessman, c a 11 e d is only the forerunner. - Trevor Gardner. Gardner was After the Snark .comes the <Coimight. .}~?~une~'i'ric.>York Herald j