Justice for JFK

[LongTomH]

351. The drive for a 'First Strike Capability' has been a theme for the MIC throughout the Cold War

It was actually a driver for the Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars). SDI was supported by many of 'The Usual Suspects' of the Cold War, including Dr. Edward Teller: "Father of the H-bomb" and opponent of JFK's Test Ban Treaty.

There's a backstory to the Strategic Defense story that involves Gen. Daniel O. Graham and an attempt to co-opt the civilian, pro-space movement built up around the work of Dr. Gerard K. O'O'Neill. O'Neill's work on space manufacturing and space settlements inspired the founders of The L5 Society as well as the Space Studies Institute at Princeton. I was a member of the L5 Society from the late 1970s on; I even established a chapter in Tulsa, OK.

Back to the other actor in this drama: Daniel O. Graham. Rachel Maddow, in her book: Drift: the Unmooring of American Military Power, discussed Danny Graham's role in keeping the Cold War going as a member of the CIA's Team B, formed to analyze the 'Soviet threat.' Team B provided "the intellectual foundation for the idea of "the window of vulnerability" and of the massive arms buildup that began toward the end of the Carter administration and accelerated under President Ronald Reagan."

Gen. Graham's other major career achievement was creation of a framework for what became known as the Strategic Defense Initiative. His proposals included a 'layered defense,' including space-based weapons to shoot down Soviet ICBM's in the 'boost phase.'

Strategic Defense was sold to the public as an alternative to the Mutual Assured Destruction doctrine established by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara during JFK's administration. McNamara's formula for MAD involved the US having 'second strike' capability, meaning a 'survivable' nuclear force that could punish a Soviet 'First Strike.'

That public had been living under the threat of all-out nuclear war for decades. The generation that came of age in the 1950s and 60s frequently questioned whether they would be allowed to grow up or would they perish in a nuclear exchange. So, it's perhaps understandable that many people found Danny Graham and Ronald Reagan's rhetoric on Strategic Defense attractive.

To others, in both the Soviet Union and the US, SDI looked more like an attempt to gain a 'First Strike' capability which would allow destruction of the Soviet Union, or at least its military capability, without suffering US destruction in turn. That was strengthened by the fact that his proposal included massive spending on civilian defense.

My claim that Graham wanted to "co-opt the civilian pro-space movement built up around Gerard K. O'Neill's work?" First, Graham's use of the title High Frontier for both his organization and his book. Gerry O'Neill's book had been titled: The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space. To say Dr. O'Neill was displeased would be an understatement; he asked his supporters to write Gen. Graham in protest. Graham came back with the statement that: "A book title cannot be copyrighted."

The other part of this was the take-over of the L5 Society by supporters of Danny Graham and SDI. Chief among these was Dr. Jerry Pournelle. Pournelle is best known as a science fiction writer; but, he was also a conservative activist and supporter of Ronald Reagan. Pournelle himself has sometimes described his politics as "somewhere to the right of Genghis Khan."

Pournelle and Graham, along with other people associated with L5, helped write Ronald Reagan's 1983 speech establishing the Strategic Defense Initiative. Pournelle, despite his association with L5 and other pro-space organizations maintained that: "We were not trying to boost space, we were trying to win the Cold War."

SDI was, and still is, highly controversial. Pournelle and his crowd wanted to make the L5 Society primarily an advocacy organization for SDI; Danny Graham's vision of High Frontier would supplant Gerry O'Neill's peaceful vision. Not everyone went along, the leadership of the society finally decided not to take a stand. A fairly large number of people left the L5 Society because it wouldn't advocate for SDI, another group left because they wouldn't take a stand opposing it. The weakened organization was merged with Wernher Von Braun's National Space Institute in 1987 to form the National Space Society. Some people remain in NSS who are loyal to O'Neill's vision; but, it's largely a PR arm of the Aerospace Industries Association.

Back to JFK and James Douglass's book: JFK's lunar initiative, the Apollo project, was largely a Cold War response to the perceived lead in space by the Soviet Union; but, Douglass relates: In his last months, JFK wanted to work with the Soviet Union in space exploration. He had sent letters to chairman Nikita Khrushchev proposing US-Soviet cooperation in space. At first, Khrushchev refused; but, late in 1963, he apparently was ready to accept Kennedy's offer.

But, Kennedy was assassinated and Khrushchev was eased out of office in 1964. If JFK had lived, if we had joined with the Soviet Union in peaceful exploration of outer space, perhaps Gerard K. O'Neill's plans would have been the basis for a future international space program.

Where could we be now?