Changing Computing: The Computing Community and DARPA

Herman Goldstine, The Computer From Pascal to von Neumann. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1972.

Nancy Stern, From ENIAC to UNIVAC: An Appraisal of the Eckert-Mauchly Computers. Bedford, Mass.: Digital Press, 1981.

Mina Rees, "The Computing Program of ONR, 1946-1953," Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 4, pp. 102-120, 1982.

For example, see Kenneth Flamm Creating the Computer: Government, Industry, and High Technology. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1988; Anthony DiFilippo From Industry to Arms: The Political Economy of High Technology. New York: Greenwood Press, 1990; Manuel De Landa War in the Age of Intelligent Machines. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1991; Stuart W. Leslie The Cold War and American Science. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993; Ann Markusen and Joel Yudken Dismantling The Cold War Economy. New York: Basic Books, 1992; Jean-Claude Derian, America's Struggle for Leadership in Technology. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1990.

On ENIAC, see Stern From ENIAC to UNIVAC, op. cit.; on policy development for SAGE, see George E. Valley, Jr. "How the SAGE Development Began," Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 7, pp. 196-226, 1985; on SDI, see Donald R. Baucom, The Origins of SCI, 1944-1983, Lawrence, Kan.: University Press of Kansas, 1992.

David K. Allison, "U.S. Navy Research and Development since World War II," Merritt Roe Smith, ed, Military Enterprise and Technological Change. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1985, pp. 289-328.

L. S. Howeth History of Communications-Electronics in the United States Navy. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1963; and Susan J. Douglas, "The Navy Adopts the Radio, 1899-1919," in Smith, Military Enterprise, pp. 117-173, ibid.

Allison, "U.S. Navy Research and Development.," op. cit.

Flamm Creating the Computer, op. cit.; Richard J. Barber Associates, The Advanced Research Projects Agency, 1958-1974. Washington, DC: Barber Associates, 1975; De Landa War in the Age of Intelligent Machines, op. cit. For critics of DARPA, see DeFillipo From Industry to Arms, op. cit. and Markusen and Yudken, Dismantling, op. cit.

A full history of IPTO for the years 1962 to 1986 can be found in Arthur L. Norberg and Judy E. O'Neill with contributions from Kerry J. Freedman, Transforming Computer Technology: Information Processing for the Pentagon, 1962-1986, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.

For an exciting and comprehensive history of the government's response to Sputnik, see Robert A. Divine The Sputnik Challenge: Eisenhower's Response to the Soviet Satellite. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. See also, James R. Killian, Jr. Sputnik, Scientists, and Eisenhower. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1977 and Herbert F. York, Making Weapons, Talking Peace: A Physicist's Odyssey from Hiroshima to Geneva. New York: Basic Books, 1987.

This role is implied in a number of public statements from 1958 on, about the role of the agency in weapons development; see, for example, the answers to Congressional questions by Secretary of Defense McElroy in Hearings before the House Subcommittee on Appropriations, Department of Defense Appropriations for Fiscal Year 1958, 85th Cong., 1st Sess., Nov. 20, 21, 1957, p. 21. Explicit statements about DARPA's role in preventing technological surprise appear after 1969; see the "Statement by Dr. Eberhardt Rechtin" in Hearings before the Senate Subcommittee on Appropriations, Department of Defense Appropriations for Fiscal Year 1970, 91st Cong., 1st Sess., June 10, 12-13, 16, Sept. 15-17, 25, 1969, p. 425. "To ensure DoD against technological surprise, ARPA must search out new fields and ideas, accelerate R&D where surprise could be critical, and bring developments to a stage at which sound decisions can be made on their further exploitation."

Statements about DARPA's mission can be found in a number of places. See, for example, "Statement of Dr. Stephen J. Lukasik, Director, DARPA," Hearings before the Senate Subcommittee on DoD Appropriations, Department of Defense Appropriations for Fiscal Year 1973, Part 1. 92nd Cong., 2nd Sess., March 14, 1972, pp. 725-830.

Two studies on the history of DARPA are The Advanced Research Projects Agency, 1958-1974 Barber Associates, op. cit., and Richard H. Van Atta Seymour J. Deitchman and Sidney G. Reed, DARPA Technical Accomplishments, 3 vols., IDA Paper P-2192, Washington, DC: IDA, 1991.

Forman "Behind Quantum Electronics.," op. cit.; Stuart W. Leslie, "Playing the Education Game to Win: The Military and Interdisciplinary Research at Stanford," Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 55-88, 1987.

Norman C. Dalkey "Command and Control-A Glance at the Future," RAND Report P-2675, Santa Monica, Calif.: RAND Corporation, Nov. 1962; H.D. Benington, "Military Information-Recently and Presently," Edward Bennett, James Degan, and Joseph Spiegel, eds., Military Information Systems: The Design of Computer-Aided Systems for Command. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1964, pp. 1-18.

Anthony Debons, "Command and Control: Technology and Social Impact," Advances in Computers. New York: Academic Press, 1971, vol. 11, pp. 319-390.

Frederick B. Thompson. "Design Fundamentals of Military Information Systems," Edward Bennett, James Degan, and Joseph Spiegel, eds., Military Information Systems: The Design of Computer-Aided Systems for Command. New York: Frederick Praeger, 1964, pp. 46-87.

W.F. Bauer D.L. Gerlough and J.W. Granholm, "Advanced Computer Applications," Proceedings of the IRE, pp. 296-303, Jan. 1961.

F. H. Tyaack, "Progress Report: Survey of the Information Sciences," IDA-IM-198, May 23 1960, Contract No. SD-50, RG 330-74-107, Box 1, no folder label, National Archives Branch Depository, Suitland, Maryland, hereinafter cited as NABDS. The survey was done "mostly" in March and April 1960.

"Message from the President of the United States Relative to Recommendations Relating to Our Defense Budget," 87th Cong., 1st Sess., March 28, 1961, House Documents, Document No. 123, p. 8.

Institute for Defense Analyses, Computers in Command and Control, Technical Report Number 61-12, Nov. 1961.

In fact, the work statement and research plan in the DARPA contract are identical to the 1960 SDC proposal for "Research into Information Processing for Command Systems." SDC Command-Control Research, Proposal 184, Nov. 1960, BR-L-31 SDC Command Control Research, System Development Corporation Series, Burroughs Corporation Records, CBI.

Stuart Cooney, "Command Control Research and Development," SDC Magazine, Feb. 5, 1962, System Development Corporation Series, Burroughs Corporation Records, CBI.

Advanced Research Projects Agency, APC 307, Aug. 1961, "Command Control Research, "RG 330-78-0013, Box 1, Folder: "Program Plans," NABDS.

The ARPA office responsible for most of the computing research support has had several names during its short history. For a period in 1962 the office was called the Command and Control Program, but from 1963 to 1986 it was known as the Information Processing Techniques Office IPTO. The lineal continuation of IPTO was the Information Science and Technology Office ISTO organized in 1986. ISTO was reorganized in May 1991 into the Computing Systems Technology Office CSTO and the Software and Intelligent Systems Technology Office SISTO.

David Allison made a similar assessment of the effect of individuals in his study of Navy R&D programs. According to Allison, Navy research programs in the 1950s and 1960s were guided by individuals, and the programs reflected the "initiative, advocacy, and entrepreneurship" of these individuals. He went further and noted that in the 1980s "programs are still defined primarily by the particular individuals involved in them and not by oversight by higher authority." D. K. Allison, "U. S. Navy Research and Development Since World War II," Merritt Roe Smith, ed., Military Enterprise and Technological Change, op. cit., p. 328.

Karl L. Wildes and Nilo A. Lindgren A Century of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, 1882-1982, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1985; Leslie, The Cold War and American Science, op. cit.; Carroll W. Pursell, Jr., editor, The Military-Industrial Complex, New York: Harper and Row, 1972.

A statement of the work proposed in this project is contained in a letter from Charles E. Hutchinson to Paul A. Dittman one of Licklider's co-workers on the project, Oct. 17, 1960, RG330-78-0085, Box 3, Folder: "Air Force," NABDS.

J.C.R. Licklider to Charles E. Hutchinson, Nov. 30, 1960, RG 330-78-0085, Box 3, Folder: "Air Force," NABDS.

J.C.R. Licklider interview with William Aspray and Arthur L.Norberg, Oct. 28, 1988, Charles Babbage Institute.

J.C.R. Licklider, "Man-Computer Symbiosis," IRE Transactions on Human Factors in Engineering, HFE-11 pp. 4-11, March 1960.

Charles M. Herzfeld interview with Arthur L. Norberg, Aug. 6, 1990, Charles Babbage Institute. Herzfeld recalled that Licklider was around the DOD discussing computing problems at least by the time Herzfeld arrived in Sept. 1961. We know Licklider was not there in July 1962. A routing slip attached to an Air Force Memorandum {"Command and Control, Revision #1} dated July 18, 1962 has a handwritten note "Hold for Lick." Note and memorandum in RG 330-78-0013, Box 1, NABDS. Additionally, an SDC memo noted that Licklider had been involved in their contract since May 1962. P.D. Greenberg to T.C. Rowan, "SDC History," July 9, 1964, Memorandum No. M-14368, Folder: "PDG Archives," System Development Corporation Series, Burroughs Corporation Records, CBI.

J.C.R. Licklider to Charles Hutchinson, June 13, 1962, RG 330-78-0085, Box 3, no folder label, NABDS.

J.C.R. Licklider to Charles Hutchinson, June 13, 1962, RG 330-78-0085, Box 3, no folder label, NABDS.

Robert W. Taylor interview with William Aspray, Feb. 28, 1989, Charles Babbage Institute.

Ibid.

Howard Rheingold, Tools For Thought: The People and Ideas Behind the Next Computer Revolution. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985, p. 149.

Ivan E. Sutherland interview with William Aspray, May 1, 1989, Charles Babbage Institute.

Ibid.

See especially the Herzfeld interview, CBI.

Taylor interview, CBI.

Ibid.

Reinhold, Tools for Thought., op. cit., passim.

Such liaisons are often formed among federal agencies. In the 1980s, these liaisons have taken on a more formal character as in the Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering, and Technology FCCSET, which prepared a study of high-performance computing. Office of Science and Technology Policy, "The Federal High Performance Computing Program," Washington, DC, 1989. A number of people who were part of IPTO and its successor ISTO served on the subcommittee that generated this report.

Sutherland interview, CBI.

Taylor interview, CBI.

Robert E. Kahn interview with William Aspray, March 22, 1989, Charles Babbage Institute.

Lawrence G. Roberts interview with Arthur L. Norberg, April 4, 1989, Charles Babbage Institute; DARPA, Program Plan No. 439, "Graphic Control and Display of Computer Processes," March 1, 1965, RG 330-78-0013, Box 1, Folder: "Program Plans," NABDS.

Roberts interview, CBI.

Ibid.

Allan G. Blue interview with William Aspray, June 12, 1989, Charles Babbage Institute.

Patrick H. Winston interview with Arthur L. Norberg, April 18, 1990, Charles Babbage Institute.

Kahn interview, CBI.

Quotations taken from the Kahn interview, CBI.

Kahn interview, CBI.

Saul Amarel interview with Arthur L. Norberg, Oct. 5, 1989, Charles Babbage Institute.

The appearance of a missionary attitude is not unusual at the beginning of a research field. Another example of this can be found in attitudes of the cyclotron engineers of the 1930s. For a discussion on cyclotroneering, see John L. Heilbron and Robert W. Seidel, Lawrence and His Laboratory: A History of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, vol 1. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1990.

This point was emphasized in virtually all CBI interviews with DARPA directors. See the interviews in CBI with Jack Ruina (interview with William Aspray, April 20, 1989), Charles Herzfeld George H. Heilmeier (interview with Arthur L. Norberg, March 27, 1991), and Robert S. Cooper, (interview with Arthur L. Norberg, Oct. 3, 1993).

Squires served for a time as director of CSTO, one of ISTO's successors.

Simpson retired from the Air Force as a Lt. Colonel and Ohlander from the Navy as a Commander.

This emerges from a reading of a number of the interviews with program managers and office directors. See Vinton G. Cerf interview with Judy E. O'Neill, April 24, 1990, Stephen Crocker interview with Judy E. O'Neill, Oct. 24, 1991, Robert E. Kahn interview with Judy E. O'Neill, April 24, 1990, Ronald B. Ohlander interview with Arthur L. Norberg, Sept. 25, 1989, Roberts interview, and Robert L. Simpson interview with Arthur L. Norberg, March 14, 1990, all Charles Babbage Institute.

Licklider to Donald Drukey and Thomas Rowan, July 8, 1963, RG 330-69-A-4998, Box 3, Folder: "350-1; Licklider/Fredkin correspondence, July to December 1963," NABDS; RG 330-69-A-4998, Box 2, Folder: "Information International, Inc.," NABDS.

Michael L. Dertouzos interview with Arthur L. Norberg, April 20, 1989, Charles Babbage Institute.

See the Licklider interview, passim, CBI.

Licklider interview, CBI; Taylor interview, CBI.

Licklider interview, CBI.

ARPA Contractors Meeting Briefing Book, Jan. 8-10, 1973, Keith Uncapher papers, CBI.

Taylor interview, CBI.

Dertouzos interview, CBI.

L. G. Roberts, "Resource Sharing Computer Networks," IEEE International Convention Digest, pp. 326-327, March 1969; The ARPANET Completion Report, unpublished draft prepared by BBN, Sept. 9, 1977, pp. III-25-26; Roberts interview, CBI.

Allen Newell, et al., Speech Understanding Systems: Final Report of a Study Group. Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1973. The other members of the group were Jeffrey Barnett, SDC; James W. Forgie, Lincoln; Cordell Green, Stanford; Dennis Klatt, MIT; J.C.R. Licklider, MIT; John Munson, SRI; D. Raj Reddy, CMU; and William A. Woods, BBN.

Allen Newell, et al., op. cit.

Allen Newell interview with Arthur L. Norberg, June 10-12, 1991, Charles Babbage Institute.

Barber, The Advanced Research Projects Agency, op. cit., p. I-12.

"Statement submitted by Dr. George H. Heilmeier," Hearings before the Senate Subcommittee on Defense Appropriations, Department of Defense Appropriations for Fiscal Year 1978. Part 5: Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation. 95th Cong., 1st Sess., Feb. 4, 1977, pp. 44-172; see especially pp. 57-60.

Ibid.

Saul Amarel, "Issues and Themes in Information Science and Technology," Feb. 5, 1987. Provided by Saul Amarel.

Two recent examples are Burton I. Edelson and Robert L. Stern, "The Operations of DARPA and its Utility as a Model for a Civilian ARPA," The Johns Hopkins Foreign Policy Institute, Nov. 1989, A background paper for the Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology and Government, and the Commission's report Technology and Economic Performance: Organizing the Executive Branch for a Stronger National Technology Base, Sept. 1991, New York: Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology, and Government.