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FOREWORD

This book recounts the five-day history of a major American scientific crisis

As inthe Androht and foolishness, innocence and ignorance Nearly everyone involved had reat brilliance, and moments of unaccountable stupidity It is therefore i some of the participants

However, I think it is important that the story be told This country supports the largest scientific establishment in the history ofmade, and many of these discoveries have important political or social overtones In the near future, we can expect more crises on the pattern of Andromeda Thus I believe it is useful for the public to be made aware of the way in which scientific crises arise, and are dealt with

In researching and recounting the history of the Androenerous help of ed me to tell the story accurately and in detail

My particular thanks o to Major General Willis A Haverford, United States Army; Lieutenant Everett J Sloane, United States Navy (Ret); Captain L S Waterhouse, United States Air Force (Vandenberg Special Projects Division); Colonel Henley Jackson and Colonel Stanley Friedrich, both of Wright Patterson; and Murray Charles of the Pentagon Press Division

For their help in elucidating the background of the Wildfire Project, I er White, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Houston MSQ; John Roble, NASA Kennedy Coton Hall); Dr Francis Martin, University of California (Berkeley) and the President's Science Advisory Council; Dr Max Byrd, USIA; Kenneth Vorhees, White House Press Corps; and Professor Jonathan Percy of the University of Chicago (Genetics Department)

For their review of relevant chapters of the estions, I wish to thank Christian P Lewis, Goddard Space Flight Center; Herbert Stanch, Avco, Inc; James P Baker, Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Carlos N Sandos, California Institute of Technology; Dr Brian Stack, University of Michigan; Edgar Blalock, Hudson Institute; Professor Linus Kjelling, the RAND Corporation; Dr Eldredge Benson, National Institutes of Health

Lastly, I wish to thank the participants in the Wildfire Project and the investigation of the -so-called Androreed to see me and, with many, my interviews lasted over a period of days Furthermore, I was able to draw upon the transcripts of their debriefing, which are stored in Arlington Hall (Substation Seven) and which aes of typewritten manuscript This material, stored in twenty volumes, represents the full story of the events at Flatrock, Nevada, as told by each of the participants, and I was thus able to utilize their separate viewpoints in preparing a composite account

This is a rather technical narrative, centering on complex issues of science Wherever possible, I have explained the scientific questions, problems, and techniques I have avoided the temptation to simplify both the issues and the answers, and if the reader e of technical detail, I apologize

I have also tried to retain the tension and excitement o events in these five days, for there is an inherent drama in the story of Andromeda, and if it is a chronicle of stupid, deadly blunders, it is also a chronicle of heroisence

MC

Cae, Massachusetts

January 1969