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Kelly briefed LeMay personally and invited several of us who were experts on various components of the airplane to sit in just in case the general had technical questions. I was intrigued watching the big, two-fisted LeMay puffing on a thick cigar, his shrewd eyes focused in concentration as Kelly zipped through a classified slide show detailing all the performance characteristics of the new airplane. “Could you fire air-to-ground missiles from that airplane while going at Mach 3 speed?” the general asked Kelly. Kelly replied affirmatively. “We’ve done the theoretics on this, General, and we feel confident that we could do this successfully.” “Could you guide a missile to within two hundred feet of a target?” LeMay asked. Kelly again said yes, theoretically, and added that if the missiles were nuclear, pinpoint accuracy was unnecessary. Used as a deep-penetration tactical bomber, the Russians couldn’t stop us. Used as an interceptor, we were also unstoppable. Using look-down, shoot-down air-to-air missiles, our high-flying interceptor could defend all of North America against any long-range bomber force that would be expected to fly low to the deck to avoid radar detection. “With our speed,” Kelly insisted, “fewer interceptors would be needed to cover the entire North American continent. We’d look down at the Soviet bomber fleet and pick them off like fish in a barrel.” Kelly declared, “General, the fellow who gains the high ground takes the battle. Our speed gives us our height. We’re king of the mountain.”
Skunk Works
Ben R. Rich and Leo Janos
During the first year of its existence the Confederate government obtained three-quarters of its revenues from the printing press, nearly a quarter from bonds (purchased in part with these same treasury notes), and less than 2 percent from taxes. Although the proportion of loans and taxes increased slightly in later years, the Confederacy financed itself primarily with a billion and a half paper dollars that depreciated from the moment they came into existence.
The Illustrated Battle Cry of Freedom
James M. McPherson
With the emphasis Confucianism places on social hierarchy, it is no surprise that Chinese are obsessed with status. Individuals within any given social circle know the precise position each holds relative to the others, and this tiny assessment is just the beginning of mental calculations that take place. Chinese understand who is linked to whom, and if one party is indebted to another, each within the group will know the nature and the extent. A holistic comprehension of social relationships helps individual members make optimal use of the social web. Psychology researcher Michael Harris Bond points out that within a network, if an individual (X) needs something from someone not well‐known to him (Y), he can ask a contact they share in common (Z) to get involved. “He is indebted to Z in this case, who can do his collecting from Y.” “Reciprocity is an exact science,” said Arthur Smith, who also pointed out that Chinese make use of a “system of social bookkeeping.” Smith was not describing the art of guanxi, a practice most often associated with government officials (and which was not referenced in English‐language texts prior to around 1980 anyway). Instead, he was commenting on the custom practiced by workaday Chinese who have no connections to power. China's system of reciprocity is complex and is dependent on that almost unfathomable cultural feature—the ability of Chinese to accurately assess the value of any favor performed. In most instances, the value is at once understood, but at other times there may be differences of opinion. Chinese will sometimes speak of “sitting down to tea,” which can be a euphemism for the elliptical chat involving the fine‐tuning of an assessment.
What's Wrong With China
Paul Midler
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