UNCLASSIFIED

May 1, 1959

NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS AS AN INDUSTRIAL SUPER-DYNAMITE:
PROSPECTS FOR A MASSIVE NEW TOOL FOR ENGINEERING AND CONSERVATION OF RESOURCES

By William Y. Elliott

The University of California Radiation Laboratory, which has now been renamed in honor of Ernest O. Lawrence, the great pioneer in nuclear physics, has issued a whole series of documents on The Industrial Uses of Nuclear Explosives (Plowshare series) that open up most important and hopeful roads to new and expanding uses of nuclear energy for a peaceful world. These include not only the original "Plowshare" document, with the above title, but a series of specialized studies under more formable scientific titles, such as the Phenomenology of Contained Nuclear Explosions.

These studies deal with the possibilities of using this form of super-dynamite in larger scale shots than that described in the Rainier explosion, which was equivalent only to 1700 tons of high explosive (1.7 kilotons). Some of the subsequent shots range from only 100 tons to more than 20 kilotons. The results of the experiments have been described and certain deductions from them drawn in titles ranging from Application to Mineral Resources Development and Large Scale Excavations, to the Evaluation of Ground Water Contamination Hazards.

The Bureau of Mines, itself, has followed up these studies by one on the Application of Nuclear Explosions to Oil Shale Utilization, done by the Laramie Petroleum Research Center, and by various conferences sponsored by the Bureau including especially a well reported one at Dallas, Texas, in early January of this year, with the oil industry.

These reports are now all unclassified and in the public domain. They have been legitimately kept down to a carefully restrained type of treatment to avoid rousing false hopes that might not be borne out by the necessary further experiments. Yet at a minimum they show a possibility of using nuclear underground explosions for engineering purposes as well as the cheaper and more efficient development of many of our basic mineral resources. This may well mean one of the greatest expansions of the power to harness massive energy in engineering history.

Although

UNCLASSIFIED

- 2 -

Although it is necessary, of course, to be cautious about predictions based on experimental evidence still so slim, the fact that these explosions look to be controllable in terms of blast and fall-out hazard is in itself very good news to those who are worried about our diminishing natural resources and the cost of producing them by previous conventional methods. The shale oil reserves of our Rocky Mountains and the oil sands of Northwest Canada alone contain several times the estimated oil reserves of the Middle East - heretofore regarded as by far the largest share of the world's commercially available oil reserves.

Students of the conservation of the earth's resources will be very hopeful of real results from the prospect of developing new methods of preventing the run-off of waters from desert or other areas lacking in water reserves by substituting the possibility of underground storage for the dams that we have heretofore had to build up that were subject to silting and tremendous losses through evaporation. Water will be in the long run the scarcest of earth's basic resources. The theoretical physics has been at least in part confirmed by showing a remarkable absence of radiation contamination of ground water. This is a happy prospect for safe underground reservoirs as much as it is for safe mining uses.

It is mildly ironical but cheerful that the Soviet Union which, in the earliest announcements about its conquest of nuclear energy, made great propaganda use of the peaceful ability to "move mountains" and "divert rivers" has so far shown little evidence of trying to harness these uses—perhaps because it was so intent on outstripping us in the weapons race.

There is no question on the other hand that the Soviet system has made great strides in the development of the research phases of industrial uses of nuclear energy for power through reactors, as have the British. Our own more recent developments have been described in terms that are most hopeful for a more direct transfer of the direct application of nuclear energy to the production of electricity and the harnessing of very minute quantities, even to transistors. But given the world's plentiful supply of relatively cheaper sources of fuel energy, the apparent economic advantages and the variety of applications appear to suggest that there is a more immediate application to change the old methods of conservation and development of resources through these underground explosions.

One

- 3 -

One can never guess what is in the inscrutable mind of the Kremlin
from the continual difficulties they have raised that would restrict or
prevent the United States from developing these underground explosions
by further experiments. The Soviet rulers seem anxious to utilize their
efforts to get a "voluntary" ban on weapons testing so as to exclude all
underground shots on the one hand. They have shown little evidence, on
the other hand, of good faith in trying to work out the kind of in-
spections systems without vetos and with adequate personnel and communi-
cations to police such an agreement. We ought, while showing every
willingness to negotiate on really reciprocal terms, to be aware that
the acceptance of a general ban on underground explosions is extremely
difficult to work out and dangerous unless it provides workable safe-
guards for peaceful uses. It might give a free hand to the Soviet for
charging bad faith and "weapons testing" with every underground explosion.

Although the civil engineering applications of nuclear energy
may in the long run pay off massive dividends in the conservation or
better and cheaper availability of the world's basic resources
(especially water conservation and use), the first item of strategic
priority for experiment should be the quick testing of the application
of nuclear energy to the reduction of oil shales and sands. This,
in a relatively short period, if successfully developed by our oil
companies, would free us of Europe's dependence on the Middle East for
cheap oil imports.

Oil shale recovery is not adequately treated in the Radiation
Laboratory Reports. The Bureau of Mines studies supplement the
documents available on underground explosions. Their most compre-
hensive document is "Applications of Nuclear Explosions to Oil Shale
Utilization" (Laramie Petroleum Research Center) - already mentioned.
In addition there are unclassified reports issued to the oil company
members in attendance at the Dallas, Texas Conference on this topic
held during January 6-7, 1959 which develop in more detail the known
problems of so-called "in situ" combustion of the pulverized shale.
This method involves using the residual carbon and introducing oxygen
by known methods, utilizing German as well as United States experiments.
The estimates of cost given in this set of Conference reports are quite
general and tentative but run twenty to eighty cents over $2.00 a
barrell, with amortization and contingency allowances - based on setting

up

- 4 -

up a whole processing operation just for the single experiment. This
is, of course, not a figure applicable to commercial operation.
Original "guestimates" for commercial application ran below one
dollar a barrel.

The initial hopes of utilizing direct reduction of shale into
oil by the primary heat of the explosion proved (so far) to be
illusory in terms both of cost and of feasibility by yet known methods
of harnessing heat without radiation problems.* However, a much
more important break-through appears to be possible in the light of
the fact that the pulverization of very large areas of shale, above
the insoluble, fused rock containing the residual radiation, can be
achieved with a big type of explosion (safe in the shale districts).

Cheap rock breaking, through the use of nuclear explosives
would thus permit the reduction of the recoverable shale made avail-
able through the introduction of oxygen in the manner reported for
South Belridge, California ** (which the Bureau of Mines calls
*in situ* combustion), at a cost economically competitive with Canadian
oil on the West Coast and average US oil costs. A 300 kiloton
explosion (a very moderate shot) would produce enough shattered shale
to make something like 20,000,000 to 40,000,000 barrels of oil.
Pulverization costs are low. Even if this estimate proved to be a
gross exaggeration, shale may become, as technology improves, an
economic feasibility — indeed to a degree which would force con-
servation, by leaving off pumping oil from high cost normal wells in
marginal areas as produced by present methods.

The press

* However, an authoritative article "Non-Military Uses of Nuclear Explosives" by Gerald W. Johnson and Harold Brown, in the *Scientific American* (December, 1958) gives a very hopeful picture of possibilities for steam production from the contained heat. It also anticipates the harnessing of this heat to the Athabaska tar sands of Canada to produce a fluid oil field where every one hundred foot depth of these enormous reserves would produce 100 million barrels of oil at only 15 percent recovery.

** See *Petroleum Transactions*, American Institute of Mechanical Engineers -
for "Field Results of South Belridge Thermal Recovery Experiment".

- 5 -

The press reported the possibility of some dangers not yet fully over-
come, judging from a reported speech of retiring A. E. Commissioner W. F.
Libby to a "Resources for the Future" forum in Washington (Washington Post
and Times Herald, March 6, 1959, page A-13). But the one shot which he
described (one of five) had no bad results. It gave very minimal (one
square mile) area of fall-out, which was rapidly dissipated. This shot
occurred in the last weapon testing series, as a by-product to test
proper depth per kiloton (see Phenomenology, etc., already cited).

A different approach to tapping the Canadian oil sands may prove to be equally promising. This would require technically the utilization of heat by an explosion below the oil sands that could be passed back into the stratum on a continuing basis of recycling this heat. If feasible, costs would drop greatly. The Richfield Oil Company has made studies with the aid of the AEC, which confidently expect to unlock this additional treasure house, perhaps larger than our shale oil in the United States. Well-founded estimates indicate that the Canadian oil sands may contain three times the estimated reserves of the Middle East. Nuclear shots to open up the flow by heat, if they prove feasible, could increase production from existing oil strata through secondary recovery of the oil not capable of being economically produced by present methods. This would vastly extend the life and availability of present oil fields at economic rates. We don't know yet how to get the "bugs" out of this operation - - but it seems possible, in the view of reputable scientists and engineers.

Passing to the civil engineering applications, present knowledge
of the possibility of masking and slowing down neutrons with absorbing
materials, such as boron, permit at least good hopes of safely operating at
reduced costs to develop canals at sea level by quite astonishing figures
(See pages 50 through 53 of "Operation Plewshare"). The problems of blast
and fall-out hazards are treated on pages 54 through 56. But here we are
in the realm of something that has manifest radiolegical problems not
present in the contained underground explosions. A hopeful view of harness-
ing explosions for harbers without dangerous radiolegical hazards is taken
by the Scientific American article already cited.

Similar applications to removal of navigation hazards and to building
or improving harbers need not be further treated here. There are still
problems of radiation effects that must be tested to insure safety for this
type of engineering use. Many scientists remain skeptical of such appli-
cations in view of the radiation dangers that they believe to be almost in-
escapable where the radiation can "leak".

Long

Long Run Applications

The most important long-run hope lies in the use of nuclear energy for breaking up the sub-soil barriers to the underground storage "lakes" of water in the rainy seasons where today quick run-off from comparatively dry or desert areas can only be controlled by huge dams that gradually silt up. Evaporation losses could in this way be minimized. All big lakes or a great river like the Nile lose enormous amounts by evaporation. The possibilities in this area offer the greatest long-range hopes of meeting the world's most universal shortage through both conservation of water and the raising of water levels for increasing usable land surface. Sea water introduction into areas that could back up the fresh water table and raise its level could change some desert areas (Red Sea, Dead Sea, Australia's interior, etc.)

Power production and energy, particularly from heat, appear to have very great possibilities as indicated on pages 13 through 19 of "Plowshare": Mr. Brobeck starts off the analysis: "There is enough energy locked in the deuterium in sea water to last the peoples of the earth thousands of years at any imaginable extra-pollution of present rates of consumption". Unfortunately he admits the difficulties that put off probable solution for many years, even if nuclear energy could be harnessed to this spectacular new conquest of energy resources.

The uses of this great super tool for new types of mining are pretty obvious: Low grade ores become economical by using controlled explosions to produce what amounts to open pit operations. If the problem of controlling radiation energy is as manageable as is thought and the slowing down of the neutrons can be accomplished so that fusion effects are also controllable, an entirely new area for the production, too, of low grade ores at quite economic cost is opening up. This is covered in some degree on the already cited "oil and mining" applications (pages 32 following, of "Plowshare").

One of the most exciting possibilities (still just a gleam in the nuclear scientists' eyes) is that this use of underground nuclear explosives for producing many kinds of isotopes, including plutonium, would furnish a new and interesting possibility for "breeding" critical materials. Experiments already conducted seem to bear out the

theoretical

-7-

theoretical physics that neutrons could be much more abundantly and more cheaply produced by underground applications than by the reactor type of fissionable material production now practiced. At least this analysis of the underground explosions already tried can be projected on the basis of the Rainier shot -- with the important reservation that the techniques of recovery and the economy of these methods have yet to be determined by experiments. The trick is in recovering the energy thus produced. This is admittedly quite a trick. The sophistication of the process is a real protection against any use of plutonium for weapons production by unauthorized sources.

There is at least a possibility of the general application of this new tool to scientific investigations of much more basic sorts, some of which are related to the study of cosmic ray absorption and degradation in the atmosphere. But some of the interesting suggestions made by Professor Wheeler (ibid pages 8 and 9) just open up the subject.

Our national interest in all of this is three-fold:

(1) Diplomatically to prevent at all costs any limitation on our full freedom to use and advance as rapidly as possible this tremendous new tool -- which is one of the few hopes of keeping up with the "population bomb". Apparently, the Soviet opposition to peaceful uses of underground shots is not as absolute as at first seemed to be the case. But each shot might serve as a propaganda target for alleging that we were really testing weapons - and some weapons testing would be possible in this way. But we don't need to test big ones, and the Soviets could, as we now find out, test very small ones undetected by the means first thought to be feasible and that now their bosses are not willing even to discuss. If we let them bottle up this whole area of peaceful applications on our part, until they have caught up or gone ahead of us, we should lose one of the great protections that we have opening up before us of a vast extension of our economic resources and those of the rest of the free world. Private capital, assisted by the AEC in the experimental phases and under its control over the shots, could rapidly harness this new tool to new levels of economic development.

(II) A second

- 8 -

(II) A second order of priority for national objectives is to prevent the peaceful use from being turned by other countries or by industrial smuggling of the new explosives into weapons. Such a result could be compared to "sowing the dragon's teeth" in the countries where we may be using such breeders of nuclear energy as could be harnessed to weapons production. Fortunately, aside from the smuggling or "bomb running", the harnessing of plutonium from the breeder build-up through underground chambers is too sophisticated -- more than from normal reactors.

(III) Our national security, as well as our economic advantage would seem to indicate that we must arrange the appropriate application of funds for this possible break-through. It would tremendously increase our advantage in the struggle for not only the economic advantage over the Soviet system in the entire world available to us, but would help greatly in reestablishing American prestige and capturing the banner of carrying the hopes of humanity for peace and not for war.

It is true that there is as yet no adequate experimental proof for the possible applications mentioned above to back up the already impressive data so far available. But these underground experiments and other data already show three things:

(1) The containable and, therefore, safe character of such explosions.

(2) The sealing off of contained heat and probably fission breeding through neutron-produced isotopes, capable of indefinite or long-term use.

(3) The economy of nuclear blasts for pulverizing or breaking up large ore bodies, or facilitating recovery or conservation of underground resources and accomplishing cheaply large-scale earth changes.

The costs which were very conservatively and cautiously put out for industry discussion based upon the particular section of shale oil chosen for experiment by the Bureau of Mines are admittedly of a very outside order and would not represent the kind of figures that would be

feasible

-9-

feasible if the costly experiment could be put into large-scale operation. Not only large-scale application but the possibility of using the kind of direct mining which has already been experimentally done by Union Oil Company would tend sizeably to reduce these costs. The Union Oil methods would permit retorting rather than the somewhat costly methods of introducing oxygen and pumping out the oil that was developed by heat treatment, in situ, by combustion introduced into the pulverized beds.

There is also a quite reasonable expectation that as control shots become more feasible and predictable, the removal of over-burden would make something like strip mining feasible. For an experiment that is first of all designed to allow a very wide margin of safety, the amount of over-burden may run to 600 to 700 or even 1,000 feet; and this is too much earth to remove by ordinary strip mining methods. This amount of overburden should, with experience, be capable of reduction to manageable proportions.

In any case, the big problem from the point of view of cost is to find ways of retorting and recovering the kind of oil that would be available through the pulverization that the nuclear shots certainly make possible on a very massive and cheap scale. The Bureau of Mines figures given at the Dallas meeting indicate that six cents a barrel in terms of oil shale content is an outside figure for the cost only of breaking up the shale. This covers both the cost of the 300 or 400 kilotons to a megaton shot -- roughly half to three quarters of a million dollars for the cost of the nuclear "dynamite" itself. To also cover the cost of boring a long tunnel or a deep shaft into the shale that is to be treated, the total would be under a million dollars.

Manifestly, not all shale would lend itself equally to this method but controlled shots of varying character for varying formations are possible. The fortunate part is that most oil shale seems to have one requisite that appears to be critical for controlling the radiation from the shots: it contains usually as much as one-fourth silicate rock. This amount of silicate rock seems to assure, on the basis of underground shots so far conducted, that the radiation will be sealed in a very insoluble fused silica mass and will not leak appreciably into the pulverized shale that is to be mined and retorted by whatever methods.

In sum,

- 10 -

In sum, although we do not know enough to give us what industrial
costs in operation would be under general conditions, we do know that
the shale reserves of Colorado lend themselves to what appear to be
feasible methods of treatment that could very drastically, and within
a reasonable time, reduce our dependence on the Middle East for oil
safely in the United States. In the light of the prospective efficiency
of nuclear energy, as dynamite, there seems to be reasonable prospect
that these oil costs may also remove the economic strangle-hold that
cheap Middle Eastern oil (if interrupted) could impose upon Western
European economic growth and development.

If this analysis is reasonably correct, it would seem that our
national policy should be firmly grounded on:

(a) Not precluding by any negotiated agreement our full
ability to proceed with harnessing this miraculous tool.

(b) To set priorities and find funds (including use of industrial capital like the Richfield Oil offer, but principally AEC funds) to push the necessary experiments as rapidly as safeguards can be worked out, and trained technicians made available.

(c) The introduction of safe techniques at home and abroad
to change the face of whole areas of the globe to fit them for better
human use — with the accompanying lift to our national prestige
(shaken by SPUTNIK and by Soviet scientific showmanship, as well as by
terror campaigns combined with posing as the apostles of peace and
"liberation"). We have it in our power to hasten the balancing of
world resources to the presently insoluble population increases —
though time must be saved by the same boldness in peaceful uses that
led to harnessing nuclear energy for defense.

WYElliott:GP

- 2 - Excerpt Ltr. dated 20 Nov. 1951

I know also that there is a tendency to point to the religious toleration
following the wars of the Reformation as a possible substitute for ideological
conflict. But surely the significant point is that this balance was achieved only
after a Thirty-Year's War.

But I do not think this period will follow the pattern of the 17th century.
I believe we will rather find ourselves in the role of Rome after the Carthaginian
wars, and this is why I used the adjective "awful" to describe our future. The
contest with the Soviet Union is not the only national problem. Equally important
from a long-range view is the fact that we may within a generation find ourselves
in a world in which we must supply our challenges from within ourselves. This is
a real issue for long-range thinking, and its solution requires a profound doctrine.

Any book addressing itself to these questions will be a major contri-
bution.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Littauer M-25

October 10, 1960

Professor Henry A. Kissinger
6 Divinity Avenue

Dear Henry:

I thought you might be interested in this list of Seminar meetings and participants. I would appreciate your indicating any of the meetings you would find the time for and would have some interest in attending; dinner afterwards at the Faculty Club as usual. Please let me know if you would be interested in any of the Seminars and dinners.

The topics are about what the names on the enclosed list would suggest.

Encl.

Mr. Kenneth Holland

-2-

January 30, 1961

There are several concrete proposals for types of academic research that seem to me to be immediately needed for which a considerable demand has been expressed on the part of various government agencies. Some of this research is already well under way by students of the countries concerned, here, usually assisted by a graduate student or an American professor who have devoted some time to the problems with which their research deals. I would propose to ask the judgment of the group invited as to whether or not this sort of research is not a necessary underpinning to formulate the objectives, types, and the methods of training for which we should strive to elicit demands from the undeveloped countries. A consideration of the objectives themselves is one of the most important aspects of the research analysis, especially as they are conditioned by the cultural background and educational systems and basic social myths of the new countries.

At a subsequent meeting I would very much hope to go into the methods by which one can get both a working catalogue and some evaluation of (a) the academic and research assets of various types that are capable of being mobilized, both in this country and, where useful, abroad, for problems in this area; and (b) the best method of attempting some kind of confidential evaluation of outstanding potential leaders in the countries concerned who become known to American educators in various ways, and then the best methods of assisting them without either interference or undue and harmful expressions of an interest that could be misinterpreted and misused against them. This is a question which I have already explored somewhat with several of the people who are invited for this session, including yourself, and I hope you might have and express some views based on the wide experience of the Institute of International Education in this field.

Do let me know if it will be possible for you to join us for the Seminar in the Littauer Lounge at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 21st, and to join afterwards for a more relaxed discussion over cocktails and dinner at the Faculty Club.

I very much hope that you can come.

WTE:hw
Encl.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

Department of Government
PROFESSOR WILLIAM Y. ELLIOTT

LITTAUER CENTER M-26
CAMBRIDGE 38, MASSACHUSETTS

February 15, 1961

Dear Professor Kissinger:

Mr. Elliott asked me to send you a
copy of his letter to Kenneth Holland as a
reminder of the Seminar next Tuesday (21st)
at 4:00 o'clock to which you promised to come.
Can I put you down for dinner at the Faculty
Club afterwards, too?

Encl.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

November 2, 1961

Professor Henry Kissinger
6 Divinity Avenue

Dear Henry:

I am sending you this for corrections before reproducing. I hope you can have time to do it because I think that the result will be something that you will want to keep yourself for future reference. I have not made my own corrections for my part of the dialogue, but I will do so as soon as you have had time to edit yours.

Many thanks for a fine meeting of the Seminar, as usual.

WYE:hw

Encl.

- 3 -

(1) U/D

(2) Sov. purposes

(3) European integration

(4) Military threat

(b) Cumulative steps needed with gradual results

(c) Instruments require time for creation and effects

(1) Military forces - lead time

(2) Economic assistance and technical help

(3) Political effects

(4) Creation of trained people

2. Essential to relate many measures into coherent whole

(a) F/A = special actions and decisions: various agencies, domestic and external

(1) State

(2) Defense

(3) Assistance

(4) Trade and payments (Treasury, Commerce, etc.)

(5) Agriculture

(b) Must be sure reinforce not cancel

(c) Concerting purposes and means

3. Necessity to concert purposes and cooperate with many other nations

(a) Means finding common interests and policies

(b) Hence depends on establishing priorities among purposes as basis for partial cooperation

(c) Importance of consistency and understanding in managing coalition

4. Domestic Support

(a) Congress

(b) Popular

(p) Popular

(a) Congress

4. <u>Domestic Support</u>

prais for partial cooperation

(p) Hence debate on eastplanning priorities amount burbese as

3. Necessity to concert burbese and cooperate with many other nations

(c) Concerting burbese and means

(p) Must be auto reinforce not cancel

(2) Agriculture

(2) Variabance

(3) Defense

(1) State

and external

(s) F/W = special actions and decisions: various agencies, domestic

3. Essential to relate many measures into coherent whole

(3) Political effects

(3) Economic assistance and technical help

(1) Military forces - 1st of time

(p) Cumulative steps needed with gradual results

(4) Military threat

(2) European integration

(3) Goal: burbese

(1) N\D

- 3 -

- 4 -

5. Steady and constant review and revision

(a) Partial knowledge - learning by action

(b) Changing conditions

IV Strategic Framework and Policy Coordination

1. Strategic framework essential to

(a) integrate interests, objectives and means

(b) define general direction and set priorities among conflicting aims

(c) identify kinds of instruments needed

(d) identify fields of common interest and cooperation with
other nations

(e) provide foundation for organizing support at home and abroad

2. Strategic framework cannot:

(a) furnish automatic answers to specific questions
(still require analysis)

(b) be final and definitive
(requires review and revision)

3. Hence must also have coordination in making specific decisions

(a) President can settle main strategic and key objectives

(b) Must delegate other decisions

V Role of Sec/State and Department: Relat. to Pres. & Depts.

1. Central position of President

(a) Necessary to mobilize <u>Congress & public support</u>

(b) Essential to assure Depts. adhere to common policy

(c) He needs staff help

(c) He needs staff help

(p) Essential to assure Depts. adhere to common policy

(a) Necessary to mobilize Congress & public anhort

I. Central position of President

A. Role of Sec\State and Department: Relat. to Press. & Depts.

(p) Must delegate other decisions

3. Hence must also have coordination in making a specific decisions

(require review and revision)

(p) be final and definitive

(still require analysis)

(a) Furnish automatic answers to a specific questions

3. Strategic framework cannot:

(e) provide foundation for organising anhort at home and abroad
other nations

(b) identify fields of common interest and cooperation with

(p) define general direction and set priorities among conflicting aims

I. Strategic framework essential to

IV. Strategic framework and Policy Coordination

(p) Changing conditions

(e) Partial knowledge - learning by action

2. Steady and constant review and revision

- 4 -

- 5 -

## 2. Types of help required

(a) In devising national strategy

(b) In deciding on basic instruments and allocation of resources

(c) In assuring that specific actions are consistent with strategy

(d) In raising need for revision of strategy or specific vital issues

## 3. Sec/State should be that chief advisor and delegate

(a) Only cab. off. & Dept. w. broadest view

(b) Has necessary staff for analysis

(c) Is the channel for comm. with repres. abroad and w. allies

(d) Super-Sec not the answer

## 4. NSC as Forum for strategy making

(a) Not separate from Dept. but means of exposing and expounding their views

(b) Military-political coordination

(1) Military strategy - importance for political purposes

- relation to allies

- flexibility

(2) Force composition and weapons

- kinds of political requirements

- political effects of weapons on warfare

(3) Arms control

- allies

## 5. Leadership among Departments

(a) Importance (OCB) and (Field)

(b) Means of exercise

(c) Presidential support

June 26, 1963

Dear Henry:

The recent series of "funeral orations" with responsive readings by the much lamented corpse (worthy of Hamlet's father's ghost) were deeply moving to me. A man is rarely privileged to hear the good that is not interred with him, during his lifetime, by any other device than retirement. I really am deeply grateful for all the fine letters that I had, some of which were printed by former tutorial students of mine. I need not add how I appreciated your thoughtfulness in the various remembrances that you sent, including setting up an "easy chair", (if not a rocker), and a prize for Government I. But I was even more grateful for the strenuous efforts that many of you made to be present at one or the other of the occasions: the gathering of my colleagues, Ph.D's, and former Gov I associates, a small dinner or two with special student friends, or the affair at which the deans and some of my former tutorial students presented me with a book containing essays which were really undeserved, but thoroughly appreciated.

The net effect on my wife is difficult to gauge. She naturally does not recognize me in all the nice things that you have said, in spite of her true and long-suffering love for me. I think she begins to feel that I have perpetrated some type of large scale hoax on innocent and guileless students over a long period of years and that I will be more difficult to reduce to proper proportions in the home hereafter! But she too joins me in the most real expressions of our happiness, as well as our gratitude, for all you have said and done.

After the great push of getting ready to pull up our roots and replant them at American University and at the farm, I promise a more decent acknowledgment of the letters that you have written me in the kindest possible spirit. The telegrams even those with barbed shafts of the wit like the President's dry gratitude (in a very generous and kind telegram) "that my political advice had not always been heeded by the American people" I shall also try to respond to, if possible, worthily. But the generosity and the warmth of your feelings has given me a very comforting assessment of what it means to be a teacher.

I have spoken too much in the past - I know only that you are right in all understanding that, whatever my failings, I have enjoyed nothing more than being a teacher and a friend to all of you. This, your testimony reassures me, at least, of one sure form of the most precious kind of immortality -- having been a part of the continued growth of a very wonderful and highly selected group of Americans, of whom I am very proud. I am proudest of all that in most cases you selected me, and that I was able to contribute to the kind of persons that you have come to be, within the framework of your own self selection by the thoroughly American process of competition for both responsibilities and achievements.

(Henry A. Kissinger)

It is not a simple assignment to describe in a few pages what Bill Elliott has meant to me. I can recount how I met him and some of what we did. But these are only little segments of the texture of a life which has become unimaginable without the influence of Bill Elliott.

I first met Bill Elliott in the fall of 1947. I had come to Harvard after spending four and a half years with the Army (one of them in civilian status). Harvard was a new world to me than, its mysteries hidden behind studied informality. I did not know what to make of the experiences I had had or what relevance Harvard's values would have to my life. It never occurred to me that I would never really leave Harvard again.

I stayed--first as a graduate student, then on the faculty--because of Bill Elliott. Whatever I have achieved I owe importantly to his inspiration.

The first time I saw Bill Elliott he was shuffling papers with a weary air, sitting at a desk which at any moment threatened to topple under the weight of the documents covering it. I had penetrated into his study because his secretary was out of the office. My purpose was to ask what I now recognize as a sacrilegious question: whether, in view of my Army experience, it was necessary for me to take Government 1. The question seemed to magnify Bill's melancholy. None of his students need to be told his answer: I took Government 1a.

Today I do not remember a single lecture, yet my future intellectual life was shaped by that course. Obviously, Bill Elliott cared. Political theory/was not an abstract subject to be studied historically or to be used as a demonstration of dialectic brilliance. It was an adventure where good and evil were in a constant struggle to give meaning to existence, and where epics seemed to be prescriptions for action.

- 2 -

A year later I became Bill Elliott's tutee. When I reported this fact to him he intimated that his duties were growing excessive. He said I should return after reading Kant's *Critique of Pure Reason*.

This was not a simple assignment for someone with little training in philosophy. As a result, it took me until the term was half over to finish my paper. Bill made me read it to him, and somewhere in the middle of it his seeming indifference disappeared. He suggested that I work on political theory, not as an historian but as a creative philosopher. This idea had never occurred to me.

From then on we met every week for many years. Bill Elliott made me discover Dostoievski and Hegel, Kant, Spinoza and Homer. On many Sundays we took long walks in Concord. He spoke of the power of love, and said that the only truly unforgivable sin is to use people as if they were objects. He discussed greatness and excellence. And while I did not always follow his words, I knew that I was in the presence of a remarkable man.

There are not too many things one man can ultimately do for another. We intellectuals often place too much stress on words. And we lack categories for the intangibles.

I do not know, therefore, how to describe the inspiration which Bill Elliott has been for those of us who studied under him and loved him. Much of what I have written here sounds like the familiar tutorial relationship. Some of it is consistent with easy and cruel stereotypes. But those of us whose life was changed by Bill Elliott know better. We know that we were guided by a genuine and a profound man. His convictions are so deep, his compassion so strong, that his words sometimes do not do justice to his quality. But this is a tribute to the scale of his purposes, not a reflection on his pronouncements.

-3-

His students were moved because they never saw him do anything second-rate. They were inspired because they came to recognize that this seemingly so pugnacious man had the kindest of hearts. I never heard him say anything malicious. He is one of the most unselfish men I have known. He believed in his students often before they believed in themselves. And he therefore gave them the strength for the loneliness inseparable from creative effort. He had the courage to affirm his views while smaller men snickered and even his friends let him fight his battles alone.

As the years went by I saw less of him. But he had made his mark on me, and frequent contact was not necessary. I knew what he stood for and I knew, too, that he would stand fast, whoever else might falter.

Of course, Bill Elliott had his detractors. After all, he has been a *grand seigneur* in a world where eminence has become a technical achievement. But his tutees know that he is an aristocrat in the best sense. His nobility does not require constant affirmation; it is independent of where Bill Elliott is or what he does.

As far as his tutees are concerned, Bill Elliott will never leave Harvard any more than he can be separated from their lives. If they fail to communicate what his departure means to them, it is because true devotion, and generosity, and human greatness are mysteries to be experienced but not to be described. And they know, too, that finally their testimony to Bill Elliott cannot be in anything they say but, perhaps, if they live up to his teachings, in the quality of their lives.

Certain words from Edmund Burke come to mind:

> To be attached to the subdivision, to love the
> little platoon we belong to in society is the first
> principle of public affections.

The words come to mind because the man whose character we are here to
celebrate, and whose retirement to deplore, is customarily deployed in platoon
strength. He is a multifarious and versatile man; a man of as many parts as
Alec Guinnes; a man endowed with a peculiar capacity for being in several
places at once.

What shall one hail as the central attribute of such a character?
And which facet of him is alleged to be retiring? Who can imagine linking
that gerundive with Bill Elliott's name?

He is a Tennesseean. A native of the Volunteer state, he has never
ceased to exemplify free will. This is the man often referred to as Wild
Bill Elliott--and Wild Bill is not about to retire.

He is a soldier who never renounced the military virtues. The men
of his battery called him Old Concrete--in deference to hard qualities of will
and mind, and, some say, of head as well. The soldierly aspect is alluded

- 2

to still when men call him Fighting Bill Elliott. And Fighting Bill is not
about to retire.

He is a far-seeing man of public policy--a man who can say with Othello:
"I have done the state some service and they know it."

Then there is Bill the apostle of constitutional reform--and one can
scarcely allow a diminution of his vitality and vehemence in these respects
to occur, for the reforms, alas, have not taken hold and the need seems more
exigent than ever.

Finally we have Bill the teacher. Saint Paul, in the waning days of a
great career, might well have wondered why he spent so much time and thought in
writing all those letters. It is ever thus with teachers. As Henry Adams wrote:
"A parent gives life but, as parent, gives no more....A teacher affects eternity.
He can never tell where his influence stops."

So for those of us whose life is made lonelier by Bill Elliott's departure, there is good hope still. We salute a vital and persistent Bill Elliott, the one called Big Bill. This is the man, as teacher and friend closest to our hearts--the man who calls to mind Wordsworth's words concerning:

NOV 19 1968

School of International Service

November 14, 1968

Professor Samuel Huntington
Department of Government
Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138

Dear Sam:

I am sending a somewhat belated but I hope not too late letter, largely because I had been expecting to receive an inquiry from Tom Crooks or the Department as to my availability for a teaching position at the Harvard Summer School since I had discussed it with several members of the Department last year. For reasons of the Department's convenience, the Government I course which I had brought to an enrollment of over 100 was turned over to a very bright young man who had previously been my assistant. There is another bright young man who had been his assistant, and it may be a grooming school for the Department to which I would have no objection.

I think the Summer School, if not the Department, might have been interested to note if the enrollment stayed up to almost 100 and conceivably want me to return to the course if the format remained on the same of basic thought on Western Political Thought and Institutions on a Government I level. I think that my contribution to the graduate instruction in the seminar on selected topics in "The Making and Carrying out of American Foreign Policy" - a title that would be closer than the old "Organization and Control of U.S. Foreign Policy" - produces a useful group from the Armed Services officers at Tufts, not all of whom wish to take it for credit, and some quite good graduate students from other places, including Harvard. Though the enrollment has not held up to more than 20, which is as high as I would ever take to consider, it has stabilized at 12 at a minimum and 15 or 16 as average. Alternatively, I should be prepared to lecture on the substance of my just finished book, still in need of some cutting, on the Process of Foreign Policy and its relation to the problem of priorities, both moral and power oriented. I should not like to have to give the course on "Greek and Shakespearean Tragedies" as they have been reflected in our Western theories of political human nature as an undergraduate conference course, because of the difficulty of finding a reader with sufficient background to help me with an enrollment which would run to well over 40 (the last figure two years ago) if I would let it. If there is someone who really is equipped to help me with the burden of reading these papers I wouldn't object to it, though I should prefer it as a seminar, as I am repeating this course as a graduate seminar this spring at American University. I want some time soon to put it into print with appendices from the best student papers I've had over the years. One of these, by the way, is from Mrs. Crain whose husband is, I hope, fulfilling his promise as a graduate student, after entering Harvard following their year at the S.A.I.S. Institute at Bologna, Italy.

I was told last year by someone who used to be a sort of fixture in the Music Department, either Woody or Schmidt, that there was a new

in the Music Department, either Woody or Schmidt, that there was a new
I was told just here by someone who used to be a sort of fixture

Belgium, Italy,
entering Harvard following their hear at the 2.V.I.2. Institute at
hospice '71. Iube, fulfilling pie bronze as a Graduate student, after
over the years. One of these, by the way, is from Mrs. Grun whose
seminar this spring at American University. I want some time soon to
should prefer it as a seminar, as I am rebating this course as a Graduate
with the burden of reading these papers. I wouldn't object to it, though I
if I could let it. If there is someone who really is educated to help me
relieve which would run to well over 40 (the last figure two years ago)
of finding a reader with sufficient background to help me with an en-
puman nature as an undergraduate conference course, because of the quality
Tragedies, as they have been reflected in our Western theories of political
I should not like to have to give the course on "Greek and Shakespearean
its relation to the problem of priorities," both moral and moral oriented.
I should be prepared to lecture on the substance of my just mentioned
it has appreciated at 15 at a minimum and 12 or 13 as average. Alternatively,
to more than 20, which is as high as I would ever like to consider.
other places, including Harvard. Though the enrollment has not held up
with the class for credit, and some quite good graduate students from
tul Group from the Armed Services officers at Tufts, not all of whom
of Organization and Control of U.S. Foreign Policy," - produces a mas-
out of American Foreign Policy," - a title that would be closer than the
interaction in the seminar on selected topics in "The Making and Carrying
a Government I level." I think that my contribution to the Graduate
some of basic thought on Western Political Thought and Institutions on
classically want me to return to the course if the format remained on the
interested to note it the enrollment stayed up to almost 100 and con-
I think the Summer School, if not the Department, might have been
no objection.
and it may be a growing school for the Department to which I would have
assistance. There is another bright young man who had been a pipeclarist,
was turned over to a very bright young man who had previously been a
the Government I course which I had brought to an enrollment of over 100
of the Department last year. For reasons of the Department's convenience,
the Harvard Summer School since I had discussed it with several numbers
Greeks on the Department as to my availability for a teaching position at
fairly because I had been exhibiting to receive an induction from Tom
I am sending a somewhat related put Iube not too late letter.

Dear Sam:

Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
Harvard University
Department of Government
Professor Samson Huntington

November 14, 1968

NOV 19 1968

rule in the Summer School that no appointments in the Summer School
would run more than two years - a conception that I think reflects on the
character of the Harvard Summer School as an extension of _Harvard_ instruc-
tion and tends to play into the hands of patronage by Departments inter-
ested in this turnover, for bringing to Harvard their friends and former
favorites. At the same time I was informed that this did not apply to
me in view of the past build-up of the Summer School which I think the
recipients of this letter would agree was due in part to my dedication
to the job in the years that I was running it. It would give me some
personal satisfaction to complete a forty-fourth year of consecutive
lecturing at Harvard, by counting the last five summers, apart from one
sabbatical and one research leave. But I am not sure I would want to
stretch it to a forty-fifth, inspite of my excellent health even if
seeing old friends becomes increasingly rare and refreshing.

The Round Table for the Republic has now been agreed to in principle
by both Founders, Donors, some staff, and some others. The "founding
worthies" are trying to find time to launch it formally as the funds
are available, if they will only do so. After that comes off, I will
devote my full time to it but I am certain that it will not be functioning
in a way that will demand my main time next summer. A sketch of the
proposed Round Table is available in the final one of the new appendices
that were included in Howard Fertig's new edition of my old _Pragmatic
Revolt in Politics_, New York 1968, just out. I would prefer a schedule
of instruction of one course or one seminar that could pay for my trip
up to open the house in Belmont and see Widener once again. I hope one
of these proposals will satisfy Tom Crooks and the Department jointly.
I hope to do some staff recruiting in Harvard on a job that Line Gordon
has offered to help me run in staff selection.

This is a frank letter. I will not let my feelings be injured if
the books are already closed on this subject, which may be the easiest
way of getting rid of someone who is threatening to become a habit! Even
old soldiers fade away ('ffyde awye') eventually. After all my Tusculan
seclusion at the Farm with jaunts to Washington may be less cool but it
is becoming familiar and it is always beautiful. I can always help
Nixon and probably I should - more!

Best to all concerned from Louise as well as from me.

WYE:mm

cc: Thomas E. Crooks, Merle Fainsod, Samuel Beer, Henry Kiedinger, Adam Ulam, Louis Hartz, Edward Banfield, Rupert Emerson, Arthus Maas, John Montgomery, C.J. Friedrich, Don Price, J. Wilson.

C. T. Friedrich, Don Price, J. Wilson.
Jules Kars, Edward Bankfield, Robert Maccaron, Virginia Mee, John Mungoirdy.
cc: Thomas E. Crooks, Horace Tinsley, Charles J. Bee, Henry Kirtley, Agnes Uhl, NYE:cm

William Y. Elliott

Wartest tomorrow.

Best to all concerned from Jules as well as from me.

Miles and properly I should - more,
is becoming familiar and it is always pleasant. I can always help
recognition at the turn with Jules to Washington may be less cool put it
old editors like away (like some.) eventually. After all my Tunces
way of betting rid of someone who is threatening to become a jester. Now
the people are already closed on this subject, which may be the least
This is a frank letter. I will not let my feelings be injured it
has offered to help me run in a staff selection.

I hope to do some staff recruiting in Harvard on a job that fine Gordon
of these probalities will assist Tom Crooks and the Department Johrily.
ab to obtain the force in Belmont and see Morgen once again. I hope one
of instruction of one course of one seminar that could help for my trip
Rejoice in Felicity, New York 1968, just out. I would brать a schedule
that were included in Howard Kirtley's new edition of my old Brantmatic
broader Round Table is available in the future one of the new editions
in a way that will demand my extra time next summer. A sketch of the
devotee my full time to it put I am certain that it will not be functioning
are available. If they will only do so. After that come off. I will
marchers" are trying to find time to launch it tomorrow as the funds
py post hollars, Donora, some staff, and some others. The "tounging
The Round Table for the Republican news paper was agreed to in principle
seeing old friends becomes increasingly rare and retreating.

stretched it to a fourth-littl' insipid of my excellent pitch even it
appetisal and one research leaves. But I am not sure I would want to
lecturing at Harvard, by counting the last five summers, short from one
bereauil satisfaction to complete a fourth-littl' hear of consecutive
to the job in the ears that I was running it. It would give me some
recipients of the five letters would agree was due in part to my dedication
me in item of the best paid-but effective Summer School which I think the
favorites. At the same time I was informed that she did not apply to
ested in five turnover, for prating to Harvard their friends and former
ators and corps to bring into the hands of betronege by Department inter-
character of the Harvard Summer School as an extension of Harvard instruc-
ment run more than two ears - a conception that I think reflects on the
rule in the Summer School that no appointments in the Summer School

HARVARD SUMMER SCHOOL

626 HOLYOKE CENTER

To all participants and guests of
the Elliott Conference:

Professor and Mrs. William Yandell
Elliott cordially invite you to
their home at 660 Concord Avenue,
Belmont, following Mr. Bundy's
lecture at Sanders Theatre, on
Monday evening, July 22.

A bus will be ready for the conven-
ience of those who wish to come, at
the main entrance of Sanders
Theatre at the conclusion of
Mr. Bundy's lecture.

The bus will return at midnight to
Harvard Square.