Part 2 of 2, digging on Rand Corp
CIA Vault “The Family Jewels”
https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/document/0001451843
The Rand Corporation: The Think Tank That Controls AmericaBY THE MAG. JUNE 30, 2009
http://mentalfloss.com/article/22120/rand-corporation-think-tank-controls-america
By the 1960s, America's rivals were paying attention. The Soviet newspaper Pravdanicknamed RAND "the academy of science and death and destruction." American outfits preferred to call them the "wizards of Armageddon."
By the early 1960s, RAND had established itself as a fixture of U.S. policy. Branching out from straight rocket science, the think tank had become the center of the nation's nuclear strategy.
One high-profile RAND genius, John Williams, developed game theory to predict how the cagey Soviet Union might act during conflict.
The theory was a perfect fit for RAND, an organization that continually sought to impose objective reality on an irrational world. Another genius, mathematician Albert Wohlstetter, came up with the fail-safe concept, which saved the world from nuclear conflagration several times. The idea called for a series of checkpoints for bombers armed with nuclear weapons. If a bomber pilot failed to receive confirmation at any checkpoint, he would abandon the mission and turn the plane around. Once, in 1979, a mistake by a telephone operator led to a transmission that the United States was under nuclear attack from Moscow. Ten fighters from three separate bases took to the air armed with nuclear missiles. But in the end, because of Wohlstetter's fail-safe system, none of them deployed their weapons.
Through the years, RAND's sphere of influence became more visible. In the 1960s, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara hired scores of its young researchers—dubbed the "Whiz Kids"—to reorganize the Pentagon. But perhaps the thing that most solidified RAND's reputation in the public's imagination was the release of the Stanley Kubrick film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb in 1964.
Spinning a World Wide Web
RAND is directly responsible for packet switching, the technology that made the Internet possible. It all started in the 1960s, when the military asked RAND researchers to solve a hypothetical question: If the Soviet Union destroyed all of our communication systems with a nuclear bomb, how could we fight back? Instead, the creation of a worldwide packet-switching system was left to the Pentagon, which devised ARPANET, the predecessor to the Internet.
Barack Obama has taken a keen interest in its study on post-traumatic stress disorder in soldiers returning from Iraq. In other words, RAND already has his ear.
The Who's Who of Rand
John Nash "“ RAND was the motherland of game theory during the 1950s and 1960s, and among its most prominent players was John Nash—the soulful subject of the book and movie A Beautiful Mind. Nash came up with what is now called the Nash equilibrium, which is used to determine the stability of competition.
Thomas Schelling "“Schelling was an economist who came to RAND shortly after Nash's frenzied departure. His game theory concocted a worldview of aggression and counter-aggression that was heavily influential during the Vietnam War.
Kenneth Arrow "“ One of the most influential RAND employees, Arrow posited that greed is good, and that what he termed "consumer sovereignty" should rule society. Some critics have blamed Arrow's Theorem for providing the theoretical foundation for the free market frenzy of the past 30 years, including the current housing market meltdown.
Albert Wohlstetter "“ The most prominent member of RAND's so-called Nuclear Boys Club. A brilliant theoretical mathematician and an unparalleled nuclear strategist, he worked at RAND on and off from 1951 to his death 46 years later. He originated the Second Strike nuclear doctrine (make sure you have enough backup nukes to wipe out any attackers) and the Fail Safe principle (drop the big one on your target only after confirmation in flight from headquarters).
Daniel Ellsberg "“ An endlessly loquacious mathematical genius, strategic thinker, and unlikely peacenik. Disgusted with official lies about America's involvement in Southeast Asia, he leaked the Pentagon Papers, which set in motion the end of the Vietnam War.