Secret Empire: Eisenhower, the CIA, and the Hidden Story of America's Space Espionage

Philip Taubman

Philip Taubman, deputy editorial page editor of The New York Times and two-time Polk award-winner, tells for the first time the gripping story of one of the great spy enterprises of the twentieth century—the creation of reconnaissance satellites and high-altitude spy planes like the U-2 and supersonic SR-71—in SECRET EMPIRE: Eisenhower, the CIA, and the Hidden Story of America's Space Espionage (Simon & Schuster; March 12, 2003). Drawing on thousands of recently declassified documents and new interviews with dozens of the key figures involved in developing America's space espionage program, Taubman reveals how during the 1950s, President Dwight D. Eisenhower boldly forged a creative partnership with some of the most brilliant men in science and industry. Taking us into secret meetings at the White House, the CIA, and the Pentagon, into the test bases and assembly centers in Nevada and California, and up close to missions in the sky, Taubman uncovers startling information about the origins and evolution of the projects, and how close they came to failing on technical grounds or because of Washington's turf wars and red tape.

Operating in deepest secrecy in locations from coast to coast and around the world, far from the scrutiny of Congress and the media, this handful of patriotic innovators revolutionized the nature of espionage and warfare. They developed a program that protected the nation from surprise attack at the height of the cold war, made it possible to verify arms control agreements with the Soviet Union, and kept the defense budget from ballooning out of control. They laid the foundations for the space-based reconnaissance, communications, and targeting systems used by the American military in the Gulf War and Afghanistan, which would also be employed in any conflict in Iraq. Nevertheless, Taubman contends, America's heavy reliance on technical sources of intelligence eclipsed more traditional forms of espionage that used human spies, making the country more vulnerable to the kinds of terrorist attacks that were carried out on September 11, 2001. Both technological and human means of gathering intelligence must be strengthened in a new era of ingenuity, he argues, as the United States struggles to overcome the current threats to its security.

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