Eyeing the Red Storm: Eisenhower and the First Attempt to Build a Spy Satellite

During the Cold War, many American leaders believed that the U.S.S.R. wanted to conquer the world, writes Dienesch, an adjunct assistant professor of history at the University of Windsor, Ontario, in this scholarly investigation of American spy-satellite development. According to military leaders, national security required a vast expansion of the military. When President Eisenhower took office in 1953, he was determined to defend the U.S. without bankrupting it or converting it into a garrison state. His major barrier was ignorance of the U.S.S.R.’s military capabilities. Satellites solved the problem in the 1960s, but Dienesch concentrates on their origins, emphasizing a nearly forgotten program to build the first, named WS-117L and approved in 1953. As a pioneering piece of technology it was clunky; its power needs required a heavy nuclear reactor, its camera resolution was no better than that of television, and its reel-to-reel tapes were difficult to control remotely. Canceled in 1959, the WS-117L never flew, but several of its systems were used in later satellites. Though this is an academic study replete with coverage of committee meetings, panels of experts, and official reports, it thankfully lacks turgid prose. Readers searching for a detailed analysis of early spy satellite development will approve of Dienesch’s accessible work. (Apr.)