[1479] in peace2
Interesting, Mit and war
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Cameron Bass)
Thu Feb 21 17:15:32 2002
Message-Id: <5.0.2.1.2.20020221171358.0178be30@hesiod>
Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 17:15:23 -0500
To: peace-list@mit.edu
From: Cameron Bass <cbass@MIT.EDU>
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Hmm...just in case you wanted some numbers showing how dependent our school
is on war....
lemme know if anyone wants to meet to discuss this.
Cameron
MIT: Still Collaborating With The Pentagon?
by Bob Feldman
MIT was the 10th-largest recipient of U.S. Air Force contracts during the
1999 fiscal year. And, coincidentally, between 1993 and 1997, MIT Professor
Sheila Widnall was the Clinton Administration's Secretary of the Air Force.
In addition, an MIT Corporation Chairman of the Board, Paul Gray, has sat
on the board of directors of Boeing in recent years.
With $345 million worth of U.S. Air Force contracts, MIT presently receives
a larger amount of Air Force contracts than does IBM or General Dynamics.
And between 1996 and 1999 the value of MIT's contracts from all branches of
the Pentagon increased from $319 million to $357 million. (By comparison,
in 1967 the value of MIT's Department of Defense contracts was only about
$95 million). The 40th-largest recipient of all Pentagon contracts in 1996,
by 1999 MIT was the 34th-largest recipient of all Pentagon contracts.
The 28th-largest recipient of U.S. Navy contracts, Charles Stark Draper Lab
Inc. is apparently still institutionally-affiliated to MIT, according to
the web-site which MIT shares with Draper. Draper Lab received $147 million
worth of U.S. Navy contracts in 1999. The overall value of Draper's
contracts from all branches of the Pentagon was $166 million in 1999,
making it the 82nd-largest recipient of all Pentagon contracts.
If MIT and the MIT-affiliated Draper Lab are considered as one entity, then
MIT/Draper Lab would rank 23rd on the current list of largest recipients of
U.S. Defense Department contracts.
As the 10th-largest recipient of U.S. Air Force contracts, can we assume
that MIT is helping the U.S. Air Force prepare for 21st-century space warfare?
Here's what MIT Professor Sheila Widnall said on May 29, 1997 in a speech
at The National Security Forum at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, when she
was Air Force Secretary:
"[Air Force Chief of Staff] Gen. [Ronald R.] Fogelman and I initiated a
redesign of the Air Force, or at least outlined its direction into the 21st
century. This is laid out in our vision document, Global Engagement, and it
is indeed an exciting vision. It's full of vectors for change, with
implications for everything we do. But I'm sure as future Air Force members
look back, they will focus on a single sentence that reflects the consensus
we reached about the integration of air and space capabilities. `We are now
transitioning from an air force into an air and space force on an
evolutionary path to a space and air force.'
"We are traveling toward the day when our Air Force will become one
enormous network of sensors, command centers and shooters. In fact, we are
already well on our way there. For example, we have already demonstrated
the capability to get a direct downlink from our intelligence satellites on
orbit, to the cockpit of one of our fighters with real-time data on the
threats that a pilot will face in the target area.
"Or you can feed photos from our photo-reconnaissance aircraft into the
cockpit of a fighter enroute to the target area, so the pilot can have the
latest update on target positions after he or she gets airborne. That's all
incredible, miraculous, but very shortly, it will be routine.
"Impressive though they are, these giant steps represent only a precursor
to the progress that I expect the Air Force to make over the decades that
lie ahead of us. Rapidly, inexorably, we are maturing into a space and air
force. It's inevitable. That's where the technological opportunities lead
us, that's where we have to go to execute our responsibilities in the years
ahead.
"Already we are nearing the ability to find, fix, track and target from
space anything of consequence on the face of the earth. Beyond that, we are
working toward the ability to perform those functions in near real-time. We
are well along that path. When we get there, the face of warfare will be
forever changed. That capability will move us to a new era of warfare, with
consequences that we can hardly even project today...
"Right now the Air Force is charged with supporting [General Howell M.
Estes III, commander in chief, United States Space Command] CINCSPACE in
his mission of force application and space control...
"...Already we are reaping the benefits of initiatives like the Space
Warfare Center out in [Falcon Air Force Base,] Colorado, and of including
our space experts in the Weapons School at Nellis [Air Force Base, Nev.].
"I have visited the Space Warfare Center, and I have seen the miracles they
are working at the tactical and technical levels..."
In December 1998, former Air Force Secretary Widnall was named an
"Institute Professor" by the MIT Administration; and she is "one of the
leaders in the creation of the new ROTC program" at MIT, according to a
February 1999 MIT press release. An MIT professor since 1964, Widnall sat
on the Carnegie Corporation of New York's board of trustees between 1984
and 1993; and she was that foundation's Vice-Chair of the Board between
1990 and 1993.
Presently, Widnall sits on the board of trustees of the Alfred F. Sloan
Foundation, which is one of the foundations that funds the PBS-distributed
To The Contrary show (which features a panel of rotating women political
analysts, including a former co-host/producer of FAIR's CounterSpin radio
show). Former Air Force Secretary Widnall also has been a member of the
Corporation of Draper Labs since 1988 and a member of MIT's Lincoln
Laboratory Advisory Committee since 1991.
In May 1995, the MIT News reported that MIT Lincoln Laboratory, "a research
and development center operated by the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology for the Department of Defense," opened its new South Laboratory
Building on Hanscom Air Force Base in Lexington, Massachusetts; and that
Lincoln Laboratory "has been a key center of advanced electornic and
military technology since it was founded at the request of the U.S. Air
Force in 1951."
According to MIT News, "the experience and expertise of the Laboratory are
widely utilized by the Department of Defense in the areas of surveillance,
identification and communications;" and "the Laboratory has been at the
center of advances ranging from material and semiconductor device
fabricators to missile defense, air defense, military satellite
communications, and radar that can detect tanks or other targets hidden
under foliage."
Approximately 1,000 people are employed at the Lexington laboratory where
most of MIT's research work for the U.S. Air Force is being done.
The director of MIT's Space Grant Program between 1990 and 1993, MIT
Professor Daniel Hastings, began serving as the U.S. Air Force's chief
scientist shortly before former Air Force Secretary Widnall returned to
MIT's campus in the Fall of 1997. According to a May 8, 1997 MIT press
release, "Professor Hastings noted that the Air Force, the most technically
intense branch of service, is `redefining itself' from an air and space
force into a space and air force.' I will help them understand the nature
of this transition,' he said.""
In his 1985 autobiography, The Education of A College President, MIT's
president and/or MIT Corporation Chairman between 1949 and 1971, James
Killian, recalled the origins of MIT's Lincoln Laboratory:
"MIT's success in war research had brought it great prestige in the
corridors of the Pentagon and in the staff of the National Security
Council. More important, MIT possessed a large reservoir of people
experienced in thinking creatively about national security and in
identifying deficiencies in our defenses for which these scientists saw
remedies. This group constituted a kind of research establishment...
"The group was repeatedly called on for help in the early days of my
presidency...This led to the invention by ingenious MIT academics of the
`summer study' (some called it `group think'), an arrangement that made it
possible for the Institute to sponsor ad hoc studies of great value to the
Department of Defense...
"The name `summer study' evolved as a result of the projects being
undertaken mainly in the summer, when academic personnel were more readily
available...The Cambridge academic community and the federal government
provided the initiative for a number of these projects.
"Out of one of these studies came the initiation of the Lincoln Laboartory..."
Writing in the 1980s, the now-deceased former MIT President/Chairman (who
also sat on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting board of directors
between 1968 and 1975) characterized the kind of research that has been
done at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory in the following way:
"Thirty-four years after the decisions were reached to undertake the
Lincoln Laboratory, it stands as a highly productive research center
managed by MIT but located away from the campus. It thus is free to
undertake classified research which would be unacceptable to the Institute
were the laboratory located on campus."
A book published by South End Press in the 1980s, Universities In The
Business of Repression by Jonathan Feldman, characterized Lincoln
Laboratory as "the central institution linking MIT to the military;" and
noted that Lincoln Laboratory was "responsible for projects researching
strategic offense and defense, military statellite communications,
high-energy laser technology and advanced electronics. The same book also
indicated that MIT's Pentagon contracts increased by 47 percent between
1982 and 1986, during the Reagan Era.
The MIT Administration also, historically, helped the Pentagon develop its
weapons of mass destruction by its involvement with the Institute for
Defense Analyses [IDA]. As Village Voice reporter James Ridgeway noted in
his 1968 book The Closed Corporation, "James R. Killian, Jr., chairman of
the board of MIT put together IDA."
On its website at www.ida.org , IDA noted that it "traces its roots to
1947, when Secretary of Defense Forrestal established the Weapons Systems
Evaluation Group [WSEG] to provide technical analyses of weapons systems
and programs;" and "in the mid-1950s, the Secretary of Defense and the
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff asked the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology to form a civilian, nonprofit research institute." IDA also
reports that it recently "established the Joint Advanced Warfighting
Program to develop new operational concepts." With "a research staff of
approximately 24 people, including several active duty officers
representing the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Marine Corps,"
that is "augmented by adjunct and consultants when necessary," IDA's Joint
Advance Warfighting Program "serves as a catalyst for develping
breakthrough improvements in military capabilities."
In his autobiography, Killian (who was nicknamed "Mr. MIT" during his life)
also recalled the role MIT played in the creation of the Pentagon's IDA
weapons research think-tank:
"The Department of Defense had established an agency known as the Weapons
Systems Evaluation Group [WSEG] to undertake studies and analyses for the
Secretary of Defense and for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
"In 1955 I received a letter from then-Secretary of Defense, Charles E.
Wilson, proposing that MIT undertake the formation of a nonprofit
corporation that would have as its members a group of universities whose
purpose would be to support with their expertise the analyses of WSEG...
"In his letter the secretary requested that MIT `as a public service'
proceed with arrangements for the support of the Weapons Systems Evaluation
Group. `The need for strengthening the WSEG,' he said, `has been acute for
many months.'
"I reported back to Secretary Wilson that MIT would undertake this
responsibility and that we would proceed at once to invite a group of
universities to form a consortium to operate the nonprofit corporation...
"We at MIT proceeded at once to invite four institutions to join us: the
California Institute of Technology, Case Institute of Technology, Stanford,
and Tulane. Later seven other universities joined the original group. While
considering the proposal to form a nonprofit corporation to undertake
responsibility for WSEG, I consulted a number of scientists and of course
the administrative officers of MIT. In the pre-IDA days, Professor Philip
Morse of MIT had served as WSEG's director of research. Among those with
whom I talked was Harvard Professor of Chemistry E. Bright Wilson, who also
had for a period been a member of the WSEG group. He described the urgent
need to add scientists to the group, and he strongly supported the proposed
organization that we were considering. Another person who had already
accepted appointment to the staff of WSEG was Eugene Skolnikoff...He
continued with the WSEG group after the new corporation was formed and
later became a professor of political science at MIT and then director of
the Center for International Studies.
"Among the MIT administrators who played a major role in the formation of
IDA were Albert G. Hill, James McCormack, Jr., and Edward L. Cochrane. Both
Professor HIll and General McCormack became officers of IDA and made major
contributions in helping it discharge its responsibilities.
"At the beginning the board of trustees included a representative from each
of the participating universities and in addition two public trustees,
William A. M. Burden and Laurance Rockefeller. Later Burden was to become
the chairman of the board, and in his autobiography, Peggy and I, he was to
write that IDA `became one of the top priorities of my life, and it came
about through my friendship with Dr. James R. Killian, the President of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.'...
"IDA continues to discharge its mission in accord with the original plans
that led to its formation."
A person affiliated with MIT still sits on the IDA board of trustees in the
21st-century. The IDA web site indicates that MIT Professor Emeritus of
Aeronautics & Astronautics Jack Kerrebrock is presently a member of the IDA
board of trustees.
Ironically, the person who played a leading role in institutionalizing
MIT's collaborative relationship to the Pentagon during the Cold War era
had, by working as MIT President Karl Compton's Executive Assistant,
avoided the World War II draft with a 3B "occupational deferment." Killian
received his deferment from his local draft board after MIT President
Compton wrote, in a June 8, 1942 letter to Killian's draft board, the
following:
"Were he to be called to military duty, I and various of my other
administrative colleagues, such as deans and heads of departments, who are
also devoting substantial time to war projects, would have to reduce their
contributions to the war effort to help carry the administrative
responsibilities now handled by Mr. Killian. It is proper to point out,
that among Mr. Killian's administrative duties at MIT a considerable amount
of his attention is even now devoted to the war in connection with the
administratiion of war contracts for research, or for the training of
personnel...I thope therefore that your Board may feel justified in
classifying Mr. Killian under 3B for occupational deferment."
Killian was not the first MIT President who sought to establish a
collaborative relationship between MIT and a war-making department of the
U.S. government. According to the 1920 book put out by the MIT Alumni
Association's War Records Committee in 1920, Technology's War Record,
"immediately after the severance of diplomatic relations with Germany, to
be exact on February 5, 1917, President [Richard Cockburn] Maclaurin
telegraphed to the War Department, placing our laboratories and staff at
the Nation's disposal for such work as the Institute might be considered
best fitted to perform."
During World War I--which claimed the lives of 120 former MIT
students--some people with links to MIT apparently became involved in
chemical warfare research. According to Technology's War Record:
"It will be noticed that the development of the Chemical Warfare Service
was almost entirely in the hands of Technology men...It is true that the
tremendous plans for gas warfare which were under consideration were never
put in operation, but upon the other hand in all the great attacks launched
by the American Army in the Fall of 1918, gas troops were present with
Stokes mortars, phosphorous bombs, thermite and gases, and the American
artillery although using ammunition manufactured abroad, were firing gas
from the Edgewood Arsenal. There is probably no feature of the entire war
which was so largely a Technology enterprise, and it is one of which
Technology men may well be exceedingly proud..."
In more recent years, MIT's Provost between 1985 and 1990, John Deutch,
held the post of Deputy Secretary of Defense at the same time MIT Professor
Widnall was Secretary of the Air Force, before he was appointed CIA
Director in May 1995 by Clinton.
Like MIT's Lincoln Laboratory's work, the MIT-linked Draper Lab's work is
described somewhat on MIT's web site. Under a section entitled "Tactical
Systems," Draper reports that its "test of an Extended Range Guided
Munition in 1997 represented the first successful launch of an integrated
GRS/micromechanic IMU in a gun-launched system." The MIT web site also
notes that:
"Draper supports major Air Force and Navy fixed-wing and rotary aircraft
through the insertion and integration of state-of-the-art technology into
field systems.
"Draper integrated an embedded GRS/INS system and Mirror Support System for
the A-10 Thunderbolt...
"Draper developed...an advanced...fire control system for the Cobra
helicopter...
"Draper develped an inertial guidance, navigation, and control capability
for a same-air parachute delivery system for the U.S. Army.
Draper continues to provide systems engineering support to many Air Force
and Navy intiatives."
It's possible that increased student and faculty resistance will develop to
the MIT Administration's 21st-century policy of collaborating with the U.S.
Air Force in its preparation for Space Warfare. During the 1960s,
resistance to MIT's complicity with the Pentagon by MIT's anti-war students
and faculty apparently did increase after "MIT SDS put out a detailed
twenty-one page pamphlet showing that the university's involvement with
defense contracts was so extensive it depended upon the government for 79
percent of its annual budget," according to the book SDS by Kirkpatrick
Sale. Yet in the absence of sustained anti-complicity protest on MIT's
campus, the MIT Administration doesn't appear reluctant to have MIT
continue to function as a U.S. Air Force research laboratory in the
21st-century century.
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