The Pentagon's Counterinsurgency Research Infrastracture
Klare, Michael
The Kennedy Administration's initial optimism regarding the ability of the United States to triumph on an insurgent battlefield was based on the conviction that American scientific and...
...187-90...
...FOOTNOTES: (Abbreviation: AR&DN = Army Research and Development Newsmagazine) 1. C. W. Borklund, The Department of Defense (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1968), p. 70...
...I am anxious to identify any possible shortcomings in our military capability in Southeast Asia, and take whatever steps we can to improve those capabilities as soon as possible.8 Table I R&D SPENDING FOR THE VIETNAM WAR Total Defense R&D Southeast Asia Year: Appropriation: R&D Expenditures: 1964...
...It was discovered, for instance, that standard Army radios lost most of their effective operating range in the humid jungle...
...Through its membership of distinguished men representing industry, government and the academic world, the Defense Science Board serves as the connecting link between the Office of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering and the scientific and technical community of the United States...
...strategy was our failure to allow for the widespread popular support enjoyed by the insurgent National Liberation Front...
...As the research arm of ADTC, the Armament Lab conducts "exploratory and advanced development of non-nuclear air armament, including bombs, fuzes, aircraft guns, rockets, air-delivered mines, dispenser and cluster munitions, [and] pyrotechnic weapons...
...also, 'Army ENSURE Program Expedites Urgent Needs for Vietnam," AR&DN (April, 1968...
...They note that certain remote and inhospitable areas, including the Himalayas and the Arctic, have assumed considerable strategic importance because of their location on the borders of the Soviet Union and Communist China...
...JRATA has a small staff of civilian scientists and military personnel, most of whom are stationed at the headquarters of the U.S...
...both of these men have since assumed high posts in the academic community--Ruina is Vice president for Special Laboratories at MIT, and Sproull is Vice President at Provost of the University of Rochester...
...LWL products include such items as leech repellent, an airborne floating platform for the 105mm howitzer (for use in the Mekong Delta), foliage-penetrating radars, and a railroad'sabotage detector...
...At the time we undertook to help the South Vietnamese, I do not think we fully realized how difficult it would be to fight an enemy so closely interwoven with our allies...
...The Lab's mission, then, is to develop specialized counterinsurgency hardware on a crash basis...
...1 5 LWL's principal responsibility during the eight years of its existence has been the solution of problems encountered by our troops in Southeast Asia...
...Within a year, the four agencies described below had been created to serve as the nucleus of a counterinsurgency research network...
...Puff, the other antipersonnel weapons systems developed at Eglin, are credited with a large share of enemy (and civilian) casualties in Vietnam...
...1 1 Among the products of the collaboration between ADTC, AFATL and the Special Operations Force is "Puff the Magic Dragon," a C-47 transport plane armed with sidefiring Gattling guns...
...When the Institute was founded in 1961, it was given the mission of conducting "basic and applied research to determine how heat, cold, high terrestrial altitude, and work affect the soldier's life processes, his performance, and his health...
...Logan project, see: "Army Supports AINA Alaska Mountain Study," AR&DN (April, 1968...
...troops would be required to preserve the Saigon regime, the orientation of these field units shifted :o U.S...
...152 (April 8, 1966), pp...
...Located in Hanover, N.H., CRREL draws many of its civilian staff members from nearby Dartmouth College...
...24-5...
...3 2 PROVOST projects that require considerable exploratory development are "farmed out" to the various service R&D agencies, particularly the Limited War Lab and the Armament Development and Test Center...
...Abner B. Martin, "Air Force Armament Laboratory - Putting the Weapon in the Weapon System," Defense Industry Bulletin (Oct., 1969), pp...
...The extent of Pentagon spending on Vietnam-oriented R&D is provided by table I, prepared by the Deputy Director of Defense Research and Engineering of Southeast Asia Matters...
...The Lab is frequently asked to modify or redesign essential Army equipment that was found to be unusable in Vietnam's tropical climate...
...Normally, ARPA staff members will perform the initial conceptualization on a project, and then to turn over developmental work to one of the service laboratories or to outside R&D contractors...
...Other agencies located at Eglin include the Air Force Armament Laboratory (AFATL) and the Tactical Air Command's Special Operations Force (formerly the Special Air Welfare Center), both of which work closely with ADTC in the development of weapons and tactics for counterguerrilla warfare...
...Since U.S...
...At the same time, however, JRATA is responsible for the collection of environmental data that will be used in the design of the next "generation" of counterinsurgency weapons...
...Eberhardt Rechtin, worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of California Institute of Technology before coming to ARPA...
...In an assessment of environmental stresses associated with such regions, the Army reports that "the humid tropics, comprising about 20 per cent of the world's land area, present a challenge to the soldier because of the debilitating heat and humidity, tropical diseases and unsanitary conditions to which he has little or no built-in immunity...
...Consequently, as the war progressed, the Pentagon allocated a greater share of its research funds to the development of totally new kinds of equipment that could be used experimentally in Vietnam, but which will not find their way into the Army inventory on a large scale until after the present conflict is terminated...
...One cannot help at this point but recall Maxwell Taylor's 1963 statement that, "Here we have a going laboratory where we see subversive insurgency...
...Route 40 in western Colorado and eastern Utah...
...All three centers maintain an extensive "data base" of information on the environments with which they are associated...
...Government Printing Office, 1963), Part I, pp...
...Since American soldiers cannot be permitted "the luxury of coming in out of the cold, getting away from the heat, coming down off the mountain, or stopping whatever he is doing simply because he is tired and uncomfortable," it is necessary that special attention "be given to the problems associated with the development of a capability to operate and survive in such areas...
...In addition, "such terrain occupies the whole southern frontier of Communist power from Central Europe to Vietnam...
...Furthermore, AGILE has the primary responsibility for the development of materiel for foreign troops and mercenaries under U.S...
...29 The first military research teams to arrive in Vietnam were associated with the Army Concept Team in Vietnam (ACTIV) and the ARPA R&D Field Unit, Vietnam (RIFU-V), both of which were activated in 1962...
...to set up an independent research organization staffed by university scientists, to conduct impartial studies for the Weapons Systems Evaluation Group of the Joint Chiefs of Staff...
...that impair the effectiveness of combat forces...
...In 1955, Charles Wilson asked MIT President James R. Killian Jr...
...military on its own terms, and at the same time a testing ground for future counterguerrilla wars...
...9 While total defense R&D spending increased by only five per cent between 1964 and 1969, Vietnam-oriented research increased by 700 per cent...
...This principle is as true of counterinsurgency research as any other kind of research...
...also, William Beecher, "Way Out Weapons," New York Times Magazine (March 24, 1968...
...For more Information on CDC current activities, see: "CDC Studies Postwar Army," Armed Forces Journal (April 4, 1970...
...George I. Forsythe, the organization's present commander, CDC "provides the detailed blueprints which determine how the Army will fight, how it will be organized, and how it will be equipped in all future time frames and environments...
...Thus equipment that goes to JRATA must be proved out as completely as possible in the United States...
...For background on USARIEM, see: Dr...
...Killian subsequently persuaded the presidents of four other universities to join him in founding the new organization, which was incorporated in 1956 as the Institute for Defense Analyses...
...This budgetary authority extends to the research programs of the separate services...
...To expedite this process, McNamara and his aides created an informal network for nuclear warfare studies...
...Evans, Colorado, in order to "evaluate the effects of 'thin atmosphere' on performance and health...
...3 The current Director of Defense Research and Engineering, John S. Foster, Jr., sits at the pinnacle of the world's largest military research apparatus...
...The Kennedy Administration's initial optimism regarding the ability of the United States to triumph on an insurgent battlefield was based on the conviction that American scientific and technological "knowhow" would overcome every advantage normally accorded the guerrilla...
...According to Lt...
...The U.S...
...A component of the Army Corps of Engineers, CRREL performs basic and applied research designed to improve Pentagon capabilities for operations in perennially snow-and ice-covered regions...
...Equipment which was designed for optimal performance in the temperate climate of Central Europe frequently failed to function in the humid jungles of Southeast Asia...
...command...
...the result, predictably, was the Army scientists produced weapons and strategy for one kind of war, while Navy and Air Force scientists planned for other kinds of wars...
...Army Planning...
...counterinfiltration, measures to prevent the enemy from penetrating "secure" areas of South Vietnam...
...Since the tactics of airmobile warfare had not been fully developed when the first Cavalry Division entered combat in 1965, the Vietnam battlefield became, according to former CDC commander Harry Kinnard, "a laboratory for research as communications, maintenance, fire-control, support, and supply techniques were tried, modified, and tried again, all in the presence of the enemy...
...In effect, the Board provides the Secretary and the DDRE with their own lines of communication to the R&D industry...
...Most discouraging, the much-publicized campaign to "pacify" the countryside succeeded only in inflaming the population further against our client regime in Saigon...
...We still cannot adequately monitor and "track" infiltration across the borders from Cambodia and Laos...
...1956 also witnessed the creation of the Defense Science Board (DSB) in response to a recommendation of the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government (Hoover Commission) that a committee be appointed to "canvass periodically the needs and opportunities presented by new scientific knowledge for radically new weapons systems...
...in such cases, normal procedure calls for the selection of an alternate site in friendly territory that exhibits conditions analogous to those in the restricted area...
...17-19...
...Occasionally, PROVOST requirements are fulfilled by adapting commercial "off-the-shelf" items to military use--such as the application of a Sears Roebuck orchard blower to fill tunnels with CS riot-gas...
...In order to obtain information of this sort, the army has: -- Sponsored environmental surveys undertaken by the University of Colorado in selected valleys, basins, and adjacent mountains along U.S...
...commanders with an understanding of the political tactics of the insurgents and to develop tests that would make it possible "to distinguish friend from foe...
...An estimated 90 per cent of all LWL projects are oriented toward the Vietnam battlefield...
...This project, sponsored jointly with the Canadian Armed Forces and the Arctic Institute of North America, is intended to provide information on physiological stresses and other factors "associated with activities in similar high altitudes in other parts of the world, such as the Himalayan Mountains in India...
...Kinnard, "The Future Begins Today...
...Department of Defense, 1968...
...3 3 In their periodic budget messages to the Congress, the Pentagon's R&D officials have consistently argued that American technology can overcome the organizational and political advantages of a popularly-backed national liberation movement...
...To preserve their favored status within these networks, most researchers adopted the ideology and outlook of the service with which they were associated...
...The COMBAT DEVELOPMENTS COMMRAND (CDC) was established in 1962 in order to fill the "doctrinal gap" that developed after World War II between existing Army capabilities and the kinds of combat situations we would actually have to face in the contemporary world...
...Those ideas which score well in the war games are then tried out under simulated battlefield conditions by the 3,400 men of the 194th Armored Brigade at the CDC Experimentation Command's reservation at Fort Ord, Cal...
...The COLD REGIONS RESEARCH AND ENGINEERING LABORATORY (CRREL) was created in 1961 by combining the Army Construction and Frosts Effects Laboratory and the Snow, Ice and Permafrost Research Establishment...
...both centers maintain extensive collections of books, reports and other documents related to counterguerrilla warfare--with RACIC emphasizing the physical sciences and engineering, and CINFAC the social sciences...
...PROVOST projects, which have highest priority in the R&D field at this time, are defined as "those projects of critical need in the Southeast Asian effort that can be accomplished in 18 months or less...
...Leo Alpert, and Donald C. Hilton, "Army R&D Advancing Combat capability in Environmental Extremes," AR&DN (Jan., 1967), pp...
...1 9 Throughout history, mountainous regions have been a favorite haunt of partisan and guerrilla bands...
...ILC is responsible for the conceptualization of future ground warfare weapons systems, while ISA employs the proposed systems in computer-assisted war games to measure their potential military effectiveness...
...also, Lawrence J. Curran and Heather M. David, "DOD, Services Gear to Manage War," Missiles and Rockets (March 28, 1966), pp...
...established a "tropical environment data base" at Fort Clayton in the Panama Canal Zone, and conducted field studies at sites in Colombia, Puerto Rico, Hawaii and Thailand...
...The current Director, Dr...
...thus Army materiel destined for use in Vietnam is first tested out completely in the Panama Canal Zone...
...From 1962 to 1968, the technical director was Edward K. Kaprelian, an internationally known optics expert...
...Thus, in an effort to accumulate data about climatic conditions in Vietnam, the U.S...
...These surveys provide "fairly detailed observations of many militarily significant aspects of the landscapes of several distinctive regions there, comparable to certain regions in Eurasia...
...The massive firepower of our artillery was often wasted because the jungle canopy provided concealment from even the most sophisticated "target acquisition" devices...
...In a statement prepared for transmittal to the Senate, Sullivan indicated that...
...6 In a 1967 report to the House Committee on Armed Services on "R&D Support to the War in Southeast Asia," DDRE John S. Foster identified four areas in which research work had been concentrated: interdiction, or the air war against enemy supply routes in Laos, Cambodia and North Vietnam...
...Curran and David, "DOD, Services Gear to Manage War," p. 134...
...Prior to the McNamara incumbancy, each of the military services maintained an autonomous research capability on in house laboratories, subsidized think-tanks and favored R&D contractors...
...F. P. dePercin, Dr...
...counterinsurgency doctrine calls for the denial of all natural sanctuaries to enemy forces, the Army has given considerable attention to the problems of combat operations at high altitude...
...The first laboratory was located in a dry evergreen forest 100 miles northeast of Bangkok, and the second field station was to have been situated in a tropical rainforest region...
...In this essay, we will identify the "in house" Defense Department organizations that comprise the Pentagon's counterinsurgency research network, and describe the programs that were established to meet the research needs of U.S...
...tests of new equipment, however, are performed by regular combat units in the field...
...In a 1967 report to the House Armed Services Committee, John S. Foster stated that: We feel a strong obligation to learn as much as possible from our participation in this strange and difficult war...
...House of Representatives, Committee on Armed Services, Hearings on Military Posture, 90th Cong., 1st Ses...
...The Institute's facilities include a variety of "environmental chambers" used for measuring the effects of "a wide variety of simulated environmental extremes" on volunteer subjects...
...3. Borklund, op...
...Much of this "software" research was designed to provide U.S...
...and "Armament Development Center," Armed Forces Journal (April 19, 1969), p. 24...
...Normally, a particular project is selected for PROVOST financing after a formal "requirement" has been transmitted from MACV, and approval has been given by a steering committee consisting of the director or ARPA and representatives from the services at the flag-officer level...
...In conjunction with other NLABS components, ESL has been involved in the development of new jungle boots, tropical uniforms, lightweight tents, and other basic equipment for use in Vietnam...
...The goal is to understand the complex effects of climatic stresses on the human body, the body's defenses, and the techniques, equipment, and procedures best calculated to make the soldier operationally effective to an optimal degree...
...In this sense, Vietnam has always been thought of as a "laboratory" for the testing of new conventional war technologies...
...In addition, elaborate studies of "off-theroad mobility" in rice paddies and canal complexes, involving experimental "marginal terrain vehicles," have been undertaken in the United States, Panama and Thailand...
...2 4 The EARTH SCIENCES LABORATORY (ESL) of the U.S...
...3 4 America's brand-new technology, according to Foster's assistant for Southeast Asian Matters, "has had a very Drawing by Mingo / MARCHA (Montevideo) rip- 16 - significant, if not decisive, effect on the outcome" of "several discrete battles of this war...
...1 4 The LIMITED WAR LABORATORY (LWL) was established in 1962 to provide "a centralized research and development activity with a quick-reaction capability for meeting Army operational requirements relating to limited war...
...also, "CDC Systems Analysis Institute Evaluating Army of 1990s Concepts," AR&DN (April, 1968...
...The U.S...
...Aircraft systems, subr systems, allied equipment, guns, bombs, rockets, targets and drones...
...From 1961 to 1963 the Director was Jack P. Ruina, and from 1963 to 1965, Robert L. Sproull...
...Since none of the services attached much importance to low-intensity warfare in underdeveloped areas, few scientists or strategists concerned themselves with the problem of such warfare until the late 1950's...
...Finally, in order to assure some measure of coordination among these test programs, the Pentagon in 1964 consolidated all Viet.am R&D units into the Joint Research and Test Activity (JRATA).3O The creation and subsequent expansion of JRATA suggests the extent to which Vietnam has become both a major challenge to the U.S...
...CDC's principal achievement to date has been the conceptualization and preliminary organization of the air cavalry division...
...William C. Robinson, "Natick Earth Sciences Laboratory Reports Southeast Asia Environmental Research," AR&DN (March, 1969...
...ARMY INSTITUTE OF ENVIRONMENTAL MEDICINE (USARIEM) is concerned with the effects of extreme environmental conditions on the combat effectiveness of American soldiers...
...This effort, known as Project TREND (Tropical Environment Data), was designed "to collect quantitative data on natural factors affecting the soldier, materiel and operations in two types of tropical forest environment...
...Forsythe," DATA on Defense and Civil Systems (Dec., 1969), pp...
...The Mr...
...Since most of the day-to-day work of counterinsurgency is performed by the foot soldier, LWL activities are geared to the problems of infantryman and his basic combat vehicle, the helicopter...
...forces in Southeast Asia In order to weld the R&D community into a reliable instrument of national defense policy, it was first necessary to centralize research management functions in the Office of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering (ODDRE) in much the same way that overall defense management functions were centralized in the Office of the Secretary of Defense...
...and, "Limited War Laboratory," DMS Market Intelligence Report, Fiscal 1970 (Greenwich, Conn.: DMS, Inc., 1969...
...12- 12 - CDC component agencies include the Institute of Land Combat (ILC) in Alexandria, Va., and the Institute of Systems Analysis (ISA) at Fort Belvoir, Va...
...and, "Engineers Regain Control, Restore Name of CRREL," AR&DN (June-July, 1969), pp...
...Though we have never fought one quite like it, this conflict may be typical of future struggles in which we might, sad to say, become involved...
...We frequently expend massive amounts of ordnance to kill a small target because we cannot find it accurately...
...House of Representatives, Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee, Department of Defense Appropriations for 1964...
...Such measures go far to even the manpower odds which historically have favored the insurgent...
...According to an Army Report "The TREND plan calls for simultaneous acquisition of data in various earth science disciplines at different points, vertically and horizontally, and in various times frames (diurnally, monthly, seasonally, and annually) in an outdoor laboratory carefully selected as representative of the particular environment studied...
...Research aimed at improving communications and surveillance in the jungle is also underway...
...Army, Natick, (Mass...
...both sites were chosen because they exhibited characteristics similar to those encountered in large parts of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam as well as Thailand...
...As one JRATA official put it, "We don't test out here, we use...
...LWL Broadens R&D Scope with Revised Mission," AR&DN (Jan., 1970...
...The Pentagon is particularly interested in factors which affect military operations at the altitudes common in the Himalayas (which form the Western border of China...
...22 -- Conducted military maneuvers above the 11,500foot level of Mr...
...A responsibility of the Office of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering, PROVOST is run by John S. Foster's Deputy for Southeast Asian Matters, Leonard Sullivan, Jr...
...15-19...
...and, by the same author, "Research Institute of Environmental Medicine Aims at Protection of Soldier for Maximum Effectiveness," AR&DN (Jan., 1967), pp...
...and pacification and nation building, the efforts extended to counteract the political effectiveness of the National Liberation Front in the countryside, and to maintain the stability of the "indigenous government" in Saigon...
...When the first Sputnik made its unexpected appearance in the spring of 1957, Congress was no longer willing to tolerate the disunity which prevailed in the nation's military R&D community...
...As part of this effort, CDC personnel are currently studying new battlefield vehicles (including heavy-lift helicopters and air-cushion patrol craft), advanced battlefield surveillance systems, and computerized tactical data systems...
...In order to bypass the service-oriented R&D networks, McNamara's predecessors in the Office of the Secretary of Defense took a number of steps toward the establishment of an independent R&D apparatus under ODDRE jurisdiction...
...Thus in testimony to the Armed Services Committee, Director of Defense Research and Engineering John S. Foster claimed that in a limited war environment, Technology can make difficult tasks easier...
...Hence our efforts contribute not only to our combat capabilities in Southeast Asia, but to the combat potential of our future tactical forces, which have for many years received lesser priority than our strategic forces...
...7,635,000,000 $100,000,000 1965...
...we still have many problems without adequate solutions--solutions that will be needed as long as we are in Vietnam...
...For information on the Mr...
...Kaprelian was succeeded in January 1969 by Dr...
...The DSB consists of 28 civilian scientists who "advise the Secretary of Defense, through the Director of Defense Research and Engineering, on scientific and technical matters of interest to the Department of Defense...
...Similar areas in the American Southwest are now being used to test new clothing, equipment and food in an effort to "develop an effective desert fighting man...
...Often however, the Pentagon will be denied access to regions of strategic interest...
...Established in 1958 to coordinate Pentagon-sponsored research on ballistic missile warfare the nuclear test detection, ARPA has since been given added responsibility for research in the areas of counterinsurgency, computer technology and the social sciences...
...David E. Bass, "Army Environmental Research Broadens Combat Capability," AR&DN (Jan., 1967), pp...
...During the current "lull" for instance...
...Laboratories (NLABS) is responsible for the collection, analysis and dissemination of environmental data on areas of interest to military planners...
...Laboratories, USARIEM employs many scientists from universities in the area, and co-sponsors research at the Harvard Medical School, Boston City Hospital, Boston University Medical School, and Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Rhode Island...
...Not unsurprisingly, the greatest weakness in U.S...
...14...
...Air Force ARMAMENT DEVELOPMENT AND TEST CENTER (ADTC) is responsible for developing, testing and acquiring non-nuclear munitions for limited warfare and counterinsurgency...
...cit., p. 83...
...It can provide greater flexibility in the exercise of military power by firepower or mobility...
...2 3 ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LABORATORIES Research on environmental extremes is the responsibility of a network of relatively unknown Army agencies, most of which were established during the Kennedy Administration...
...S9589-91...
...Solutions that should be incorporated into our post-war General Purpose [i.e., non-nuclear] forces as soon as we can perfect them--to reduce the chances of our military being belittled again...
...1,6.- 17 - 25...
...But then we found that Vietnam is a new war...
...From Sullivan's statement cited in note 32...
...4. Leonard Sullivan, Jr., "Research and Development for Vietnam," Science and Technology (Oct., 1968), p. 28...
...It is war without front lines, a war where you can seldom distinguish friend from foe--except by the actions of the foe...
...Russell D. Shelton, a physicist who came to LWL from the Space Laboratory of NASA...
...The operative powers granted the DDRE under the 1958 act include control over all R&D disbursements...
...We still frequently cannot "find the enemy" in the jungles before he finds us...
...Logan project described above...
...7 At first, most of the Vietnam R&D program was devoted to "quick-fix" programs designed to adapt basic Armea Forces materiel to the environmental conditions encountered in Southeast Asia...
...6,997,000,000 200,000,000 1966...
...Paul A. Blackford, "Project TREND - Environmental Research in Thailand," AR&DN (March, 1967), pp...
...ARPA's elite status within the Pentagon R&D community has ennabled it to attract many outstanding scientists from universities and industry...
...8,000,000,000* 800,000,000* *Estimate Source: Congressional Record p. S9592...
...It can help to provide the discrimination or selectivity to permit us to attack and neutralize the identified enemy while leaving the innocent and uncommitted untouched...
...thus the DDRE is empowered "to approve, modify, or disapprove programs and projects of the military departments and of the other Defense agencies to eliminate unpromising or unnecessarily duplicative programs...
...A striking example of this practice is the Army's recent upsurge of interest in mountain environment studies...
...Naturally, this knowledge is used to predict equipment performance in similar regions elsewhere in the world...
...2 6 Although.the Army did not specify what uses it had in mind for this data, previous studies of this sort have been used to improve jungle communications, to develop foliage-penetrating radars, and to perfect chemical defoliation systems...
...Most of this money is channeled through Project PROVOST (Priority Research and Development Objectives for Vietnam Operations Support), a high-level Pentagon management operation designed to speed delivery of new items to the battlefield...
...needs...
...36 What Sullivan is incapable of understanding, however, is that when an entire population is mobilized for defense of their homeland, no combination of "brand new technology" (short of nuclear annihilation) will bring stability to the countryside...
...After a specific product is tested out at one of TECOM's 12 proving grounds, it is sent to the Command's three "environmental test centers"--the Tropic Test Center at Fort Clayton in the Panama Canal Zone, the Arctic Test Center at Fort Greely, Alaska, and the Yuma (Ariz...
...7. "R&D Support of the War in Southeast Asia," memorandum inserted in U.S...
...J. Elmore Swenson (USA), "The Army Concept Team in Vietnam (ACTIV)," U.S...
...Logan in he Yukon Territory of Canada...
...In essence, PROVOST is "an administrative procedure through which highpriority activities are financed and pushed to early completion...
...nevertheless, many of these devices are being designed with post-Vietnam contingencies in mind...
...For background on ESL, see: "Army Research Office Marks 10th Year," p. 45...
...Nevertheless, Sullivan continued, "we will find no single device that will have the climactic importance that the tank had in World War I or the atom bomb had in World War II...
...4 As the foe in Vietnam secured control of ever larger sections fo the countryside, the Defense Department committed an increasingly larger share of its research and development budget to the study of counterguerrilla warfare...
...To enhance the status of ODDRE, the Director of Defense Research and Engineering (DDRE) was made the third highest officer in the Pentagon(preceded in tank only by the Secretary of Defense and his Deputy), and vested *Copyright 1971 by Michael T. Klare...
...our casualties (deaths) are very high from enemy mines and boobytraps, and from rockets and mortars (exact figures are classified...
...3 5 Indeed, there is ample evidence that even within the Pentagon there are those who are skeptical of the potential of technology--by itself--to guarantee an American victory in struggles against a fully-developed "people's army" of the kind we face in Vietnam...
...See also the statement of Leonard Sullivan, Jr., and supplementary documentation, inserted into the Congressional Record (Aug., 11, 1969), pp...
...Army's current global commitments, entailing rapid movement of forces, the soldier may find himself fighting in the humid troptics today, and the desert or cold regions tomorrow...
...In Vietnam we have learned that men and equipment that can be relied upon to perfrom respectably in temperate zones can easily be defeated by harsh and unfamiliar environments...
...9. For background on ARPA, see: "Brown Oversees All Military RDT&E," Missiles and Rockets (March 25, 1963), pp...
...from its reports, the Army must determine "if an fact, suitable for field use...
...24-5...
...2. Office of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering, Organization and Purpose of the Defense Science Board (Washington, D.C.: U.S...
...RESEARCH PRIORITIES Despite McNamara's early emphasis on counterinsurgency research, the United States was inadequately prepared for the challenge we faced in Vietnam...
...2 0 Fundamental research on these environmental systems usually involves the collection of great quantities of data in many earth science disciplines (including meteorology, geology, botany, soils and hydrology) in an outdoor setting that has been carefully selected as representative of the particular environment being studied...
...Furthermore, many of the underdeveloped nations of Africa, Asia and Latin America encompass vast jungle and desert areas...
...Located at the Army's Natick (Mass...
...The arguments for research on environmental extremes are drawn from: Dr...
...8,002,000,000 780,000,000 1969...
...August 11, 1969),- 11 THE COUNTERINSURGENCY LABORATORIES When Robert S. McNamara assumed office as Secretary of Defense, there was not a single agency within the Department of Defense that was responsible for research on counterinsurgency...
...For background on LWL, see: Harvey Ardman, "How Vietnam Tested U.S...
...Harvey W. O. Kinnard (USA), "The Future Begins Today," Ordnance (Sept.Oct., 1968...
...8. Ibid., p. 1425...
...being applied in all its forms...
...In order to assure American technological superiority in defense-related fields, new authority for the centralization of research management functions was granted in the Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1958...
...Consequently, in 1961 he set up the Remote Area Conflict Office within ARPA to administer an ongoing counterinsurgency research program with the code-name Project AGILE...
...7 ARPA is commanded by a civilian Director, who also holds the rank of Deputy Director of Defense Research and Engineering...
...Initially, these units were primarily involved in the development of materiel for the South Vietnamese armed forces, and only incidently with the equipment requirements of our own troops...
...If you give me something as a substitute for my rifle," the same official insisted, "it had better be as good as my rifle...
...For background on ADTC, see: Gen...
...For background on CRREL, see: "Army Research Office Marks 10th Year," AR&DN (April, 1968), p. 47...
...dePercin, et...
...Army Aviation Digest (July, 1968...
...All products developed with PROVOST funds are tailored for use in Vietnam...
...search and destroy, the large unit actions undertaken by our ground forces to destroy the enemy's "main force units" and their "base areas" (i.e., the villages loyal to the guerrillas...
...thus by the early 1960's the Pentagon found it necessary to establish test centers in an area where it would be possible to try out new weapons and tactics against live targets...
...1 0 A component of the Air Force Systems Command, ADTC is based at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., the largest air base in the United States...
...Under Defense Department portocol, ARPA is authorized to work on advanced-technology projects not clearly within the purview of a specific military department, on basic research in fields of materials science and human behavior, and on short-term or "quick-fix" projects directly related to the war effort in Southeast Asia...
...In recent years, ARPA's budget has ranged between $225 and $250 million anually...
...Sullivan, "research and Development for Vietnam," p. 30...
...AGILE funds have also been used to support two counterinsurgency information centers, the Remote Area Conflict Information Center (RACIC) of the Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio, and the Cultural Information Analysis Center (CINFAC) of the Center for Research in Social Systems in Washington, D.C...
...2 5- 14 - In order to obtain a more precise knowledge of the jungle environment, ESL in 1966 established a series of field laboratories in Thailand...
...Will F. Thompson, "Military Significance of Mountain Environment Studies," AR&DN (May, 1967), pp...
...Army Test and Evaluation Command," Defense Industry Bulletin (Sept., 1969), pp...
...JRATA's primary responsibility, of course, is to check out equipment that is urgently i L- 15 - needed to overcome problems encountered in this war...
...as a result, the Pentagon spent several million dollars in a crash program to develop new radios that were "optimized" for jungle transmission...
...all are tested and evaluated on [ADTC's] eight test ranges, eight auxiliary airfields, and the large Eglin Gulf Test Range...
...RESEARCH ON ENVIRONMENTAL EXTREMES The counterinsurgency R&D activities described above are augmented by an intensive program of research on "environmental extremes"--i.e., on natural phenomena (temperature, humidity, altitude, etc...
...To improve the soldier's ability to function in such areas, "improved jungle boots, tropical clothing and sleeping systems, and special tropical rations are being developed...
...In a message to Congress, dated August 8, 1969, Sullivan acknowledged that as of that date...
...These organizations are composed of civilian scientists and Army officers who prepare blueprints for the "Army of the Future" on the basis of anticipated developments in weapons technology and the projected world situation...
...For background on the Vietnam research units, see: Luther J. Carter, "Vietnam: Jungle Conflict Poses New R&D Problems," Science, vol...
...Compounding these factors "are the dense evergreen rain forests...
...Although its budget of $30 million per year is small in comparison with other Pentagon R&D programs, AGILE has played a decisive role by "opening up" many of the limited warfare technologies...
...The Lab's work force of 133 civilian scientists and 20 military officers will continue to be stationed at the Aberdeen (Md...
...and, Dr...
...My life is at stake...
...The Kennedy brain trust originally gave equal priority to the development of non-combative programs--such as rural development, institution-building and civicaction--but the failure to each successive pacification scheme has induced the Military Establishment to emphasize technological measures for controlling insurgency...
...6. Alfred Blumstein and Jesse Orlansky, Behavioral, Political and Operational Research Programs on Counterinsurgency Supported by the Department of Defense (Washington, D.C.: Institute for Defense Analyses, 1965...
...When it became obvious that massive members of U.S...
...For background on AFATL, see, in addition to items cited in note 10, Col...
...Evans exercise, a part of the Advanced Research Projects Agency's "High Terrestrial Altitude Research Program," involved some 200 soldiers of the 3rd Special Forces Group...
...We still have no adequate, practical means for deterring either...
...At the same time, the Navy and Air Force established their own "in-country" research teams: the Naval R&D Unit, Vietnam (NRDU-V) and the 'ir Forc...
...1 3 On the basis of its Vietnam experiments, CDC is now planning American strategy for the limited wars of the 1970's, 1980's, and 1990's...
...and, Col...
...2 1 -- Helped maintain the "world's highest research station" at the 17,600-foot level of Mt...
...22-4...
...James Ferguson (USAF), "Technology--The Goal and the Challenge," Defense Industry Bulletin (May, 1969), p. 29...
...and, Lt...
...Although most of these funds have been used for the development of fairly sophisticated items of military "hardware"-such as helicopter gunships and aerial surveillance systems--a significant portion has been devoted to research in the social sciences...
...483-4...
...and, "Arctic Test Center's Mission Traced on 20th Anniversary," AR&DN (Oct., 1969), pp...
...Proving Ground...
...As part of its work for the Army Materiel Command, ESL uses geographic data "in establishing realistic requirements for the design, testing and issue of [Army] equipment...
...1426-34...
...9with the authority to "supervise all research and engineering activities in the Department...
...During Robert S. McNamara's reign as Secretary of Defense, the power and influence of the DDRE were used to mobilize the R&D community for the offensive against armed guerrilla movements in the Third World...
...and, "'World's Highest Research Station' Serving Army Interests," AR&EN (Oct., 1968...
...In January 1970, LWL's mission was broadened to include work on problems faced by U.S...
...In explaining the need for such research, some Pentagon scientists wrote that "With the U.S...
...Among the 150 or so items which followed this route before being sent to Vietnam are: the E-63 Personnel Detector ("people sniffer"), the AN/PRR-9 and AN/PRT-4 jungle radios, and the AC-47 gunship ("Puff the Magic Dragon...
...ground troops in any combat environment, and its name was accordingly changed to Land War Laboratory (still LWL...
...By 1964, however, Vietnam could no longer be considered a secure "laboratory" in which American personnel could test out their ideas with impunity--but a new theater of war in which our indigenous counterinsurgency apparatus, the South Vietnamese Army, was being threatened with extinction...
...This essay will comprise a chapter of the author's forthcoming book Counterinsurgency Planning in the United States, to be published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1972...
...R&D Support of the War in Southeast Asia," p.1426...
...Washington, D.C.: U.S...
...in which target acquisition THE FIFTH ESTATE (9- 13 - movement and communications are problems...
...Military Assistance Command (MACV) in Saigon...
...30-32...
...132-4...
...The ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY (ARPA) is an elite organization of civilian scientists who work directly under the Director of Defense Research and Engineering...
...and from articles cited in notes 2028 below...
...For background on CDC, see: Harvey Ardman, "How Vietnam Tested U.S...
...ARPA (see description below) is authorized to work on advanced defense systems and on crash projects assigned by the DDRE...
...Emphasis added...
...Army Planning," The American Legion Magazine (Feb., 1970), pp...
...Vietnam--we now know--was selected for this purpose in 1962...
...7,553,000,000 370,000,000 1967...
...al., "Army R&D Advancing Combat Capability in Environmental Extremes," p. 22...
...The Yuma Proving Ground tests Army materiel in a desert environment, while the other two centers perform similar activities in tropical and arctic environments...
...Ibid., p. 32...
...Thus the lightweight M-16 rifle, now the Army's standard individual weapon, was originally intended for use by Vietnamese soldiers...
...1 7 As one would assume, the environment of greatest concern to the Pentagon today is the jungle and marsh areas of Southeast Asia...
...It can permit our forces to know where the enemy is and what he is doing by day or night...
...1 As in other areas of defense management, the 1958 Reorganization Act provided McNamara with the necessary authority to establish effective control over the Pentagon's R&D apparatus as a whole...
...Government Printing Office, 1967), pp...
...Ibid., p. 23...
...Jet bombers designed to carry nuclear weapons deep into Soviet territory were unable to block the enemey's primitive supply routes...
...by the end of 1969, the Lab had produced 75 items that were already being used by our soldiers there...
...2 8 R&D IN VIETNAM Research can proceed just so far in the laboratory when it becomes necessary to try out a new concept under "real world" conditions...
...and, "DATA Gets Briefing on CDC form Lt./Gen...
...81-5...
...2 7 The TEST AND EVALUATION COMMAND (TECOM) serves as the Army's principal materiel testing organization...
...In a 1965 report on "Behavioral, Political and Operational Research Programs on Counterinsurgency Supported by the Department of Defense," the Institute for Defense Analyses reported that the Pentagon was spending over $10 million annually on such programs, and that the trend was for greater spending in this area...
...Since World War II, such areas have been used to advantage by insurgent groups in Cuba, Algeria, Cyprus, Jordan, Yemen, Kashmir, Tibet, Vietnam, Thailand and Laos...
...As the first step in his effort to establish an effective counterinsurgency capability within the Armed Forces, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara directed the nation's research and development ("R&D") apparatus to study every aspect of limited warfare and to come up with suggestions for changes in military organization and tactics...
...10-13...
...almost all of these new equipments have operationally utility beyond Southeast Asia and will become part of our post-war standard equipment...
...By directly supervising the activities of the Pentagon's own, "in-house" laboratories, and by controlling the- 10 - assignment of defense research contracts to universities, think-tanks and private industry, the DDRE effectively sets policy for the nation's scientific and technical community...
...3 1 As we have seen, Vietnam-oriented R&D spending now accounts for approximately 10 per cent of the Pentagon's total research budget...
...132-41...
...Ibid., pp...
...Hearings, 88th Cong., 1st Ses., (Washington, D.C.: U.S...
...and "Advanced Research Projects Agency," DMS Market Intelligence Report Fiscal 1970 (Greenwich, Conn.: DMS, Inc., 1969...
...Speaking on behalf of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Taylor indicated that the Pentagon "recognized the importance of the area as a laboratory," and had already sent "teams out there looking at the equipment requirements of this kind of guerrilla warfare...
...The DDRE is at once chief scientific advisor to the Secretary of Defense, and, at the same time, the Pentagon's top research administrator...
...1 8 Desert areas, which comprise approximately 19 per cent of the earth's land surface, occupy strategic territory in North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia...
...Army Completes High Elevation Field Maneuver Appraisal," AR&DN (July-Aug., 1967...
...Proving Ground--to determine if it will perform as specified under extreme environmental conditions...
...1 6 LWL is guided by an Army commanding officer and a civilian technical director...
...For background on TECOM, see: "U.S...
...One of his first concerns, therefore, was to establish a chain of laboratories that would concentrate on the various problems of counterguerrilla warfare...
...This was the ideal setting, in McNamara's view, for a vanguard effort to apply the new techniques of systems analysis and operations research to the problems of low intensity warfare in underdeveloped areas...
...14-16...
...Test Unit, Vietnam (AFTU-V...
...7,954,000,000 680,000,000 1968...
...The Pentagon's chief for Vietnam-oriented research later recalled that: We entered this war fully and beautifully equipped to fight either an all-out nuclear conflict or World War II over again...
...The Lab also conducts mountain environment studies, and participates in the Mt...
...From Sullivan's statement cited in note 32...
...This practice explains the Army's support of seemingly harmless environmental studies in areas far removed from any current battlefield...
...17-19...
...2 The Secretary of Defense acquired his own inhouse research organization in 1958, when Neil H. McElroy created the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) with the new authority granted DDRE in the Defense Reorganization Act...
...5. Ibid., p. 33...
Vol. 4 • January 1971 • No. 9
