Best Defense

Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

Vannevar Bush dissed Very Bad

I had forgotten that Stephen Peter Rosen, in 'Winning the Next War,' disses the hell out of the revered Vannevar Bush, civilian defense scientist and founder of Raytheon.

Buckrogersserial
Buckrogersserial

I had forgotten that Stephen Peter Rosen, in Winning the Next War, disses the hell out of the revered Vannevar Bush, civilian defense scientist and founder of Raytheon.

I had forgotten that Stephen Peter Rosen, in Winning the Next War, disses the hell out of the revered Vannevar Bush, civilian defense scientist and founder of Raytheon.

Contrary to Bush’s rep as a genius in seeing the way forward after WWII, Rosen portrays Bush as someone who in 1949 published a book that stated, among other things, that:

— ICBMs were an unscientific pipe dream, promulgated by “some prominent military men, exhilarated perhaps by a short immersion in matters scientific”

— Likewise, said that missiles so fast that they could launch satellites was a pipe dream

— Atomic bombs wouldn’t transform warfare because they were too expensive to build and so would remain scarce

— Nuclear warheads small enough to be fired by artillery pieces were “Buck Rogers” fantasies

— Jet engines used too much fuel to be worthwhile for using on long-range bombers

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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