Clandestine Cartography Part 4: The Institutions and Programs Clandestine Cartography Part 4: The Institutions and Programs

Lyndon Johnson, March 15 th, 1967 “I wouldn’t want to be quoted on this, but we’ve spent $35-40 billion dollars on the space program. And if nothing else came out of it except the knowledge we’ve gained from space photography, it would be worth ten times what the whole program has cost. Because, tonight, we know how many missiles the enemy has.”

The Consequences “The years of acrimony” Air Force vs Army (Data acquisition and reduction) Control: Air Force vs CIA Control: NRO vs CIA (ARPA vs. DoD) – McNamara and the PERT charts – Dulles, Cabell, Bissell lost to Bay of Pigs – NRO Directorate of Research (Scoville) – 1963 Directorate of Science and Technology Wheelan – “after a period of –how shall I say it-readjustment of expectation, the Air Force-CIA partnership resumed.” Competition seen as good for the program

The Seventies War in Vietnam changes demands on imagery OMB exerts pressure Landsat success in 1972: NASA/DoD DMA established in 1972 CAC Established Many operational systems New capabilities, move toward real time

The eighties Aging systems retired Liquid to solid rocket fuel increases lift and safety Broad area search no longer required Increased demand for: – Higher resolution – Multiband information – Real time Reagan years emphasis on commercialization

The nineties NRO acknowledged Declassifications DMA, NRO etc. become NIMA NASA/DoD cooperation (?) on Landsat 7 Further improvements in technology Emphasis on long duration, heavy lift, real time Increasing leaks

The research

The Cost Millions of documents and images are probably classified for no good reason at great expense to the government Huge potential of science possible from the base line data Black science: Medea Open data. Spring 2002: “Mr. Bush, clean out the TALENT-KEYHOLE archives.”

The End? Film recovery systems all now declassified Further declassification now unlikely, EO fulfilled Medea directing data collection (?) Competition from abroad Commercial high resolution satellites Imagery as commodity Methods now mainstream