[261] Tuesday, November 1: I was up early to get Ruth packed so that she might take off for Cleveland without delay. I then picked up Ward and we had breakfast with Fred at the Carlton. When we arrived at Butler at 8:45, the IBM plane was ready and we took off immediately for the trip to Huntsville.1 Fred talked over the arrangements for my return to Case while we were enroute. I think everything is in order and I have no complaints. About an hour before we reached Huntsville, I gathered everyone together to tell them something about our organization and what they might expect to see during the course of the next two days. Included in the party were the following: Tom Watson, president of IBM; Dick Watson, president of IBM International; A. L. Williams, executive vice president of IBM; Fred Crawford, chairman of the executive committee of TRW; Chuck Percy, president of Bell & Howell; Keith Funston, president of the New York Stock Exchange; Henry Heald, president of the Ford Foundation; Ward Canaday, president of Overland Corporation. We arrived at Huntsville at 11:00 o'clock their time and were met by von Braun. A briefing to the group detailed the progress on Saturn, and then we had lunch with General Schomburg. I had invited him to speak to the group if he desired, and he certainly made use of the opportunity. He told a very engaging story about the Nike-Zeus system.2 He had the group eating out of his hands and most certainly, it would have ordered the expenditure of $10 billion without very much more nudging. An interesting example of how little some of our best people know about the facts of life in this crazy game.
[262] After lunch, we went to the fabrication shop, the guidance and control laboratories, the computer center and finally to the test stand where the Saturn is installed. They are about two weeks away from a first test firing of the final flight configuration, but they did have a single engine mounted on another test stand that they were going to fire. This was timed very properly so that our group was able to witness a firing of 150 seconds. All were impressed! We were off at 5:00 o'clock for Cape Canaveral, having dinner aboard and arriving at the Cape at 10:00 o'clock. Our folks met us as did the commanding general [of the Air Force Missile Test Center and the Atlantic Missile Range, Major General Leighton I. "Lee"] Davis. We were taken to the Holiday Inn and immediately went to bed, although Fred and I took a half hour walk.
Wednesday, November 2: We were up at 6:30, had a quick breakfast and then off to the base to hear a very good briefing on the activities of the Atlantic Missile Range. Following this, we took the half-hour trip to the Cape where Dr. Debus and his staff gave us a briefing about the NASA activities at the Cape. After lunch with General Davis, we visited the Mercury capsule hanger, the Mercury control center, the Saturn pad and block house and one or two other spots. By this time the party had become very much intrigued by the business and, learning that there was a shot to be made at midnight, five of them decided to stay over. This was really a very good thing but Henry Heald and I managed to get a plane back at 5:00 o'clock from Orlando. Before departing the Cape, let me say that the Mercury control center is really a fine piece of design and logic. Displayed before your eyes is a map of the world with the orbits drawn on it and a moving Mercury capsule to indicate exactly where the capsule is at all times. As many as fifteen or twenty consoles are positioned in various parts of the room so that individuals may monitor various bits of information coming back from the tracking stations around the world and from the capsule itself. The immensity of this project really begins to be impressively demonstrated when one looks at a system of this sort. I should say that we are having strike troubles at the Saturn pad and have been held up six weeks through a jurisdictional argument. Very soon, we must take positive action to clear this. There was a time, not many years ago, when there was no trouble with unions at the Cape. Now it is an old operation and it is ridden with the same jurisdictional and wage disputes as any other operation.
Thursday, November 3: Up early to learn that Juno II went off at the appointed hour of midnight and is successfully in orbit with all channels working.3 Once again, it appears to be a demonstrated fact that we have successes at the Cape when I am not present. If this would insure success, I would never go near the place.
[263] At 10:20, I took off for Houston in a DC-7. There were only twelve people aboard and I had the front compartment all to myself. This was fine because I was able to work all the way to Houston. I was met at the airport by the acting president [of Rice University], Carey Croneis, Dean [of engineering, LeVan] Griffis and Howard Thompson. We repaired immediately to the campus where I spent two hours with Dean Griffis and several of the people who are working on research projects financed by NASA. I had an opportunity to drive about the campus, which has changed a great deal in the past twelve years. Our work is being supervised by Franz Brotzen, formerly of Case. I gave him his Ph. D. several years ago. He is apparently an excellent man, and I wish we had him back at Case in our center for materials sciences. The academic atmosphere at Rice is something to behold - indeed, it is very stimulating.
I drove on out to George Brown's home where I had a cup of coffee with Alice before dressing for the dinner with the Rice University Associates.4 They have a fine organization, copied after Case Associates, although their principal membership comes from individuals. I think I did reasonably well with the speech although I had real competition - Dick Nixon came to town on short notice. There were more than 200 at our dinner and most everyone was cordial and gracious. Back home with George and Alice and off to bed because I had to get up very early in the morning to take my plane to Dallas.
[264] Friday, November 4: At 5:30 I was up and shaving for breakfast with George Brown. I talked with him about several of the Ford Foundation programs and promised to send him information about them. His chauffeur failed to appear, so George dressed very quickly and drove me to the airport. At Dallas, Neil Mallon, chairman of the board of Dresser Industries, met me. He has been trying to get me to agree to go on his board of directors. This, I cannot do but I agreed to take a further look at the matter. After picking up a couple boxes of candy, I took off for Washington where we arrived on time, about 2:00 o'clock in the afternoon. At 3:00 o'clock, the British communications group came in after a two weeks trip around the United States. The members were very gracious and grateful for all that we had done for them but gave us very little in the way of solid information.
We then had a discussion of the means of acquiring the additional pad at Canaveral. The Air Force has decided it cannot take the bigger part of the costs so we have got to find $20 million while it finds $14 million. I think the involved parties are realistic about this and not attempting to get the better of us.
I was so very tired that I went directly home and managed to miss the party to say "goodbye" to Mr. Hiscocks of the British mission to this country.5 I went to bed early.
Saturday, November 5: We spent all morning at the office working over the budget. This was in preparation for a discussion to be held on Monday with the budget wrecking crew consisting of Shapley, Schaub, and Cadle.6 They're really a fine group of people and more often than not are clearly on our side.
I went home without lunch having asked Admiral Bennett to come over to watch the Army-Syracuse game with me. We had several drinks during the afternoon, which did us no harm. Homer Joe Stewart came in about 4:30 with the first copy of the new version of the 10-year plan. They left about 5:00 o'clock and I managed to put together a steak, a salad and some coffee before going off to bed.
Sunday, November 6: This was a day full of work, although I took a little time to watch the "pro" football game. I did it with due regard for atmosphere as I made myself a couple of hot dog sandwiches.
The [presidential] campaign is drawing to a close. We [at NASA] have felt very little in the way of political involvement except for blasts by Johnson and Anfuso accusing us of setting up the two Mercury shots to 7 November. Wouldn't it be funny if the shots went off on schedule and failed to achieve their objective? I suppose then I would hear from the Nixon camp. In any event, I am asking no one about this and we will go ahead as planned. This campaign has been an amazing one. How two men can stand the pace that has been set for so long a period of weeks I [265] just will never understand. Clearly, someone has to find a new answer to this problem. They can't say something new at every whistle stop, and with the television and radio, everyone of the whistle stops is reported to the entire country. Most people to whom we have talked recently have become quite fatigued and out of sorts with the whole operation. I think we still cling to a hope that Nixon will turn the trick. Certainly, he seems to have been closing fast these last few days and has gained a good bit - probably due, at least in part, to help from Ike.
Monday, November 7: The day started out with an 8:30 meeting of the National Security Council. I was there for the first item on the agenda, which was a briefing by John Rubel of the office of the secretary of defense. John gave an excellent picture of the space activities under the various elements of the department of defense. He brought into his discussion certain of the activities of NASA - all in an appropriate fashion. Finally, he discussed the effectiveness of our Aeronautics and Astronautics Coordinating board. At this point, John McCone wrote a note and passed it to me. I kept it and am quoting it here: "In view of the joint NASA/DOD(ARPA) Management Committee, why not consider a merger of NASA, DOD (advanced projects - more than ARPA), AEC (provide full utilization of national labs), Science Advisor to the President into one agency." This is the second time that he has made a suggestion of this kind. It may be that there is more to the suggestion than I presently am able to see. In any event, John is losing no opportunity to push his ideas forward. I think he is a devoted person, but he operates in a peculiar and individualistic manner.
Immediately following the NSC meeting, I joined a group with the Bureau of the Budget and we spent the entire day in going over our program with the budget examiners. They are excellent people, able and tolerant but wise to the ways of an agency on the make. Getting back to the office a little late, I called Shelby Thompson in to discuss further with him the problem of filling the post being vacated by Walter Bonney. Shelby suggested that he might serve as an acting director while retaining his present post. This would serve to bridge the period during which a new administrator would be appointed and would give the new man an opportunity to appoint his own director of public information. This seems like an excellent idea and I believe I will buy it.
Home to a quick supper and then some work and off to bed to listen to the closing statements of each of the candidates. Once again, I'm afraid my prejudices show. It seemed to me that Ike and Lodge and Dick Nixon performed exceedingly well while Kennedy attempted to make a bit of a show of his final appearance. Well, tomorrow will tell!
Tuesday, November 8: Election Day! I was in early and called Shelby Thompson in to tell him that I was going ahead with the proposal that he had made the day before. I then talked to Joe Stein and told him that he would not be appointed to the directorship. We moved immediately into a program review that occupied us through lunch. At 3:00 p.m., I was off to San Francisco, arriving on time to have my first visit with my grandson, Keith III. He's a cute little fellow, healthy and [266] happy and quite apparently, all boy. I didn't quite know how to act - it's been a long time since I had a two month old baby in my hands. Tom and Martha took me on to Rickey's for dinner and we had an opportunity to get the first election returns before they left me for the night. It begins to look bad for Nixon. I was off to bed at 11 o'clock, which is 2:00 a.m. Washington time.
Wednesday, November 9: It seems to be all over. The New York Times conceded very early that Kennedy was the president. It has been a close race and thus far Nixon has not completely given up, apparently. I listened to a good many men who came into the dining room after me. They were all making jokes about the election. Obviously, they were Republican partisans and were making the best of the apparent loss. One of them said, "I don't know what we're going to work for today; Kennedy says we'll all be paid anyway." They turned immediately to business, however.
Smitty DeFrance picked me up and took me to the Ames Research Center. I visited with him for a few moments and then spoke to the senior members of the staff and presented a forty-year service pin to Smitty. While at the center, I called Hugh Dryden but was too early to catch him before he went into the cabinet meeting. This was one meeting I was sorry to miss. The president had called it for 11:00 o'clock, presumably to discuss the transition to a new administration. Smitty took me into San Francisco, where I met the people from the Stanford Research Institute and spoke at their luncheon. Dean Taggart of the New York University School of Business spoke during the morning session and stated that we were in a slight recession, which he thought would extend for at least eight months. I gave my usual roundup of NASA business and it seemed to be very well received. There were 450 businessmen there - an excellent audience.
As I left the hotel to go back to Tom's apartment, I was handed a bag containing a bottle of liquor, a very nice memorandum pad and a beautiful alligator wallet. I reached Tom's apartment about 3:30 - he was not yet home from school.7 Martha and I had a good talk together, and when he came in we enjoyed a martini while Martha cooked up a wonderful dinner. She gave us Cornish game hens, what she called a "poor man's wild rice" and a fresh salad with green goddess dressing, finishing up with Camembert and fruit. I must say that my children seem to be able to put out really good food when they try. We had excellent conversation and then off to the airport where they left me. My plane was delayed an hour but we arrived in Baltimore the next morning less than a half hour late. I had taken two sleeping pills and managed to get a fair amount of sleep.
Thursday, November 10: [The] staff [meeting] at 8:30 was almost all given over to discussion of the results of the election. I had talked to Hugh Dryden [267] who felt very badly about the cabinet meeting. Apparently, the president was deeply hurt by the results of the election and has stiffened in his determination to have a balanced budget, come what may. It is easy to see how the extremes of expression during the course of an election campaign can cut deeply. I do believe that Ike will be his old self in a few days, but I sympathize with his feelings today.
At 9:30, I settled with Ostrander and Hyatt the organizational changes that will bring Hyatt into my office as director of the office of program [planning] and evaluation. Then I talked to both Joe Stein and Walter Bonney to tell them what I was going to do with respect to the temporary headship of the public information office. Neither one seemed very happy. At 10 o'clock I called a meeting of the staff of the public information office and gave it a blunt and straightforward story. I was very much pleased with the general attitude and believe that, once the shock is over, the staff will perform in a very satisfactory manner. I am sure the individuals there would not have enjoyed having Shelby Thompson as their permanent boss. They do seem to respect him but he is not the same sort of easy-going good fellow that Walter has been. On the other hand, Shelby does a much better job than Walter ever did.
At 10:30 Frutkin came in to propose a cocktail party for the group of men who are working with us on post-doctoral fellowships or those from other countries. We agreed on a date of 9 December. Later in the day, I had a talk with Jim Gleason about the desirability of sending congratulatory letters to those members of our committee who had gone through the election and won. He suggested that we hold off a bit on this. At 3:15 I asked Shapley from the Bureau of the Budget to come over in an attempt to get from him some ideas of the level to which the BOB intends to cut our budget. I guessed at $1.15 billion - we now stand at $1.4 billion. Understandably I got no information. At 4 o'clock I had a long talk with Bob Nunn about his proposal to build a launch complex from which commercial satellites could be launched. He has become enamored of this idea, and it was a little difficult to make him understand just how impossible it would be to undertake such a project. He is a good man, however, and I am sure will go forward without prejudice.
Friday, November 11: This is a holiday. I had not expected it to be and thus had set up a breakfast with General Persons in the White House. Persons has been appointed by the president to be responsible for developing the liaison with the incoming administration. This was not a bad meeting. I told him what we planned to do and he approved of it. This will consist largely of providing an incoming administrator with memoranda defining our organizational philosophy and the interface relationships, both within and outside the agency. I asked Jerry to set up a meeting with Stans to talk over our budget. I've always found it is better to attack than to wait until the attack is carried to us. Returning to the office about 9:00 o'clock, I spent the morning preparing the speech I am to give in New York next Wednesday. At noon, I went home, worked some more on the speech, and had a long walk with Ruth. We went to the Army and Navy Club at 6:00 o'clock to attend a surprise party given by Captain Engleman for his wife. I had known Chris a good many years ago [268] but had never met his wife. It seemed a good idea to have a pheasant dinner at La Salle du Bois where we had a fine meal with wine. We then moved on to the Cosmos Club to attend the Swarthmore Concert and to pick up the boy friend of one of Polly's girl friends. David Harr is a Swarthmore graduate of the class of 1960 and is presently doing his six months' turn in the army. Cay Hall, from Cleveland, one of Polly's classmates, has been going with him and he had come in from Fort Knox, Kentucky for the weekend. We provided them with a car and I guess they had a good time.
Saturday, November 12: More speech writing after taking Dave to the appointed place so that he could take the bus back to Swarthmore with Cay. Again, Ruth and I had a good walk and I spent most of the afternoon looking at a football game.
Sunday, November 13: This was a lazy day with just enough work to keep me from becoming bored. Again, Ruth and I had a long walk and then Kent and Estelle Van Horn came in for dinner.8 Ruth had one of her usual excellent meals - this time a couple of pheasants I had shot last year. The conversation was good and we exchanged viewpoints on education, politics, grandchildren and children.
Monday, November 14: This was a fairly full day. Several discussions with staff members in the morning were followed by an interview with Howard Simons of Think magazine. This is the IBM magazine, which is fairly widely distributed. It was not a bad interview. In fact, I rather enjoyed it. In the early afternoon I talked with Shelby Thompson about the release announcing his appointment and Bonney's departure. Of more importance to Shelby was the fact that he is becoming worried about money. For some reason, we have not cranked him into our budgetary operation. I just don't understand this but we certainly will have to improve in this department next year. I'll ask him to put the figures together and we will have another look.
A man by the name of Marvin Robinson came in to see me. Frutkin is interested in him. Robinson seems to be a sensible person but has very little apparent drive. Evidently, he has had a good bit of experience in working with industry in other countries, and it may well be that he will turn out to be a good second man [in the office of international programs].9 Then came Louis Kraar of the Wall Street Journal and with him John Spivak who turned out to be the son of [Lawrence] Spivak on "Meet the Press." This, too, was a rather pleasant interview. It will be interesting to see what comes of it. At 4:15, John Johnson came in and we talked about the impending strike at Canaveral. As a matter of fact, it appears that the [269] electricians have decided not to work since we have gone ahead with our plan to have government employees handle the installation in the Saturn block house. We will be prepared to seek an injunction without delay. While we were in conference, word came that the strike is on. At 4:30, Bonney came in to say good-bye and I wished him well and do hope that he finds satisfaction in his new job.
One or two more meetings and it was time for me to go to get dressed for dinner with John and Mrs. McCone. We found that we were joining General and Mrs. Schriever and Cardinal [James Francis Aloysius] McIntyre. The Cardinal is a pleasant fellow and we had quite a good evening. However, I was somewhat shocked by the complete lack of understanding on the part of Mrs. McCone of the real problems in our provision of economic aid to other countries.
Tuesday, November 15: This morning, Hugh and I spent three hours with the President's Science Advisory Committee. We listened first to a report on Nike-Zeus in which Herb York participated. The story was somewhat different from the one given by General Schomburg in Huntsville a few days ago. Clearly this is not an easy matter to deal with and most significantly so when so much emotion is involved. The second part of the session was given over to the report of the ad hoc man-in-space panel, which had heard the presentation given by our people two or three weeks ago. The members of the panel were very flattering in their remarks about that presentation, and the discussion was brisk and pertinent. Obviously, these scientists are not interested in devoting large amounts of the national treasure and the national manpower to putting a man on the moon. In this, they are not alone. I am convinced that this will be done one day, but I am not at all certain that it is a matter of prime importance. When one starts to talk about the prestige of the United States resting on the question, "When do we get a man on the moon?," it seems clear that all sense of perspective has gone out the window. Clearly, with the probability that at least ten years must elapse before we can accomplish the feat of putting a man on the moon, the leadership and stature of the United States will no longer be in question. Either we will be the leader or we will not!
Hugh and I went to the White House mess for lunch and then I came back to have further talk with [Robert] Nunn about the communications satellite business. A meeting is being arranged for later this week so a group of us can talk over the proposed paper for the cabinet and other matters that are pertinent to this project. At 1:30 Mr. S. Gacki of "Radio Free Europe," who seems to be the senior Polish editor for that organization and a Mr. Smialowski came in to record an interview for broadcast over their network. The entire process took only fifteen minutes. Either I am getting used to these interviews or they are becoming more routine and easier for me. At 2:00, Abe Silverstein and I took off for the Goddard Space Flight Center. This was my first visit to the center since the buildings have been occupied.10 They are really quite crowded but when the entire center is [270] completed, they are going to have a fine research laboratory. It was good to go into the many laboratories and see the hardware being prepared for flight sometime during 1961. There is a good crew at Goddard - eager and well qualified if I am a good judge in these matters. As we drove back, Abe spoke again of his concern over the way he had "blown his stack" at JPL a couple of weeks ago. We took counsel as to how he might regain some of the ground he thinks he has lost. Once again, I am impressed with the sincerity and obvious energy of Abe Silverstein.
Wednesday, November 16: We had staff meeting early this morning because I will not be in tomorrow at the regular hour. At 9:45, Hugh Dryden and I met with General Persons and Maury Stans of the Budget Bureau. Two or three of Stans' assistants were present. We discussed generally the problems of the NASA budget and the president's determination that a balanced budget will be presented to Congress. Obviously, we are going to have to come down somewhat, and there will be an attempt to avoid a supplemental. It is pleasant, however, to find that we can talk together on matters of this kind without rancor or unnecessary strain.
At 10:45, [Assistant Director] J. D. McKenney of JPL came in to voice his concern over the possibility that a new administration would throw sand in the gears. He was concerned that a new administrator might not understand the operating mechanisms that have been established and the importance of continuing with the project manager setup we have established. I reassured him. I don't know quite what his real problem might have been.
At 11 o'clock, Hugh and I met with the directors of the various offices and went over the discussion we had had earlier with Stans. I asked the boys to come back on Friday afternoon with a cut of at least $150 million and with an indication of what they could do beyond that figure. While their faces were a bit long, they took the news in good spirit and indicated that they had been through this kind of an exercise before. At 1:45, I left for New York on Northeast Airlines Flight #118. At 6 o'clock I spoke to the International Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials at the Hotel New Yorker. I think my paper was a good one for the conference although I am sure that it will make no headlines. It was a strange group - a very highly trained and intense group of research and development people - in that I seemed to know only two or three people among the three or four hundred present. I guess I just don't travel in a magnetic path.
Thursday, November 17: Up at 6:15 to catch a 7:25 plane back to Washington. I managed to get a little work done on the plane and then moved into a meeting at 9:30 immediately upon my return. This was a discussion of the legislative program we will present to Congress in January. There wasn't too much argument about it but I did enjoy resisting the pressure of certain members of the staff who were desirous of introducing legislation to give the administrator authority to pay salaries that are competitive with industry. When one considers that we are the best paid agency in government, and when one recognizes that congressmen are paid only $22,500, it would seem wise to let well enough alone. The human being is an acquisitive animal, however, and I guess I shouldn't be too [271] critical of these fine members of my staff. We are going to introduce the same legislative package we presented last year - much of it taken directly from the bill that passed the House. It will be remembered that the Senate took no action on that bill, so we have to go through the whole fight all over again. I hope we can do as well this time as we did last time on the patent clauses.
I took lunch with Admiral Arleigh Burke and Admiral Hayward at the Pentagon. It seemed to be a purely social affair. We did a lot of guessing about the appointments yet to be made by Kennedy. Admiral Burke offered to bet me that I would remain in Washington for at least another six months. That will be the day! The rest of the afternoon was taken up with a variety of appointments, none of which seems sufficiently important to chronicle here.
Friday, November 18: The morning was a rather leisurely one - it seems to be the calm before the storm - but I managed to get some work done. At 11:00 o'clock Mrs. Ruth Brod who is known on [ABC-TV's] "College News Conference" as Miss Ruth Hagy came in to talk over the TV program on which I am to appear on Sunday. Apparently, the program is being taken off the air and I am to take part in the last of this nine-and-a-half-year-old series. She is a very pleasant person and we agreed on several questions to be asked. It is a pleasure to have someone want to know what should be discussed. At 12:15, I walked over to the White House Mess and had a light lunch.
Back at the office, we had the meeting on the communications satellite paper for the cabinet. This turned out to be a brisk discussion and one in which I think I finally made the boys understand my attitude toward the development of this program. I am determined to get it on track before I leave NASA. There seems to be great fear - perhaps well founded - that we will be accused of avoiding competition. I think we can set up a program where competition will exist but where those who want to take the risk - in this instance, AT&T - will be given a real chance to move forward. At 3:00 o'clock, we started on the budget session and it lasted until six. The boys came in with a cut of $150 million, and I think we will be prepared to talk turkey with Stans. To go beyond this cut will mean taking some significant projects entirely out of the program. This can be done but I doubt the wisdom of such a move. On the other hand, when the boss is determined, it is clear to me that he will give us strict orders to comply. If this turns out to be the case, I will have my say and then will carry out his instructions.
Saturday, November 19: There is nothing much to record about the happenings of this day. I read a bit in the morning, walked with Ruth, and then watched the Yale-Harvard football game. Yale won going away. In the midst of it Kent Smith called to say that he would not be able to make the Case Club dinner tonight. I am very sorry about this - not because of the Case Club dinner but because Kent and I were going to talk at some length with John Hrones on the morrow. The dinner went very well indeed, there being about seventy in attendance. I gave a most inadequate talk - I don't know what was wrong with me - and the club gave Ruth and myself a beautiful Steuben vase. This was a great surprise to me and I suspect [272] that Frank Gregory, the president of the club and a negro graduate of Case in the class of 1928, had much to do with this action. He is assistant superintendent of schools in the city of Washington and is a truly fine American. All-in-all, it was an interesting and pleasant evening.
Sunday, November 20: John Hrones came out for breakfast at 9:00 o'clock and we worked until 12:45. We made a good bit of progress in dealing with organizational and other matters of immediate concern at Case. It is too bad that Kent wasn't here for we could have dealt with some problems that must be discussed when the three of us are together. Perhaps this can be done next Tuesday. At 1:00 o'clock Ruth and I went to the studio and prepared for the "College News Conference." The five students were wonderful and I thoroughly enjoyed the entire operation. Ruth seemed to think I did well. It is always difficult for the participant to know exactly what the reaction of a television audience will be, but I do believe that I was responsive to the questions and I hope I did violence to no particular person or organization in government.
Back to the apartment and John and I spent another hour in going over matters requiring attention. Among these, a Ford Foundation proposal and the question of advancements in rank for several persons on the campus seemed most important. It is a pleasure to work with John. He is aggressive, demanding and full of energy. He is quite willing, however, to take suggestions and I know that our association when I return to the campus is going to be a very productive one. We took John to the airport and then Ruth and I went to the Carriage House for dinner. This was the 353rd monthly anniversary of our wedding and we celebrated with champagne cocktails and a very good dinner. Back to the house and early to bed although we spent - that is, I spent - about two hours watching television shows. What a waste of time!
Monday, November 21: Let me say a bit about the situation in Washington as I see it today. There is a kind of a hush over the whole scene. Much speculation goes on about the appointments Mr. Kennedy will make. There seems to be sort of an apprehension on the part of many of the members of the administration - I suppose this is natural. As for NASA, we are preparing the necessary briefings to give authorized people a good picture of our operation. I find that many of my staff are coming in to urge me to reconsider and stay on. I think they are sincere although it is wholly possible that they are convinced that it is better to stay with a man they know than to chance an operation with a person whose convictions and methods are unknown to them. Mr. Eisenhower has given every appearance that he is going down to the end of the wire with a firm hand on the throttle. This week he has ordered heavy restrictions on spending in foreign countries, including a drastic reduction in the number of dependents of servicemen who will be maintained abroad. Our good friend Brucker immediately opened his mouth and spoke in seeming opposition to the president's order. What a ham! Ike also ordered the Atlantic fleet to patrol the waters between Cuba and Central America. The purpose is to prevent the transport of invasion forces or arms to "rebels" in [273] Guatemala and Nicaragua. All of these moves, drastic as they may be, seem to meet with approval in the press and in the circles in which I move. Government is a complex mechanism and the man who sits in the White House carries a really heavy load.
This appears to be the beginning of a very tough week in spite of the fact that Thanksgiving will be a holiday. We are approaching the "moment of truth" with respect to our budget. The labor problem at Cape Canaveral is not yet settled. Nothing is known of the intentions of the new administration with respect to our agency and program. We have two shots coming up this week. Mercury-Redstone I was fired this morning without success. Something happened in the Redstone launch vehicle, which triggered off the escape power while the rocket engine was shut down and the capsule remained intact. On the bright side is the fact that the capsule can be used again, and it is probable that the Redstone can as well. Naturally, the press will beat us over the head and forecast failure for the entire program. Siepert and Rosenthal came in for a brief discussion of the budget and of a change in their organizational alignments. At 10:00 o'clock, I talked with Dr. Kistiakowsky about our budget. I found him resigned to the inevitable - that President Eisenhower is going to balance the budget, come hell or high water. George seems to feel that our program will not be supported as generously as we would like, but he does feel that there is a high probability that the incoming administration may increase the funding with the usual blasts at "false economy" on the part of the outgoing administration.
While with Dr. Kistiakowsky I had a chance to talk with [Jerome] Wiesner of MIT, who has been science advisor to Kennedy and is spoken of as the probable successor to Dr. Kistiakowsky.11 I probed as much as I could with respect to the appointment calendar for new men in jobs such as mine. I was asked whether or not I would stay; the answer was no. Later in the day Dr. Wiesner called me to ask whether I would accept any other job in the administration, and again I said no. I did express my willingness to be available at a somewhat later date should the need arise. I expressed it in the sense that I felt strongly about individuals accepting responsibility in Washington under appropriate circumstances. Having done this on two occasions, I am sure they know what appropriate circumstances means.
Frutkin came in to report about his trip to Europe. Apparently, he received excellent assurances from the British, the French and the Spanish with respect to their providing assistance in the Mercury recovery operation. We talked about a deputy for Frutkin, raising some questions in his mind about the capabilities of the man he has in mind. Seamans was gone all last week so he and I had lunch to discuss the results of his visit to a variety of industrial plants on the West Coast. Later in the day, Mr. Shapley of the Bureau of the Budget came over to review with me the progress we had made in meeting the desires of the bureau. He is a very friendly [274] and capable person and is mindful of the necessity for avoiding promises or guesses as to the outcome of budgetary negotiations. We have been having a continuing problem with respect to the determination of the size of operation we want in the area of technical information and educational assistance. The budget has fluctuated back and forth until it is time to get down to business with it. Accordingly, Shelby Thompson, Mel Day, Seamans, Dryden, Siepert and Rosenthal came in at 5:00 o'clock for a discussion. It is quite apparent that we cannot afford the program Shelby would like to undertake. On the other hand, we ought to be building toward that goal and I asked that they come in with a program that will approximate the one Shelby now wants but with accomplishment dates set over two or three years rather than in the present budget year.
Tuesday, November 22: More discussions during the morning about budget but nothing much of interest occurred. At 11:30, I left for Cleveland where I expected to spend some time on the Case campus. I was met by John Hrones and Kent Smith and we immediately started the discussions, which carried on until 4:00 o'clock. Decisions were taken with respect to the Ford Foundation proposal and several other matters of importance. As the time approaches when I will be back on the campus, I find it necessary to take a more definitive role in the decision-making that appears to be necessary.
Wednesday, November 23: Up very early and off to Washington on the 8:00 o'clock flight. I had set up a meeting with Dryden, Seamans, Silverstein, Hyatt and Cortright to discuss the budget situation and some major problem areas. These are the areas where decisions must be made or where the deferral of a decision to the next administration is made to appear rational and sound. We talked about Project Apollo - the follow-on to Project Mercury - the C-2 version of Saturn, the Rover program, the ultimate assignment of a home for the manned space flight program, etc.12 I found the comments of the group very helpful and achieved a degree of unanimity on my proposals that was gratifying. A Mr. William Neumeyer came in at 11:30 for a visit at my request. He seems to be a good man and I have referred him to Arnold Frutkin as a possible candidate for the job I spoke of last Monday. Lunch with Mr. [T. Roland] Berner, president of the Curtiss-Wright Corporation, and Garry Norton [president of the Institute for Defense Analysis] at the Mayflower was a rather dull affair. It appeared that Berner had asked us to come to lunch so that he might invite us to become members of the board of the National Planning Association. This was dealt with without very much loss of time and I dashed back to the office to meet with a Negro - by name, Dr. Ambrose Calever - who is the president of the Adult Education Association of the United States. Shelby Thompson picked up the ball for me and discussed our possible involvement with [275] the work of the Adult Education Association. Certainly, we ought to be cooperative and will probably have to provide materials just as we are for other levels of education. One cannot have an enlightened electorate without this sort of educational activity.
At long last, Shelby Thompson and Bob Seamans got together with me on the Columbia Broadcasting TV series we have been discussing for several weeks. It appears to be difficult to make decisions that stick on matters of this kind. Shelby is very much afraid that he cannot withstand the pressure of the NBC group in seeking out opportunities for documentary programs that will conflict with the work we would be doing with CBS. I finally gave the problem back to Shelby and asked him to come up with a proper answer. I managed to keep very busy until time to go home to see Sally, Polly and Fred Watts who were to be with us over the Thanksgiving holiday. We had a pleasant evening with a good dinner followed by a walk. I think we all needed the walk in order to get in shape for the morrow.
Thursday, November 24: Thanksgiving Day! I neglected to remark yesterday on the fact that we are in trouble on our labor negotiations at Cape Canaveral. Our own Civil Service employees have gone back to work and the craft and industrial unions are beginning to walk off the job. This would be all right if it were only our own job but they are spreading the walk-out to other construction and installation jobs being done for the Air Force. Naturally, this puts pressure on us because the Air Force does not want to become the victim of a secondary strike of this kind. At 9:00 o'clock, Seamans, Johnson, Sohier and Siepert came to the apartment for an hour's discussion of the problem. It appeared that there was a possible solution available to us. This would require us to employ union men directly on the government payroll, brigading them with our own employees who would then simply supervise the union men. The Civil Service Commission may have something to say about this and we finally decided that we had better call the people from Huntsville to see us tomorrow morning.
During this conference, the kids were getting up and by-passing the living room by using the hallway between the kitchen and main apartment doors. Various noises were issuing from the kitchen as they rather loudly demanded their rights with respect to breakfast. Finally, the gang left and we did finish up the breakfast at 10:30. Immediately, I set to the task of making a gallon of whiskey sours and by 11:00 o'clock we were on the way to Harper's Ferry and the Blue Ridge Rod and Gun Club where the Adams clan will gather today for the Thanksgiving dinner. Fifty persons, thirty adults and twenty children, sat down to dinner. It was fun and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. We arrived home about 6:30 without incident. I tried to get a little bit of work done before the Friday sessions but was not too successful.
Friday, November 25: What a day! At 8:15, the Mercury Project group came in to discuss the posture to be taken in the press conference we are holding to explain the failure of the Mercury-Redstone shot on Monday last. They did an excellent job in the press conference and we did actually seem to make some [276] impression on the newspaper people. Naturally, the headlines were very much smaller as the explanation of a failure - great headlines are only good when one can say there has been a failure. I forgot to mention on Wednesday that Tiros II was launched on schedule and seems to be performing well except for the wide-angle camera. Some electrical interference is present - it may clear up later but we are a bit crushed by this failure. Actually, all of the other elements in the satellite are working very well and will give us a great deal of information. The shot should be termed about 95% successful.13
At 9:00 o'clock, we began a discussion of the long-range plan. This took the combined efforts of all concerned through 1:00 o'clock. The plan is in very much better shape than it was a year ago and I think we will have a useful document. At 11:00 o'clock, I broke away from the group with Bob Seamans and we sat down with Al Siepert and Kurt Debus to discuss the labor problem. After an hour's discussion, it appeared to me necessary that we go forward with the injunction, thus reversing the decision we had made on Thanksgiving Day. Apparently, discussions with the Civil Service Commission had been fruitful and we can count on real help there. The introduction of the Labor Department into the picture with Secretary Mitchell taking a hand has brought new elements into the controversy. We did say that we would go forward with the request for an injunction through the National Labor Relations Board and so advised the mediator, Mr. Finegan, and Secretary of Labor Mitchell.
At 2:30, Dryden and I met with Stans at the Bureau of the Budget. He was shocked at our unwillingness to reduce our figure to the extent he had asked. He was willing to listen, however, and so was I. We ended up by agreeing to go back and take another hard look. There is now about $170 million dollars between us and I hope that I can buy peace with a reduction of perhaps half of that. We have set a meeting for Saturday morning to deal with this problem. I dashed directly from the Budget Bureau meeting to the Department of Labor where I found the boys in session with Jim Mitchell. He wound up the meeting by suggesting that he talk with the international presidents of the plumbers and electrical workers' unions on Saturday morning. This seemed a good solution because Jim was agreeable to our going ahead with the injunction if he did not obtain a useful result from his discussion with these union representatives.14
[277] Right away back to the office where I met with Dr. Reichelderfer of the Weather Bureau and General Yates of the Department of Defense. We were in a controversy over the best method of organizing to determine the characteristics to be built into a weather satellite beyond the present Tiros and Nimbus series. Hugh Dryden had been talking with them and they had developed a compromise solution that I bought without delay. Thus ends another day - or at least, part of a day. At home, I found Ruth about ready for dinner with friends of Polly and Fred. It was a pleasant dinner party and the kids went off to the movies about 9:00 o'clock.
Saturday, November 26: Down to the office at 9:30 for the budget meeting. We carried this on through lunch and managed to strip out about $75 million. I believe the budget examiners agree that we have done a sensible job and I am at the point where I will do no more without an audience with the president. I hope we can avoid this and that Stans will agree to the proposal we now have, which would bring us a budget of about $1.16 billion for FY 1962.15 In the midst of the budget sessions, Jim Mitchell called to say that he had worked out a compromise whereby the men would all go back to work at the Cape on Monday and a fact-finding committee would be appointed to look into the basic issues in the dispute. I bought this immediately as a reasonable solution and will proceed with setting up our representation on that committee. A visit to the American Airlines ticket office relieved me of $1,311 for aircraft transportation for the family to the West Coast over the Christmas holidays. The girl said this was the largest single check she had ever taken in there. I don't wonder. Following this bit of business, I met the children and Ruth at the theater where we saw Little Moon over Alban. It was played beautifully by Julie Harris and company. Both Sally and I thought it could have ended a little bit earlier but all agreed that it was good theater.
Sunday, November 27: Ruth and I took a long walk this morning and are now in the process of building a luncheon for the kids before they return to Swarthmore. Sally and I will take off this afternoon for Cleveland where I am to spend some time on the Case campus tomorrow morning and to go hunting with Ab Higley in the afternoon. During the course of the day, many telephone calls resulted in our getting set on the labor negotiation problem for tomorrow. There is no rest for the wicked in these jobs!
Monday, November 28: This was another very full day but in a slightly different way. Having taken Sally to Hathaway-Brown at 8:00 o'clock, I went directly down to Case to await the arrival of Kent. [Describes various pieces of Case business.] Returning to the house, I heated up a bowl of soup and waited for Ab Higley to pick me up. At 1:15, we were on our way, [describes hunting trip on which the party bagged eight pheasants plus two that the dogs caught].
[278] Tuesday, November 29: Up at 7:30, and off to the hunt with Ab and Doc about 9:00 o'clock. We shot quail, chukkers partridge and pheasant until noon. It was a windy and slightly chilly day but everything went well. I managed to hit a few birds although this was my first attempt at anything other than pheasant. I must say that I enjoy watching the dogs work as much as shooting - perhaps a little more. After a quick lunch, Ab, Birkett and I drove back to the city for the annual meeting of the Case Board of Trustees. Birkett went on down to his place of business, of course. The trustees' meeting was an exceedingly good one. [Describes it.] Kent took me to the airport and we managed to talk over three or four more items before time for my departure. We were about an hour late and Ruth met me in Washington.
Wednesday, November 30: This was another very full day. At 7:15, I picked up Bob Nunn and we walked over to the White House for breakfast with General Persons. Andy Goodpaster joined us as we discussed the communications satellite business. Persons is anxious that we get on with this job so that the president can mention it in his State of the Union message. He is no more anxious than I! But there are many problems facing us and we need to be reasonably certain of our ground before we step off too rapidly. Back at the office, Frutkin came in at 9:15 to talk over the results of his trip to Europe and to inform me of his decision with respect to the employment of a deputy in his office. At 10:45, Shapley of the Bureau of the Budget came together with Seamans and Rosenthal to review the results of our budgetary activities over the weekend. He seemed quite satisfied that we had done a reasonable job and agreed to so state to Mr. Stans. At 11:30, Homer Joe Stewart came in to say that he planned to leave a week from now. This is just as well; he will have finished the rewriting of the ten-year report and Abe Hyatt is already on the job.
Lunch with Seamans and Silverstein gave us an opportunity to talk about the budget, organizational and other matters. Back at the office for a briefing on zero G research by Irv Pinckel of Lewis.16 This phenomenon is little understood and is important to us in our launch vehicle program. It appears that effective work is being done, but I am not sure that we are pushing it as hard as we should. Later in the day, Abe Hyatt came in to discuss his thinking about the operation of the program planning and evaluation office. He is an excellent choice for this job and is well thought of throughout the nation. I think he is going to do a good job. Later Commander Jenkins of the Navy Department came over to talk about the public information director's job. He seems a pleasant and able person but there is the constant problem of placing another uniformed man in our top structure. I had him [279] talk to Shelby Thompson. At 3:15, Bob Nunn and Jim Gleason came in to counsel with me about the communications satellite program from the standpoint of congressional relations. At 5:00 o'clock, Reichelderfer of the Weather Bureau and Ed Cortright came in to talk about the developing picture in meteorological satellites. I think we have this one on track at long last.
A little later, Seamans, Ulmer and Rosenthal came in to review the budgetary preparations for my meeting with Stans to be held on Friday morning. I then stopped by the Mayflower for the annual party given by J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI boys. I did not stay long. I was so tired when I got home that I went to bed immediately and Ruth gave me dinner in bed.
1. As Glennan stated in a letter, "The purpose of the visit is that of acquainting very important and responsible men with some of our activities in the space field." The visit was not only to Huntsville but to the launch facilities at Cape Canaveral. (Letter, T. Keith Glennan to Major General August Schomburg, Commanding General U.S. Army Ordnance Missile Command, 26 October 1960, Glennan subsection, NASA Historical Reference Collection.)
2. Nike-Zeus was the first U.S. anti-missile missile. It was part of a complex antimissile system, on which the Western Electric Company had been working for the Army since 1955, that came to be called Nike-X in 1963. Nike-Zeus successfully intercepted an ICBM fired from Vandenberg AFB in 1962. When in September 1967 Secretary of Defense Robert F. McNamara decided to deploy a limited anti-ballistic missile defense system for the U.S. employing elements of the Nike-X, it was called Sentinel. And in 1969 when it was modified further, the name changed to Safeguard. (Fred S. Hoffman, "Space Missile-Killer Gets Go-Ahead," The Washington Post, 29 September 1965 in "Army Nike-X" folder, NASA Historical Reference Collection; A History of Engineering and Science in the Bell System: National Service in War and Peace (1925-1975), M. D. Fagen, ed. [Bell Telephone Laboratories, 1978], pp. 394, 410, 434, 462-463.)
3. This was the launch of Explorer VIII by a four-stage Juno II launch vehicle. The Juno II consisted of an extended Jupiter missile as its first stage plus 2nd-4th upper stages consisting, respectively, of 11, 3, and 1 scaled-down Sergeant missiles. Built at Marshall and designed to study the ionosphere, Explorer VIII measured the influx rate of micrometeoroids and discovered layers of helium in the upper atmosphere. (NASA Historical Data Book, Vol. II, pp. 46-47, 238.)
4. George Brown was an engineer and corporate executive who was chairman of the board of trustees at Rice.
6. William F. Schaub was chief of the military division at the Bureau of the Budget. Shapley (see biographical appendix) worked under him, and presumably Cadle did also. He may have been the Don D. Cadle who later went to work for NASA in the resource programming directorate.
7. He was working on a Ph.D. in economics at Stanford after graduating from Swarthmore in electrical engineering and taking a masters degree in industrial management at M.I.T.
8. Kent Van Horn had a Ph.D. from Yale (1929) and was a research metallurgist with the Aluminum Company of America, having been its director of research since 1952. He and his wife were obviously friends of the Glennans.
9. In fact, Robinson appears in the March 1961 Headquarters telephone directory as a member of that office, headed by Frutkin. He resigned his post as deputy director of the office in August 1963 to serve as scientific secretary to the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space of the U.N. ("Marvin W. Robinson," miscellaneous NASA biographical files and telephone directory, NASA Historical Reference Collection.)
10. Construction at Goddard began on 24 April 1959, and by September 1960, building 1 had been fully occupied and other buildings were well on their way to completion, although personnel for the center were still widely scattered from Anacostia in the District of Columbia to Silver Spring, Maryland. (Rosenthal, Venture into Space, p. 31.)
11. Wiesner was in fact special assistant to the president for science and technology from 1961-1964.
12. C-2 was one of three interim configurations of Saturn between the C-1 (renamed Saturn I) and the C-5 (redesignated Saturn V). C-2 actually consisted of two sub-configurations, one with four stages and the other with three, but it, the C-3, and the C-4 were each cancelled in turn for a more powerful launch vehicle. (Brooks, Grimwood, Swenson, Chariots for Apollo, p. 47.)
13. Tiros II had two television cameras, one with a wide-angle and the other with a narrow-angle lens. Because of defocusing of the wide-angle lens, the pictures were not of as high a quality as had been those of Tiros I, but the satellite collected much useful data through its infrared experiment and the cameras transmitted many useful cloud pictures despite the defocusing. (NASA Historical Data Book, Vol. II, p. 353; NASA Space Missions since 1958, pp. 36-37.)
14. According to the Washington Daily News, 28 Nov. 1960, the negotiations were at least temporarily successful. In line with what Glennan states below in the diary, it announced that construction work on launch facilities for the Saturn "missile" would resume that day following partial settlement of a labor dispute. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry agreed to have Secretary Mitchell name a committee to recommend a permanent settlement of the dispute. (Reprinted in NASA Current News, 29 Nov. 1960.)
15. In fact, the January 1961 Eisenhower budget submission for FY 1962 was roughly $1.11 billion. With amendments, supplemental appropriations, etc. by the Kennedy administration, the final adjusted appropriations for FY 1962 came to roughly $1.82 billion. (NASA Historical Data Book, Vol. I, p. 138.)
16. "G," of course, is the symbol used to denote gravity or its effects, in particular the acceleration it produces. Zero G denotes the state of weightlessness that occurs in space outside the gravitational influence of a planet or other large body.
