US Presidents and the Militarization of Space, 1946-1967 by Sean N. Kalic (review)

Much has been written about America's space program, which challenged the Soviet Union in a cold war melodrama of peaceful Western-capitalist expertise versus communist military aggression. But the U.S. military played a critical role in space exploration and utilization, defining and developing its own outer-space systems. As Sean Kalic argues in US Presidents and the Militarization of Space, the United States readily utilized outer space for military purposes, but did so while rejecting programs that would weaponize the heavens. Following a trajectory of U.S. presidents from Harry Truman to Lyndon Johnson, Kalic details the changes in the administrative relationships with the military space program during the early years of the cold war, beginning with the initial conceptualization of the means of utilizing space for defense in the immediate postwar years and concluding with Johnson's Outer Space Treaty of 1967. Despite America's militarization of space, presidents from Dwight Eisenhower through Johnson refused to deploy space weapons, even when the Soviet Union investigated doing so.

Military space research faced several challenges during the early cold war period, among them the internecine squabbling between the navy and air force concerning funding for their individual projects, and the air force's desire to extend its atmospheric mandate into outer space. In 1949, the military satellite program was defined as being a nonweapons program because possible uses included nondestructive duties like reconnaissance, weather observation, communications, and scientific data collection. The technical acumen displayed by such satellite systems promoted Western superiority while avoiding any impression that the United States intended to dominate and control outer space.

The Eisenhower administration both created NASA and conducted America's militarization of outer space. Despite allowing ballistic missile defense and anti-satellite weapons research, Eisenhower steadfastly refused to place weapons in Earth's orbit, setting a precedent that would be followed for some thirty years. Satellite programs included MIDAS and SAMOS, which were missile-detection and early warning systems designed to give added alert times beyond those provided by earthbound arrays. Eisenhower further appreciated the crossover potential between military and civilian usages of satellite systems, including communications, navigation, and weather forecasting, and their public relations value during the cold war.

Kalic notes that John Kennedy was selective in his support of military programs; canceling those with little or no worthwhile mission, such as the air force's Dyna-Soar and the SAINT anti-satellite system, while endorsing those that underscored America's philosophy of the peaceful usages of space. When the Soviet Union threatened to deploy space-based weapons, Kennedy chose to employ ground-based, nuclear-tipped anti-satellite weapons, as opposed to orbital anti-satellite systems. This decision, in conjunction with diplomatic efforts, provided a solid foundation for his successor, Johnson, who played an integral part in space-policy planning during his years in the Senate and as vice president. Johnson would cement America's policy of peaceful space usage in the Outer Space Treaty, which forbade placing weapons of mass destruction in space. He also emphasized NASA as the face of America's space program while merging much of the mission of the military program with the civilian one.

Kalic's work is a brief, well-researched overview of military space-policy planning, philosophical development, political use, and global reward. When people consider the benefits of the space program they tend to overlook the dividends paid by the military space program. Most interesting is the relationship between the presidential administrations addressed in the book and the military space program; all but Truman were directly interested in the military usage of outer space, yet all desired to avoid or remove the threat of orbital weapons. Earth might be wracked with conflict and on the edge of global annihilation, but outer space should offer the promise of peace. Kalic presents the reader with a story of military and political ingenuity and diplomatic success during the early...