Spy capitalism : Itek and the CIA / Jonathan E. Lewis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lewis, Jonathan E., 1962-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Rockefeller, Laurance Spelman.

United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

United States.

Itek Corporation.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (1 online resource (vi, 329 p.))

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, c2002.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

What happens when the world of venture capital collides with the world of espionage? To find the answer, Jonathan E. Lewis takes us inside the executive suite at Itek Corporation during the Cold War years from 1957 to 1965. Itek was manufacturing the world's most sophisticated satellite reconnaissance cameras, and the information these cameras provided about Soviet missiles and military activity was critical to U.S. security. So was Itek. This intriguing book examines in unprecedented detail the challenges Itek faced not only as a contractor for the most important national security program of the time-the CIA's Project CORONA spy satellite-but also as a start-up company competing with established industrial giants. In telling the story of Itek Corporation, Lewis fills important gaps in the history of American intelligence, business history, and management studies. In addition, he addresses a variety of important themes such as the compatibility of secrecy and capitalism, the struggle between profits and patriotism, and the workings of power and connections in America. Lewis explores how Itek executives contended with myriad business problems that were compounded by the need to raise capital without revealing the complete truth about the company's highly secret business. He also presents for the first time information about Laurance Rockefeller's venture capital operations and his role in financing Itek, based on the financier's private Itek papers. The book is both a remarkable case study of a company at the heart of the American intelligence-industrial complex during the Cold War and a thought-provoking examination of the impact of the CIA on the capitalist system it was created to defend.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

1. The Battlegreen Inn

2. "You damned fool, now look what you've gone and done"

3. Corporation X

4. Sputnik

5. The Coffee Slurpers and the Front-Office Pros

6. Into the Black

7. Pugwash

8. Bissell for Vice President

9. Going Public

10. "An excuse to sell"

11. "Friendly in the extreme"

12. "This is no group of long-haired scientists"

13. "Then, Mr. Chairman, there will be war"

14. "I am today forming a new corporate management team"

15. "We are probably going to have to bomb them"

16. Washington Troubles

17. Fulcrum

18. Brains into Gold

Epilogue

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 273-314) and index.

ISBN:

9786611729387

9781281729385

1281729388

9780300129052

030012905X

OCLC:

1024020766