THE PENTAGON'S BRAIN

Annie Jacobsen

Sub:title, An uncensored history of DARPA, America's Top Secret Military Research Agency, Little, Brown and Company, N.Y., 2015, 552 pgs., index, bibliography, notes, illustrations

Reviewer: The author poses many questions about the past, current and future dangers stemming from various DARPA sponsored scientific studies and programs. She notes that its sole, real, mission is to further American military power by achieving and maintaining technical superiority over all potential opponents. Therefore DARPA's public relations campaigns to promote the civilian related scientific achievements are suspect in motivation when not in their success.

A fascinating history even for someone who has been involved with some of the events and programs described in this book. The author devoted much attention to the individuals who conceived of our managed the many amazing projects. Their individual personal stories are themselves very interesting and there is a remarkable continuity as we find that many of the same individuals who, for instance, worked on the Manhattan Project during WWII were still at the center of national security affairs many years later.
From the 1950's to the present the United States has been involved in many widely varied continuous or recurrent military security threats and efforts to counter them. ARPA (now DARPA) has participated directly and generally secretly in practically all of them from outer space to under water, from development of munitions and weapons to psychological studies and behavior modification. Mrs. Jacobsen manages to jump through all these topics as they simultaneously developed yet keep 'things straight' for the reader. This jumping back and forth and reintroducing actors who had been absent from the narrative for some time does involve a bit of redundancy, but it is worth it.

Historiography:
There are two major concept concerning causation in history. One is the 'great man' concept, that history has been the result of the ideas and actions of individual leaders and thinkers. The other is the 'social forces' concept, that history is the record of developments generated not by individuals but much larger trends in society. The author does not consciouly address this issue, but the book on DARPA presents evidence nonetheless.
1 The author provides a detailed presentation of the role of individuals in developing ideas, concepts, actions, resulting in inventions in both material technology and non-material thought, while overcoming skepticism and many personal and organizational obstacles .
2 Her narrative then shows how new and frequently revolutionary new material inventions and non-material concepts become the basis for the next generation of newer and often even more revolutionary results - this is the essense of 'progress'.
3 But the story also shows that the individual actors in many cases (most?) are responding to external stimuli generated by developments that can be attributed to 'social forces' that are driving change.
The history of DARPA is an example of George Gilder's concept in his book, Knowledge and Power, that human progress is based initially on 'surprise' and then the assimilation of what was surprising into knowledge becomes the basis for new 'surprises'.

Prologue -
The author writes that DARPA, created by the U.S. Congress in 1958, is the most powerful military science organization in the world. But it does not perform actual research or production of futuristic military software or hardware. Rather. it commissions academe and industry to perform such tasks. Its very small staff are both sufficiently expert to appreciate scientific topics and innovative in outlook to be willing to accept risks of failure when funding projects with unpredictable outcomes. The DARPA officers conceive of many futuristic projects themselves, but they also seek and accept similar ideas from whatever individual who originates them. The program managers have an unusual level of independent authority to approve and spend money on risky concepts. Its basic outlook is that if one waits for a problem to become a known requirement it is too late, so it seeks to solve future requirements before they appear. She writes: "A revolution is not a revolution unless it comes with an element of surprise." The book is about the institution, DARPA, but the author focuses throughout on the individuals who did everything. She personalizes the narration so that it greatly enhances the reader's interest.

Part I - The Cold War - the section heading to organize the following chapters that each focus on different subjects but all are related to the central concern of the Cold War - intercontinental ballistic missiles and hydrogen bombs

Chapter One: The Evil Thing
The chapter is about the test of a hydrogen bomb at Bikini on March 1, 1954. The development of such a weapon was controversial, as even some of the scientists who had created the atomic bomb believed it to be 'evil'. As it turned out the result was vastly more powerful than they had even expected. As we learn throughout the book, many of the individuals who participated in the Manhattan Project during WWII and played roles in this test became leading figures throughout the following 50 plus years in DARPA. The recognition of the reality of the destructive power released guided national security policy for years. President Eisenhower was shown a map depicting what would happen if the Bikini bomb exploded over Washington DC. The destruction would reach New York City.

Chapter Two: War Games and Computing Machines-
The narration shifts to RAND and the brilliant scientist, John von Neumann. It integrates developments in higher mathematics, early design of computers, and concepts on 'war gaming'. John von Neumann was the leading 'brain' in all three fields. During the 1950's all this was focused mostly on the continuation of the subject of the first chapter, namely nuclear warfare. And competition with the Soviet Union drove the sense of urgency. The realization of the destructiveness of the hydrogen bomb and belief that would be impossible to defend against it led to the strategic doctrine known as "MAD - mutually assured destruction. Analysis of the conceptually simple 'conflict game' known as Prisoners Dilemma indicated that both opponents would likely choose to strike first, so defence would rest on deployment of the assured ability to strike second with an equal devastation. Looking toward the future, the author describes how, during this period, von Neumann predicted the coming creation of computer power - a computer that could 'think'. But von Neumann died young from cancer caused by atomic radiation poisoning.

Chapter Three: Vast Weapons systems of the Future -
The Russians surprised the Americans and launched Sputnik. Meanwhile, President Eisenhower was already seeking scientific answers on how to defend America from nuclear war. In the Gaither Report scientists Herb York and Jerome Wiesner calculated (guessed) that the Soviets could and would want to launch a massive, multi-missile attack. Their estimate on the quantity of Soviet ICBM's was much too large, but it generated public consternation, even though President Eisenhower knew the number was too large. But the result of these events prompted the creation of ARPA (later DARPA) as an independent agency to focus on scientific research in hopes of preventing future surprises. Its creation faced the usual inter-service rivalry from Army, Navy and Air Force brass. But Eisenhower, having faced such obstruction during his military career, ignored them and obtained the funding from Congress. And here we find Herb York moved from nuclear scientist at Livermore to become the original director of this ARPA. And ARPA's initial mandate was to focus on prevention of nuclear war by creating a system for verifying nuclear testing that would enable trust in promises not to test.
Mrs. Jacobsen provides one of her fascinating digressions into the biographies, that of York and the other potential choice, Werner von Braun.

Chapter Four: Emergency Plans -
Dr. York was immediately confronted with knowledge that the American government was expecting a massive Soviet nuclear attack and seeking civil defense measures to lessen its impact. But York knew from the Bikini test that this was impossible. His first ARPA project was to convene a scientific study group to conceive of ways to block incoming nuclear tipped missiles. Thus was born the idea of creating a electromagnetic shield in outer space by the detonation of several nuclear bombs there. So tests were authorized to determine if this was possible. One of the interesting things we learn is that indeed such test nuclear explosions were conducted in the South Atlantic in Operation Argus. At the same time Ernest Lawrence (leading scientist at Livermore Lab) was in Switzerland negotiating with Russians on a ban on nuclear testing. And Harold Brown was his deputy.
In another poignant tangent, Mrs. Jacobsen describes Dr. Lawrence and his early death during the conference. The nuclear bomb test produced a result, but not as significant as York and scientists had hoped. (But it was indeed a type of EMP).

Chapter Five: Sixteen Hundred Seconds Until Doomsday
The scene shifts to the Arctic, the early warning radar and computer system, described in the author's style in the person of Eugene McManus. She describes the Arctic scene and the whole alert system to NORAD under Cheyenne Mountain. This was another ARPA designed system. In December 1960 the radar detected something serious, generating high alert throughout the system. It appeared that a massive missile swarm was approaching North America. Where the high command pondered what to do, someone at the Arctic base had the idea to go out side and look. There he discovered the moon was rising over Norway and the radar was more powerful than expected. It had detected the moon at a range far greater than design had planned. During this period ARPA studied the developing U.S. anti-ballistic missile defense system, based on Nike-Zeus. The conclusion was that, although it could destroy individual missiles, there would be many, too many of them to destroy more than a fraction. This leads to the author's chapter title, the number of seconds between launch of a Soviet missile and its impact in the US.
York again called for scientists to analyze the problems. A conference was convened and it led to the creation of a more-or-less standing group called the Jasons in 1960. The author again provides brief professional biographies of these leading scientists. Ballistic missile defense was the top priority topic, but there were others, and the participants were encouraged to think broadly. One of the first ideas resulted in the multi-warhead that would deploy decoys to confuse opposing defense systems. Another was the concept of a directed energy beam. This became an unusually length development program the reports from which remain classified.

Chapter Six: Psychological Operations
William Godel becomes the individual focus for this new topic. Initially, ARPA was designing satellites, and then the program was transferred to the new NASA. Soon, photographs from space were all the rage. Meanwhile, Godel was focused on psychological warfare efforts. His career began as a Marine on Guadacanal. He was involved in early efforts to study warfare the French were conducting in Vietnam. At the time the Marines were fighting in Korea. Mrs. Jacobsen digresses to recount the tragic story of Allen M. Dulles, who was severely wounded there. His story returns in a later chapter on brain research.
The North Koreans accused the U.S. of 'germ warfare'. And Godel was responsible for countering this lie. All this lead to the broad subject of psychological warfare and 'brainwashing'. And Godel very early linked this with insurgent warfare and counter-insurgency. His warnings were mostly ignored. Then John Kennedy was elected President and Robert McNamara was nominated to be Secretary of Defense. At this point Herb York appears again as acting Secretary in charge of the nuclear control suitcase pending McNamara's confirmation.. The story of DARPA is the story of a surprisingly long-serving cast of characters.

Part II: The Vietnam War - The section heading is to structure the relationship of the following chapters, all relating in some way to the war in Vietnam, with other remaining Cold War issues drawing attention. Linking them together indicated the broad scope of scientific concepts that were considered.

Chapter Seven: Techniques and Gadgets -
The chapter begins with the death in Vietnam of the first two American advisors, then turns to President Kennedy, who, the author writes, initially spent more time on the Vietnam war than any other issue of national security. As we know, Kennedy was a strong supporter of counter-insurgency. Godel and ARPA were in the thick of the fight. Godel recommended that ARPA establish a research office right in Saigon. The mission was to study the war directly and recommend (and develop) technologically based methods and weapons to win the war. Thus the Combat Development and Test Center was created. William Godel was there to organize it. The chapter focus switched from space warfare to attempting to train dogs to smell VietCong insurgents. Well, that didn't work, but many more ideas did. Among them the well-known AR-15 rifle (later to be the M-16)- well-known but not that it was an ARPA design. There were many more weapons and special aircraft and trucks. Most infamous was the idea to destroy jungle and crops. This involved many tests of various chemicals and methods of applying them. The result was Agent Orange. In the course of her narrative on this the author also gives us a good picture of security planning in the Kennedy White House and the Pentagon.

Chapter Eight: RAND and COIN
The scene opens at RAND where we find that war gaming had expanded greatly and now included gaming counter-insurgency warfare. Harold Brown had now replaced Herb York as director of DDR&E, the Pentagon official that supervised ARPA. Both had come from Livermore laboratory. Brown tasked RAND to get involved. This led to an early 'hearts and minds' campaign to learn to understand the Vietnamese peasant. RAND put two nuclear warfare experts in change of its new effort. Very soon RAND 'experts' arrived to work next to the CDTC. ARPA also became involved in the Strategic Hamlet Program. The two trained anthropologists, fluent in Vietnamese soon found that the program was hated by the people and was counterproductive. Harold Brown refused to believe their report. ARPA dispatched other reporters to provide more optimistic reports. The chapter ends with a general stating that the war would be won in a year.

Chapter Nine: Command and Control
The recognition that the military communications system essential to conduct intercontinental warfare and defense of the homeland was vulnerable to the attacks it was tasked to counter led to the idea to make it redundant, meaning with multiple paths. Since computers were more and more central to the system, this led to the idea of linking computers via multiple paths. The author points to Mr. J. C. R. Licklider as the original thinker who not only conceived of this but also of a future in which computers would enable everyone at home to access the world's knowledge. His book, Libraries of the Future, was published in 1965, rather before anyone thought of a Google, or even of an Internet.
The chapter also discusses the Cuban Missile Crisis. Mrs. Jacobsen reveals that the U.S. and Soviet Union each detonated two nuclear warheads in space during this public crisis. These were additional tests of the electromagnetic effect described in Chapter Four. This raised the urgency of securing the communications system upon which 'command and control' rests changing C2 into C3. But meanwhile Mr. Licklider was directing an ARPA office focused on behavioral science. One theme was the future use of computers not only as keys in actual operations, but also as high powered tools in advanced teaching roles. And Secretary McNamara was ordering creation of still more CDTC offices around the world, all to be linked. Huge databases were to be created containing detailed personal profiles on wide populations with the goal of later identifying individual terrorists. I remember participating in one project with Dr. Ithiel de Sola Pool, whom Mrs. Jacobsen identifies as participating in this effort.
The author shifts to scene back to Vietnam with the fiasco of the Buddhist 'uprising' and overthrow of President Diem. Her conclusion at the chapter's end is: "Command and Control was an illusion in Vietnam. Despite millions of dollars, hundreds of men, an the use of lethal chemicals as part of a herbicide warfare campaign, ARPA's Project Agile - with its cutting edge gadgets and counter insurgency techniques - was having little to no effect on the growing communist insurgency spreading across South Vietnam'

Chapter Ten: Motivation and Morale
The chapter opens in 1964 with the civilian anthropologist, Gerald Hickey, again in the spotlight in Vietnam. The author provides a vivid account of him fighting along side the Nung and U.S. Special Forces during a night time attack on camp Nam Dong. ARPA and its contractor RAND were getting desperate. They again were thinking about working on 'hearts and minds' but no one knew much at all about either Vietnamese hearts or minds. Time for more personal surveys highlighted by the question, "What makes the Viet Cong tick?" This time Mr. Joe Zasloff was tasked and sent to Vietnam to find out. He had already produced a report that identified the North Vietnamese were driving the war. Zasloff and John Donnell, who had authored the previous report on strategic hamlets, went to secret CIA operated prisons to interview captured Viet Cong members. They produced another report (it truthfully described the subjects' views). Again such a report was rejected and other analysts were dispatched to produce the answers that were desired. But the Air Force, in the person of hung-ho General Curtis LeMay wanted into the action. He read Zasloff's previous report about the key North Vietnamese involvement and recognized it would be a fine basis for the Air Force to launch a bombing campaign. Meanwhile Zasloff and Donnell continued to brief the brass including General Westmorland on their findings that the VietCong were motivated by a real desire for independence and considered the Americans as the invaders. Again the high command in the Pentagon would not accept this idea. Again, a new analyst team was recruited, from scientists lacking the years of personal experience in Vietnam that Zasloff and Donnell had. Chief of these was Leon Goure, an expert Sovietologist which whom I worked years later. He replaced Zasloff in Saigon and dutifully produced reports that dismissed Zasloff's findings about Viet Cong motivation but conveniently supported Zasloff's finding about North Vietnamese support, just what the Air Force wanted to hear. But Goure also did not last long. He was relieved by another analyst and the interrogation program continued while the Air Force bombed more.

Chapter Eleven: The Jasons Enter Vietnam -
Mrs. Jacobsen notes that ARPA relied on RAND mostly for 'soft science' work - meaning social science and behavioral science. For 'hard science' that is physics and mathematics and the like it turned to the Jasons. Again, the author profiles the new members; especially Murray Gell-Mann, a Nobel Prize winning physicist who became interested in guerrilla warfare, and Gordon MacDonald, a child prodigy geophysicist and climatologist. So the Jasons convened and wrote a report in 1964. They began by interviewing Bernard Fall, the acknowledged expert on the Vietnam war from the early French period, and also profiled by Mrs. Jacobsen. Among the early Jason ideas was to use control of weather, another was to enhance the jungle elimination program by creating massive fire storms. ARPA spent millions on the latter with little success. By 1965 the Jason's were focused also on blocking or eliminating the famous Ho Chi Minh Trail, the key logistic support line for military operations in South Vietnam. An initial concept was to use tactical nuclear weapons to destroy key bottleneck passes in the trail. This was then rejected. Instead the concept developed to deploy along the trail a group of various sensors based on multiple types of detection such as seismic, and thermal and even sound. The author writes that this collectively this became known as McNamara's 'electric fence', But I don't recall that connection. I believe the 'electric fence' was to block the border between North and South Vietnam. The topic is covered in the following chapter.

Chapter Twelve: The Electronic Fence
This became a huge and expensive (over a billion dollars) operation, both financially and physically in terms of the Navy pilots and crews lost in the ultimately failing effort. The author describes it in great detail including photos. Again, she focuses on one participant, not a Jason, but an Air Force pilot who was shot down while dropping sensors but was rescued by a Jolly Green Giant ( rescue helicopter). The account vividly illustrates the whole story. This was a huge and complex program from conception to execution and Mrs. Jacobsen very well describes it including the technology created for it.

Chapter Thirteen: The End of Vietnam
This chapter reminds us of the vicious methods and violent attacks the radical progressives used in their 'anti-war movement'. By the 1960's they had already infiltrated college faculties and were inculcating naive students with anti-American propaganda. The Vietnam War became an ideal 'cause' to exploit and exploit it they did. The author focuses on the outrageous attacks on individual members of the Jasons, most of whom were distinguished faculty members at prestigious universities. Among other targets, the radicals forced the Univ. of Illinois to abandon the ILLIAC-IV advanced computer, which had to be moved to the government Ames Research Center. She narrates the whole story. ARPA's response to the rioting was to rush development of anti-riot gear. Then Daniel Ellsberg, who had worked in Vietnam along side ARPA personnel, published the Pentagon Papers he had photocopied. The anti-war radicals attacked the Jason scientists all the more. The Pentagon and ARPA leadership decided the Jasons must go. They moved from their connection via IDA to Stanford.

Part III Operations Other Than War - the link here is that the end of the war in Vietnam and the reduction in apparent threat from Russia did not lessen the futuristic emphasis that is the central DARPA mission. To do this ARPA was renamed DARPA and research emphasis shifted again.

Chapter Fourteen: Rise of the Machines
The continuing legacy of the 'electronic fence' was an increased role for electronics (sensors) on the battlefield. Research that could be directly related to Vietnam was ended, but the concepts lived on. Not only the suite of various sensors, but also research on night vision and stealth were expanded. Among the famous results was the F-117 stealth fighter aircraft. But attention to the communications component of command and control - now C3 expanded. This meant expanded development of computers, which was enabled by the contemporary rapid development of integrated memory chips. At this time (1969) the old concept of linking scientific computers was implemented with the inter-connection of four university computers in the ARPA-NET. Robert Khan and Vint Cerf created the software program that enabled this - the still fundamental TCP/IP in use every day. By 1973 the network had expanded to 36 locations.
The direct military priority shifted from a Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile attack to a ground based invasion of Western Europe. This renewed interested in laser-guided bombs, drone aircraft and satellite-based navigation (GPS), already in place by 1963, but still limited. DARPA was tasked to expand and unify the GPS system. All these and more were coordinated into a new DARPA concept titled "Assault Breaker', designed to halt a Soviet invasion. Here the famous Andrew Marshall enters the narrative in his office as director of the Office of Net Assessment. He was focused on study of Soviet military developments and comparing them (netting them) with U.S. capabilities. The breadth of his intellectual curiosity was already legendary. I participated in several studies and wargames he commissioned. The Russian general staff became very concerned. Marshall coined the term 'revolution in military affairs' for the results on the battlefield that this capability for commanders to have and use 'real time' detailed knowledge of the situation on remote battlefields.
We meet once again Harold Brown, now the Secretary of Defense. With his scientific background it is no wonder that he placed high priority on technological superiority. DARPA's central role was increased. Mrs. Jacobsen turns from DARPA projects to execute battlefield superiority to projects to prepare (that is train) military personnel to function (control) on that battlefield. This leads to an excellent narrative about the eventual (from 1978 to 1990's) development of simulators as high-tech training machines linked in a new DARPA net called SIMNET. Naturally the concept had to overcome initial disbelief and obstruction by the 'brass' in the Pentagon. Acceptance was increased by on-line multiplayer war games and science fiction literature.

Chapter Fifteen: Star Wars and Tank Wars
Back to intercontinental ballistic missile warfare (in 1983 )with President Reagan's determination to create a defense system quickly labelled 'star wars'. The technology was to be based on the laser, so Mrs. Jacobsen proceeds to explain its invention by Charles Townes in the 1950's. The chapter then oscillates between the two expanding projects of the chapter title- efforts at defense against missiles in space and development of realistic simulations of tank battle to train warriors on the ground. The first test of the SIMNET to Army generals took place in 1986 at Ft. Knox, then home of Armor, for, among others, my long-time good friend General Fredrick Brown. The generals were sold and SIMNET was on its way. DARPA then had no trouble spending $300 million on simulation technology. By 1990 CENTCOM was using simulation to train commanders to fight, which came handy in the Gulf War.

Chapter Sixteen: The Gulf War and Operations Other than War
The story moves from preparation to application, training to execution. The Gulf War begins with Major Feest flying an F-117A over Baghdad, unseen by Iraqi air defenses. Both the stealth aircraft and the laser guided 'smart bomb' had origins in DARPA. The author writes: For the U. S. military, the Gulf War was an opportunity to demonstrate what its system of systems was capable of. In addition to the stealth aircraft and laser guided there were other DARPA products being used including various types of drones and the JSTARS airborne command and control system. On the ground armored forces were executing tactics right out of their SIMNET simulators being guided by GPS across trackless deserts and through smoke and and sand storms. The author describes all this in vivid detail including the famous Battle of 73 Easting. At the behest of the Army Chief of Staff, General Sullivan, DARPA collected detailed data on the ground and from participants and spent a year to put the whole battle right into a simulator. Congress was more than a little pleased, and simulation received a big boost.
The euphoria from the Gulf War was soon replaced by gloom from the "Blackhawk Down' disaster in Somalia. This was an 'Operation Other than War'. Urban warfare was recognized as a new 'new thing' and DARPA contracted again with RAND, this time to study and report on what should be done.

Chapter Seventeen: Biological Weapons
Now for a complete change of venue and concern. Again the narrative focuses on individuals and shifts among Russian and American biologists and related scientists. The chapter reveals both the huge extent of the secret Russian biological warfare industry and how the Americans discovered it. The author does not mention the famous accident in Russia that also became well known. The Jasons were called into action but their report and subsequent American reactions remain classified. The American response focused on defense against biological weapons rather than offensive use. The chapter concludes with a usual transition to the following one, testimony from a Russian expert to the danger of biological weapons being used by terrorists.

Chapter Eighteen: Transforming Humans for War
Biology also merges into psychology and human response to the rigors and terrors of the battlefield. DARPA now expanded its research into how to 'harden' a soldier to be a 'superman' on the battlefield. Mrs. Jacobsen brings up the famous reports by SLAM Marshall from the Normandy Landing and subsequent campaign across France. DARPA's effort included both external devices and aids for the individual soldier and internal drugs and methods that might enable him to function at a very high capacity despite stress.
The author provides a very relevant quotation. "At DARPA Goldblatt realized that almost anything that could be imagined could at least be tried." She describes many of these ideas. And another quotation from the same leading scientist. "There are unintended consequences for everything." Mrs. Jacobsen continues with description of the Dark Winter simulation and game that indicated there was no real defense against a major biological warfare attack (just like the no defense against the hydrogen bomb.) In one effort, however, DARPA contracted for creation of detector for presence of biological contaminators (like a smoke detector) that could be mounted throughout a building.

Part IV: The War on Terror - yet another threat on which to focus a variety of efforts

Chapter Nineteen: Terror Strikes
Mrs. Jacobsen opens this chapter, in which the terrorist destruction on Sept.11 of two towers in Manhattan and part of the Pentagon are the major event, with yet another story of an individual, a biologist trained information expert working at the Centers of Disease Control. The reader is eager to learn the connection. It turns out that he was preparing to brief on biological warfare threats at the moment the attack too place. Then, when he was called upon to brief the activities of the CDC in this field to an assembly of intelligence officers at CIA it appeared that no one even knew of his office's existence, let alone the related DARPA programs. This confirmed his belief in the critical role of information. This chapter also includes discussion of the real attack using Anthrax and the false alarm the sensor mentioned in the previous chapter generated in the White House. Finally, the author comments that the failure of the U.S. G to predict the attack or be able to stop it led to a massive militarization program - the subject of the following chapters.

Chapter Twenty: Total Information Awareness
This chapter opens with the role of Admiral John Poindexter in the creation of a massive surveillance program designed to collect every bit of information possible about each citizen and foreigner in the office with the chapter title. She quotes; "In our view, information technology is a weapon." The system was to integrate every technological method possible for identifying people and tracking their activities. The central program was called Genoa II. She names and gives background on the other key officials. Naturally the program was leaked and in this case it was William Safire who published the story with a provacative headline. Of course this generated a political storm. Mrs. Jacobsen gives the reader insight by including some of the political drubbing to which Poindexter was subjected by Senate staffers in open session. The program was closed soon afterwards. Or rather most of it was split up and assigned to various agencies such as NSA, DHS, CIA and DOD. The NSA program was then called PRISM. We learn more about it in General Michael Hayden's book - Playing to the Edge. Years later it was one of the NSA programs revelled by Edward Snowden, as the author notes. Chapter concludes with the usual transition to the next chapter.

Chapter Twenty-One: IED War
The scene abruptly shifts again, to Iraq in May 2003, when Jeremiah Smith was killed by an IED just 3 weeks after president Bush had declared the war was over as far as major combat operations were concerned. DARPA was refocused from long range research to the urgent, immediate task of finding counter measures to these IED. Congress questioned DARPA about 'net centric warfare' and its 'over reliance' on high tech weapons. Yet, DARPA deployed all sorts of technology, high and low, to little avail. Again human behavior and 'hearts and minds' became public relations mantras, and "Total Information Awareness" reared its head with General Scales' proposal to conduct 'culture-centric warfare'. General Scales wrote, "The nature of war is changing'.
(Well, yes, right back to the way the Assyrians and Romans waged war. What was conventional warfare throughout history was now labeled 'unconventional war' )
But once again DARPA turned to social scientists and anthropologists. The new buzz word was "Human Terrain System'. General Petraeus supervised publication of another Army Manual 3-24-1 on Counter insurgency. The author concludes with the comment. "It was as if the Vietnam War had produced amnesia instead of experience." So off to the next chapter.

Chapter Twenty-Two: Combat Zones that See
DARPA returned to the study of urban warfare. Countering IED remained the immediate priority, but longer range attention was focused on understanding urban warfare through comprehensive information gathering and analysis. The Army wanted not only to counter IED's but also to find their makers. Vietnam fathered the 'electronic fence' and the author writes that Iraq fathered 'electronic battlespace'. Instead of placing electronic detectors along a jungle trail, now the idea was to deploy them throughout cities. Conveniently, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency had already evolved from the Army Map Service and Air Force mapping plus the contribution of GPS in satellites. The personal privacy issues that had disrupted the "Total Information Awareness' program in the U.S. were not an issue when dealing with foreign populations. Mrs. Jacobsen describes the massive effort in some detail, as usual focusing on individual leaders. We have read already about the plans to use blimps as platforms for surveillance. But has anyone read that DARPA was training honey bees to do likewise? But even more, the bees were to carry micro-explosives to their targets. The Army didn't like this idea.
Mrs. Jacobsen continues with a financial summary. "By 2006, the Pentagon had spent more than $1 billion on 'defeat-the-IED' technology." In an incident she describes 'Gordon' was mangled by an IED next to him. Not to worry, for Gordon was a robot. (one of many). He was part of Task Force Troy, a huge effort to counter IEDs. To conclude this chapter while the effort was still in progress, Mrs. Jacobsen notes that the war in Afghanistan was escalating. Time to bring in DARPA.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Human Terrain -
The chapter begins with another disaster, the Taliban bomb attack on a prison in Kandahar from which they freed hundreds of prisoners. The biometrics program expanded in Afghanistan and so did the deployment of anthropologists in the Army Human Terrain System. Cue Ms Paula Loyd, who was set on fire by a Taliban. Meanwhile, in a denouement now all to prevalent, her body guard killed the Taliban terrorist and was then tried for murder. He got off lightly, thanks to a sensible judge, only a large fine and probation.
(But since then more heroic soldiers have wound up in Leavenworth. The American Anthropological Association also reacted. They denounced the whole idea and system for employing anthropologists in an effort to win a war.)
Other anthropologists working with HTS were also killed in line of duty. The press took up the attack Mrs. Jacobsen again brings up the exposee created by Snowden and links the domestic NSA PRISM program to the foreign HTM teams doing MAP-HT data collection on populations 'throughout the world'. She concludes: "All this raises an important question. Is the world transforming into a war zone and America into a police state, and is it DARPA that is making them so?

Part IV: Future War - now we are really getting into the merging of science and 'science fiction' as the funds support projects less directly related to immediate military emergencies. And these 'scary' projects are expanding and more obscure. Moreover, they have significant effects on civilian populations - whole societies - as well.

Chapter Twenty-Four: Drone Wars
Mrs. Jacobsen begins with President Obama's speech to the National Defense University in May 2013. She notes the coincidence in that it was also at Ft.McNair that ARPA met to write its first report. But by 2013 technology had moved ahead. The subject then is remarkable advances in drone technology. Thinking of military drones one is likely to think of Predator and other very large pilotless aircraft being used on battlefields and in war zones. But in the chapter we learn about drones built to look like dragonflies or even beetles. These are called 'micro air vehicles - MAV's.
(Yes, a fly on the wall might be reporting on you right now.) But then we get to biohybrids. Not only nanotechnology but nanobiology, in science fiction often called cyborgs. Tiny machines can be wired directly into an animal's brain. The author devotes many pages to detailed descriptons of remarkable programs, from insects to hypersonic stealth drones and undersea drones. There also are Unmanned Ground System robots - cyborgs and androids.
(Well, President Reagan's space based anti-ballistic missile program was derisively labeled 'star wars' but DARPA is creating the real 'star war' machines.)
The author quotes DARPA ' The program seeks to demonstrate the capabilities of self-configuration ,self-optimization, self-healing, tethering, and power management'". In conclusion Mrs. Jacobsen turns to the key element, artificial intelligence.=see next chapter.

Chapter Twenty-Five: Brain Wars -
Yes, DARPA is busy trying to create an artificial brain.
(Well, they are not the only ones, Read Pedro Domingos' book, The Master Algorithm. ). The author journeys to Los Alamos, site of the atomic bomb. Here, now, the scientists are working on something even more powerful and futuristic, artificial brains. She writes that scientists at Los Alamos are focused on two components - computing, involving machines and neuroscience, which involves the human brain. But Domingos writes that this is only one of five different concepts and efforts.) But DARPA's efforts also include ideas about repairing human brains damaged in battle of which there are at least 300,000 brain injuries from Iraq and Afghanistan. She is able to visit Allen M. Dulles, whom she profiled in a very early chapter and who now lives near Los Alamos. DARPA is also working on repairing or replacing other damaged body parts such as prosthetics. But what can be replaced for a human can also be incorporated directly into a robot. Then she gets into extending human life spans.

Chapter Twenty-Six: The Pentagon's Brain
This chapter begins with Mrs., Jacobsen interviewing Dr. Charles Townes, whom she has mentioned several times in earlier chapters. Among other amazing scientific accomplishments, he invented (or created) the laser. She reports that Dr. Townes comments that to do anything new one must ignore those who believe it is impossible. And he also noted that the ideas frequently espoused first in 'science fiction' can provide clues to real world advances. She remarks that the Pentagon also recognizes this and actively seeks ideas from science fiction authors. She mentions the names of several famous science fiction authors and their interview with like minded officers in the Pentagon. (Unfortunately she does not mention Doctor Who, probably because it is a British futuristic product.) She then visits other DARPA scientists. Michael Goldblatt comments that an objective used to be augmenting man's physical body capabilities, and now a focus is on augmenting man's brain capabilities. She returns to the subject of artificial intelligence and computing machines that can really think. But also she comments on research in altering human emotions and brain functions. She ends the book with questions about the future.