The Pentagon's Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency

by Annie Jacobsen

Overview

Discover the definitive history of DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, in this Pulitzer Prize finalist from the author of the New York Times bestseller Area 51.

No one has ever written the history of the Defense Department's most secret, most powerful, and most controversial military science R&D agency. In the first-ever history about the organization, New York Times bestselling author Annie Jacobsen draws on inside sources, exclusive interviews, private documents, and declassified memos to paint a picture of DARPA, or "the Pentagon's brain," from its Cold War inception in 1958 to the present.

This is the book on DARPA — a compelling narrative about this clandestine intersection of science and the American military and the often frightening results.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316371667
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	06/07/2016
Pages:	576
Sales rank:	19,367
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Annie Jacobsen is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Area 51 and Operation Paperclip and the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Pentagon's Brain. She was a contributing editor at the Los Angeles Times Magazine. A graduate of Princeton University, she lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two sons.

Table of Contents

Prologue 5

Part I The Cold War

Chapter 1 The Evil Thing 11

Chapter 2 War Games and Computing Machines 28

Chapter 3 Vast Weapons Systems of the Future 46

Chapter 4 Emergency Plans 60

Chapter 5 Sixteen Hundred Seconds Until Doomsday 76

Chapter 6 Psychological Operations 92

Part II The Vietnam War

Chapter 7 Techniques and Gadgets 117

Chapter 8 RAND and COIN 133

Chapter 9 Command and Control 145

Chapter 10 Motivation and Morale 160

Chapter 11 The Jasons Enter Vietnam 181

Chapter 12 The Electronic Fence 197

Chapter 13 The End of Vietnam 213

Part III Operations Other Than War

Chapter 14 Rise of the Machines 237

Chapter 15 Star Wars and Tank Wars 259

Chapter 16 The Gulf War and Operations Other Than War 270

Chapter 17 Biological Weapons 284

Chapter 18 Transforming Humans for War 305

Part IV The War on Terror

Chapter 19 Terror Strikes 319

Chapter 20 Total Information Awareness 336

Chapter 21 IED War 353

Chapter 22 Combat Zones That See 367

Chapter 23 Human Terrain 386

Part V Future War

Chapter 24 Drone Wars 405

Chapter 25 Brain Wars 420

Chapter 26 The Pentagon's Brain 439

Acknowledgments 453

Notes 457

List of Interviews and Written Correspondence 503

Bibliography 507

Index 537

What People are Saying About This

Annie Jacobsen's considerable talents as an investigative journalist prove indispensable in uncovering the remarkable history of one of America's most powerful and clandestine military research agencies. And she is a great storyteller, making the tantalizing tale of The Pentagon's Brain — from the depths of the Cold War to present day — come alive on every page. --Gerald Posner, author of God's Bankers

Editorial Reviews

Pulitzer Prize Finalist in History

One of The Washington Post's Notable Nonfiction Books of 2015

One of The Boston Globe's Best Books of 2015

One of Amazon's Top 100 Books of 2015

From the Publisher

A brilliantly researched account of a small but powerful secret government agency whose military research profoundly affects world affairs.

The Pulitzer Prize Committee

Annie Jacobsen’s considerable talents as an investigative journalist prove indispensable in uncovering the remarkable history of one of America’s most powerful and clandestine military research agencies.”

author of God’s Bankers Gerald Posner

A fascinating and sometimes uneasy exploration of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency....

The Washington Post Dina Temple-Raston

An exciting read that asks an important question: what is the risk of allowing lethal technologies to be developed in secret?

Nature Ann Finkbeiner

Annie Jacobsen has a gift for unearthing secret, long-buried information.

Seattle Times Mary Ann Gwinn

In this fascinating and terrifying account, Annie Jacobsen regales us with the stories behind the agency's 'consequential and sometimes Orwellian' innovations, including autonomous weapons systems—killer robots that could decide, without human intervention, who lives and who dies.

Mother Jones Bryan Schatz

Jacobsen offers a definitive history of the clandestine agency.... She explores the implications of DARPA work on technology that will not be widely known to the public for generations but will certainly impact national security and concepts of war.

Booklist (starred review) Vanessa Bush

The Pentagon's Brain puts Jacobsen in the company of important writers ... such as Shane Harris and Rajiv Chandrasekran.

Bookforum Chris Bray

Annie Jacobsen's considerable talents as an investigative journalist prove indispensable in uncovering the remarkable history of one of America's most powerful and clandestine military research agencies. And she is a great storyteller, making the tantalizing tale of The Pentagon's Brain — from the depths of the Cold War to present day — come alive on every page.

author of God's Bankers Gerald Posner

Annie Jacobsen's considerable talents as an investigative journalist prove indispensable in uncovering the remarkable history of one of America's most powerful and clandestine military research agencies. And she is a great storyteller, making the tantalizing tale of The Pentagon's Brain — from the depths of the Cold War to present day — come alive on every page.

author of God's Bankers Gerald Posner

07/01/2015
Science is often viewed as a way for humanity to improve. However, in journalist Jacobsen's (Operation Paperclip) latest, it is directed at winning war—arguably humanity's cruelest facet. The author has methodically written the history of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), from its inception at the height of the atomic era in 1958 to the present. Her sources include countless archival materials, such as government documents and interviews. The author delves into how the success of DARPA rises and falls with America's military prowess, and how the technologies the agency has created affect daily life, from the Internet to global positioning systems (GPS). This technology is vastly overshadowed by the creation of biological, nuclear, and data mining operations—which receive much attention within this book. Jacobsen's account will serve as the model for histories of military research and development and is likely to lead to more works and articles about DARPA. VERDICT This engrossing, conversation-starting read is highly recommended for policymakers, historians, scientists, and others who study technology's implications. It will complement Jonathon Moreno's Mind Wars and Sarah Bridger's Scientists at War. [See Prepub Alert, 3/23/15.]—Jacob Sherman, John Peace Lib., Univ. of Texas at San Antonio

Library Journal

2015-06-17
The history of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the military's top-secret research and development agency. During the Cold War, the arms race between the United States and Soviet Union was a result of the belief in mutually assured destruction. If one nation were to strike with nuclear weapons, it would precipitate its own downfall. This constant tension created a unique environment in which the American military needed to invest heavily in new arms and technology to stay one step ahead of their Soviet foes. Officially created in 1958 by President Dwight Eisenhower, DARPA was tasked with leading the military's efforts to develop the means to prevent a Soviet nuclear strike or invasion. The department quickly evolved to encompass all manners of defense, including cutting-edge psychological and biological warfare. Jacobsen (Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America, 2014, etc.) is no stranger to secretive government projects, and she weaves a dramatic history of the agency that exposes, through newly declassified documents and firsthand interviews with former DARPA scientists, the astounding and often terrifying developments that emerged from the program. One of the greatest pleasures of Jacobsen's thoroughly crafted narrative is the anachronisms of obsolete high-tech. For instance, the author details the development of ARPANET, the predecessor to today's Internet, and the room-sized computers that it was designed to use. However, not all DARPA projects are as apolitical and quaint. There is the unavoidable truth that DARPA was created to develop sophisticated weaponry designed to annihilate populations. One of the most egregious examples is Agent Orange, the extremely toxic defoliant. Chronicling DARPA to the present day, Jacobsen also sketches portraits of the immensely brilliant, ambitious, and flawed scientists that dedicated themselves to science and country. Filled with the intrigue and high stakes of a spy novel, Jacobsen's history of DARPA is as much a fascinating testament to human ingenuity as it is a paean to endless industrial warfare and the bureaucracy of the military-industrial complex.

Kirkus Reviews