Furthermore, I was able to draw upon the transcripts of their debriefing, which are stored in Arlington Hall (Substation Seven) and which amounted to more than fifteen thousand pages of typewritten manuscript. All agreed to see me and, with many, my interviews lasted over a period of days. Lastly, I wish to thank the participants in the Wildfire Project and the investigation of the so-called Andromeda Strain. Eldredge Benson, National Institutes of Health. Brian Stack, University of Michigan Edgar Blalock, Hudson Institute Professor Linus Kjelling, the RAND Corporation Dr. Sandos, California Institute of Technology Dr. Baker, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Carlos N. Lewis, Goddard Space Flight Center Herbert Stanch, Avco, Inc. Max Byrd, USIA Kenneth Vorhees, White House Press Corps and Professor Jonathan Percy of the University of Chicago (Genetics Department).įor their review of relevant chapters of the manuscript, and for their technical corrections and suggestions, I wish to thank Christian P. Francis Martin, University of California (Berkeley) and the President's Science Advisory Council Dr. Mason, NASA Intelligence (Arlington Hall) Dr. For their help in elucidating the background of the Wildfire Project, I must thank Roger White, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Houston MSQ John Roble, NASA Kennedy Complex 13 Peter J. 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. Sloane, United States Navy (Ret.) Captain L. Haverford, United States Army Lieutenant Everett J. My particular thanks must go to Major General Willis A. In researching and recounting the history of the Andromeda Strain, I received the generous help of many people who felt as I did, and who encouraged me to tell the story accurately and in detail. 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 the near future, we can expect more crises on the pattern of Andromeda.

New discoveries are constantly being made, and many of these discoveries have important political or social overtones.

This country supports the largest scientific establishment in the history of mankind. However, I think it is important that the story be told. It is therefore impossible to write about the events without offending some of the participants. Nearly everyone involved had moments of great brilliance, and moments of unaccountable stupidity. As in most crises, the events surrounding the Andromeda Strain were a compound of foresight and foolishness, innocence and ignorance. FOREWORD This book recounts the five-day history of a major American scientific crisis.

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