Book SummaryThe Pentagon's Brain, by Annie Jacobsen

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of The Pentagon's Brain

ARPA/DARPA evolved from its Cold War beginnings, participating in the Vietnam conflict, to its present-day efforts to combat terrorism.

The organization's establishment in the Cold War era followed by its subsequent involvement in the conflict in Vietnam.

The creation of ARPA was chiefly motivated by the urgency to counter the Soviet Union's significant progress in the realms of space exploration and atomic armaments.

Jacobsen offers an in-depth description of the prevailing climate surrounding national defense during ARPA's establishment in 1958. The Soviet Union's successful atomic bomb test in 1949, along with the launch of Sputnik in 1957, greatly strengthened the determination of the United States to outdo its Cold War rival in terms of scientific and military advancements. Jacobsen reveals how the Gaither Report's vague predictions about a significant increase in Soviet long-range nuclear missile capabilities sparked widespread panic across the United States.

In this setting, the newly appointed Defense Secretary Neil McElroy proposed the creation of ARPA, an agency dedicated to overseeing and accelerating America's most advanced defense research projects. Jacobsen emphasizes that President Eisenhower's frustration with the inter-service rivalries was a crucial factor in the creation of ARPA. The rivalry between the Army, Navy, and Air Force in advancing technological frontiers, particularly in the realm of space exploration, hindered America's unified efforts to keep pace with Soviet progress. ARPA was established with the goal of accelerating the development of critical technologies and overcoming inter-service rivalries, as Jacobsen details, ensuring that the United States would not be caught off guard by unexpected Soviet scientific progress.

Project Agile, an initiative of ARPA, shifted its emphasis to tackle missions that aimed to quell rebel actions in Southeast Asia.

As the conflict in Vietnam escalated, President Kennedy demonstrated a steadfast dedication to his "flexible response" strategy, enabling the United States to engage in localized skirmishes with communist factions worldwide. Jacobsen thoroughly exposes the internal conflicts and divergent beliefs associated with adopting this novel military strategy. Kennedy and his advisors underscored the importance of using traditional military forces and enhancing their understanding of guerrilla warfare tactics to contain the spread of communism, rather than relying on President Eisenhower's strategy which was predicated on the concept that the threat of reciprocal annihilation would prevent conflict.

Jacobsen uncovers how Project Agile, an initiative of ARPA, was integral to Kennedy's approach in combating the rise of communist guerrillas in Vietnam. William Godel, a former intelligence officer in the Marine Corps who later managed international advancements at ARPA, fervently advocated for the use of advanced technology and clandestine activities to influence the perspectives of individuals across Southeast Asia. Jacobsen highlights Godel's deep concentration on unconventional warfare tactics, shaped by his experiences in Vietnam in the 1950s. The establishment of the Combat Development and Test Center in Saigon played a crucial role in assessing and developing a variety of weapons systems, including the AR-15 rifle, as well as a craft tailored for swamp traversal, and a stealth glider. Jacobsen illuminates the moral quandaries and far-reaching consequences associated with the operations of the agency, emphasizing the controversial defoliation campaign involving Agent Orange as part of Project Agile.

The book's coverage extends from the Vietnam War period to the current battle against terrorism.

Legislative amendments resulted in ARPA evolving into DARPA, emphasizing the development of groundbreaking technologies and shifting attention from research on human societal interactions and...

The Pentagon's Brain Summary The entity known as DARPA acted as the driving force behind the advancement of complex military technologies, which included weaponry, computer systems, and the enhancement of human capabilities.

The spectrum of advanced weaponry is broadening, encompassing everything from nuclear weapons to drones and smart bombs.

The scientists at Livermore were motivated by a desire to amplify the destructive capabilities, an ambition that originated with their work on creating the hydrogen bomb.

Jacobsen's historical account of the hydrogen bomb program underscores the unsettling resolve to enhance the power of destruction, primarily propelled by Edward Teller along with his colleagues at Livermore, including Ernest Lawrence. Several Manhattan Project scientists, including Isidor Rabi and Enrico Fermi, voiced deep moral reservations about starting the development of a hydrogen bomb, a device capable of annihilating entire urban areas. However, Teller and Lawrence supported the "superbomb," incorrectly asserting that the Castle Bravo test would showcase its ability to produce a precise yield, thus providing America with a strategic advantage over the Soviet Union.

The Livermore researchers were motivated by a competitive spirit to conceive a weapon of unimaginable power, one that could unleash a colossal blast of 10,000 megatons, dwarfing the accomplishments of their...

The Pentagon's Brain Summary DARPA's participation in contentious social science studies and psychological maneuvers.

Investigations into social sciences throughout the Vietnam War focused on the crucial goal of gaining the support and loyalty of the local population.

Hickey and Donnell's scrutiny of the Strategic Hamlet Program uncovered the Pentagon's hesitance to fully understand and integrate local customs and traditional wisdom.

Jacobsen delivers an in-depth examination of ARPA's foray into social science research during the era associated with the Vietnam War. The agency's attempts to integrate social science perspectives, such as anthropology, to deepen understanding and gain a tactical advantage, as revealed by Jacobsen, faced challenges, did not succeed, and ultimately met with significant resistance. The narrative reached a pivotal point when anthropologists Gerald Hickey and John Donnell scrutinized a controversial strategy that involved relocating Vietnamese villagers to fortified hamlets under the guise of protection.

The investigations by Hickey and Donnell revealed the Strategic Hamlet Program, which the Pentagon had promoted as a means to win over the Vietnamese population's allegiance and ensure their protection, to be a disastrous initiative. Jacobsen describes the...

The Pentagon's Brain Summary After the Vietnam War, the way the public viewed and assessed ARPA/DARPA shifted significantly.

ARPA's evolution into DARPA: Resisting Congressional Attempts to Curtail Agency Programs

The Mansfield Amendment led to more rigorous scrutiny by Congress over the financial distributions to DARPA, ensuring that the initiatives supported were in strict accordance with military needs.

Following the Vietnam War, ARPA underwent a substantial transformation and renewal, as Jacobsen discloses. Public doubt in the intertwined relationship between the military and defense contractors grew, and there was a decline in backing for military actions, which posed significant challenges to the agency's operations. Jacobsen emphasizes the profound impact of the legislative measures taken in 1969 by a senator who was a staunch critic of the Vietnam War, on shaping the research direction of ARPA. The agency was required to dedicate its budget exclusively to initiatives with a clear military application.

The mandate from Congress, as described by Jacobsen, placed ARPA in a challenging situation. The agency's primary objective was to engage in research that had a forward-looking approach, delving into fields where the immediate military use was not evident, even though there was...

The Pentagon's Brain Summary DARPA's unyielding efforts to revolutionize military technology have a profound impact on combat tactics, molding the approaches taken in warfare.

Since the Vietnam War, the military has pioneered a significant transformation in its operational capabilities, moving towards autonomous systems.

The concept underpinning DARPA's Assault Breaker initiative was influenced by Albert Wohlstetter's holistic approach to integrated systems.

Jacobsen highlights a pivotal moment in the advancement of DARPA's technological endeavors when Albert Wohlstetter introduced the concept that laid the foundation for the groundbreaking project named Assault Breaker. Albert Wohlstetter, a renowned strategist associated with the RAND Corporation, argued that integrating advanced weaponry into a cohesive system was essential for the United States to secure "operational dominance" in military engagements.

Jacobsen details Wohlstetter's incorporation of advanced technologies like precision weaponry, autonomous drones, sophisticated computing, and emerging internet technologies to create a system adept at quickly identifying and coordinating the destruction of targets. During the mid-1970s, DARPA initiated the Assault Breaker initiative, which aimed to quickly detect and incapacitate mobile military targets, such as tank divisions, in enemy...