Operation Argus: How a Cold-War Secret Was Revealed
theatlantic.com
Operation Argus: How a Cold-War Secret Was Revealed
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Re: Operation Argus: How a Cold-War Secret Was Revealed
#2Admittedly I only read about half the article and skimmed the rest, but this seems like kind of a nothingburger, in the parlance of our times. So a couple of bombs were set off in space for research purposes, in an environment already permeated with radiation. Is this supposed to be morally worse than setting them off on the ground, where people actualy live? What's the actual controversy here?
Please consider answering my question rather than mindlessly downvoting. I'm genuinely curious.
Re: Operation Argus: How a Cold-War Secret Was Revealed
#3Admittedly I only read about half the article and skimmed the rest, but this seems like kind of a nothingburger, in the parlance of our times. So a couple of bombs were set off in space for research purposes, in an environment already permeated with radiation. Is this supposed to be morally worse than setting them off on the ground, where people actualy live? What's the actual controversy here? Please consider answer…
To reduce cutting edge nuclear weapons tests, at a time when the USA and USSR were neck deep in an arms race and at each other's throats, to a nothingburger about space radiation is... fantastic. How great is it that today we can live so ignorant of one of the scariest times in human civilization?
The everythingburger had to do with the orbital EMP, not the radiation or even the secret tests. If the US had developed an effective way to neutralize Soviet ICBMs with atmospheric detonations, it would have been the end of MAD and would have forced the Soviet Union into all out war in a race to beat the US before a full defense system could be built - at a time when they were first starting to come to the table.
Re: Operation Argus: How a Cold-War Secret Was Revealed
#4The fourth estate seems to have added disappointingly little here. If the government decided they would release details of the program, the NYT would "scoop" them by publishing it a day or two earlier. If the government decided not to release details, the NYT heard nothing, saw nothing, spoke nothing.
Not exactly "all the news that's fit to print".
Re: Operation Argus: How a Cold-War Secret Was Revealed
#5Admittedly I only read about half the article and skimmed the rest, but this seems like kind of a nothingburger, in the parlance of our times. So a couple of bombs were set off in space for research purposes, in an environment already permeated with radiation. Is this supposed to be morally worse than setting them off on the ground, where people actualy live? What's the actual controversy here? Please consider answer…
To reduce cutting edge nuclear weapons tests, at a time when the USA and USSR were neck deep in an arms race and at each other's throats, to a nothingburger about space radiation is... fantastic. How great is it that today we can live so ignorant of one of the scariest times in human civilization? The everythingburger had to do with the orbital EMP, not the radiation or even the secret tests. If the US had developed…
Some good points there with respect to MAD. Perhaps the article should have made the same case you just did, but that lede was deeply buried if it was in there at all. Instead, the reporters treated it as a matter of concern primarily to the newspaper itself.
Re: Operation Argus: How a Cold-War Secret Was Revealed
#6Does anyone have a link to the NYT article mentioned?
Re: Operation Argus: How a Cold-War Secret Was Revealed
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
To reduce cutting edge nuclear weapons tests, at a time when the USA and USSR were neck deep in an arms race and at each other's throats, to a nothingburger about space radiation is... fantastic. How great is it that today we can live so ignorant of one of the scariest times in human civilization? The everythingburger had to do with the orbital EMP, not the radiation or even the secret tests. If the US had developed…
Some good points there with respect to MAD. Perhaps the article should have made the same case you just did, but that lede was deeply buried if it was in there at all. Instead, the reporters treated it as a matter of concern primarily to the newspaper itself.
The focus of the article is less on the importance of the Argus project, and it's place in the Cold War, and more on illustrating how deeply entwined the supposedly independent press was with the Government, and how the press was effectively self censoring itself due to perceived national security concerns.
Equally important, however, is noticing that ultimately what caused the New York Times to publish was the recognition that the press is a competitive environment, and, (amusingly, given the MAD overtones of any article about the Cold War), it's game theory that dictates that eventually the press will defect from an embargo due to competitive fears of being scooped.
Re: Operation Argus: How a Cold-War Secret Was Revealed
#8The fourth estate seems to have added disappointingly little here. If the government decided they would release details of the program, the NYT would "scoop" them by publishing it a day or two earlier. If the government decided not to release details, the NYT heard nothing, saw nothing, spoke nothing. Not exactly "all the news that's fit to print".
Consider it payment for doing their job. Without this journalism, the government would have probably never been compelled to bother telling anybody about Argus. So the fourth estate seemed to have performed its role perfectly.
Re: Operation Argus: How a Cold-War Secret Was Revealed
#9The fourth estate seems to have added disappointingly little here. If the government decided they would release details of the program, the NYT would "scoop" them by publishing it a day or two earlier. If the government decided not to release details, the NYT heard nothing, saw nothing, spoke nothing. Not exactly "all the news that's fit to print".
I think it's depicted as a little more complicated than that; the New York Times started pressuring the government to let them publish out of fear that another news agency would publish before them; which pushed the government to start doing the release, which prompted the New York Times to do it instead, preventing the government from perpetually delaying the release.
Re: Operation Argus: How a Cold-War Secret Was Revealed
#10Does anyone have a link to the NYT article mentioned?
Can't find a public link; but this appears to be the article, if you have a New York Times subscription.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/03/19/iss...
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/03/19/891...