English subtitles for clip: File:01 The Formative Years 1958 - 1975 (DARPA history).ogv

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>> DARPA. Shaping the future,
creating opportunities

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for new capabilities -- strategically,
tactically.

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DARPA takes on the most difficult
technical challenges

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for the Department of Defense
and finds solutions.

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Its role was set at inception.

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1957. We are ensnared in an
arms race with the Soviet Union.

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Then in October, the Soviets launched Sputnik,
an implicit threat that shocked the nation.

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>> Today a new moon is in the sky,

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a 23-inch metal sphere placed
in orbit by a Russian rocket.

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>> Our satellite program has never been
conducted as a race with other nations.

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>> Eisenhower instructs his new
Secretary of Defense, Neil McElroy,

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to coordinate our national space program.

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The Soviets had surprised us.

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>> We thought of them as being dangerous, and
to have them show up ahead of us in this new,

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seemingly terribly important
technology was a shock.

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>> ARPA was formed in February
1958 as a special agency

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in the Pentagon reporting directly
to Defense Secretary McElroy.

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Its charter: maintain U.S. technological
superiority over potential adversaries.

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>> And the way he put it was, he
said, I want ARPA to do those things

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which otherwise fall between the stools.

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>> ARPA's initial focus was three
presidential initiatives: get us into space,

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protect us from Soviet missile attacks,
and detect Soviet nuclear tests.

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Under its first director,
Roy Johnson, ARPA succeeded.

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ARPA used Explorer 4 and its Argus
satellite to see if it was possible

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to detect nuclear explosions in space.

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>> Explorer 4 was launched from Cape
Canaveral and went into orbit successfully.

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>> This is a rocket engine --

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>> ARPA was developing a new class of rocket
boosters strong enough to carry men to the moon.

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Once the space program was on track,
it was transitioned out of ARPA.

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Part of it went to the newly
formed civilian agency, NASA.

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The rest moved to NRO.

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With the transition of the
space programs, ARPA was shaken.

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Personnel and funding had been moved out.

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It was a blow to the morale
of the fledgling agency.

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Major General Austin Betts became
ARPA's second director in 1959.

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>> Well, I think that my primary assignment
from Herb York were to calm things down,

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keep the work going, and from time to time
he would assign some new tasks, which he did.

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>> General Betts bridged the
Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations.

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Nuclear warfare was a major
national security concern.

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ARPA's new director, Dr. Jack Ruina, inherited
the beginnings of Project DEFENDER and Vela.

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Vela detected Soviet nuclear tests;
DEFENDER was our missile defense.

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>> We were worried about the
Russians' testing in outer space,

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in the atmosphere, and underground.

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There was Surface Sierra, Uniform,
and Hotel was the outer space.

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But also if they test underground, the only way
to test the, detect the testing underground is

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by looking at the seismic signal that
emanated from a nuclear explosion.

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>> ARPA was a little over three years old.

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DEFENDER and Vela were high-profile programs.

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Beneath those two umbrellas, new,
rewarding science was emerging:

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geology, seismology, and radio astronomy.

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ARPA was also opening the
door to the information age.

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Computers were doing what
they did best: crunch numbers.

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ARPA was curious: could they be
used to improve field operations

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and secure command and control communications?

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Dr. Ruina hired JCR Licklider to head up the new
Information Processing Techniques Office, IPTO.

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>> The computer technology
has been moving in a way

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that nothing else people
have ever known has moved.

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>> ARPA was putting the information pieces
together, facing the nuclear threat,

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and collecting the information
critical to our national defense.

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>> The partial nuclear test ban was, of course,

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the first real success leading
to an end of the Cold War.

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It was, it was only a step,
but it was the first step.

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And I think it was important, and I think
ARPA's role was important in having prepared

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for the services to say, yes, we
can assure the safety of the country

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in a nuclear test ban environment.

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>> When Dr. Charles Herzfeld
became director in 1965,

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computer networking had been gaining momentum.

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>> I had the pleasure of signing the
first few ARPA orders for the ARPANET.

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And we sort of knew what we were doing; it
was a gamble, but it was an important one.

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>> The challenge was linking
several computers together,

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forming a network using the
first router, the IMP.

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>> From the ARPANET came the Internet, from
the Internet came the Web -- changed the world.

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When we worked on the ARPANET, we did so
in part because we knew it would help --

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in the long run -- the military
command-control systems.

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But we also did it because -- in part --
it helped scientists do science better.

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And so it came to be.

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>> In 1965, Dr. John Foster became
the director of defense research

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and engineering -- the direct
supervisor of ARPA.

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>> I asked the secretary, if I were to
be the replacement for Harold Brown,

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what would he like me to do about
the war that was going on in Vietnam?

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Changing the programs in ARPA
was pretty straightforward.

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>> Under Foster's direction, Dr.
Eberhart Rechtin refocused ARPA

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to address the challenges of the war.

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>> I said, we're in the middle of a war;
we're supposed to be doing things to help.

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>> Rechtin's assistant, Dr. Steve
Lukasik, became director in 1971.

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ARPA began working with the field commanders

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to better understand the
operational challenges they faced.

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>> The organization has got to have a set
of understandings with the larger world.

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You talk to these people not because
you're broadcasting solutions

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to them; they're feeding problems to you.

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>> In a little over 10 years, ARPA
opened the door to space exploration,

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established reliable nuclear detection, laid
the groundwork for a missile defense system,

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advanced scientific disciplines, aided our
troops in Vietnam, and invented the ARPANET.

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ARPA moved from preventing
technological surprise

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to creating surprise for our adversaries.

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In part two, we'll see how DARPA
adjusts to the intensification

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of the Cold War and the consequences.

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