Abstract

The Profit and Loss of Herman Kahn

Three Civil Defense (OCD) contracts having a total value of about $600000 were reviewed. The U.S. auditors found that the OCD judged most of the work to be valueless, "a rehash," "superficial," and further that virtually no records were kept either at Hudson or OCD on how money had been spent or how progress had been monitored by the government. The proliferation of think factories, independent Research and Development firms, arid systems managers, is the result of a deliberate policy initiated during the missile race to "contract out" virtually every government job not nailed to the floor--mostly on a cost-plus basis. The traditional in house capability of the government to direct activities of contractors has been in the process of dismantlement.