Comments on: The Secret History of Silicon Valley Part VII: We Fought a War You Never Heard Of

By: Nelson A. Logan

Nelson A. Logan — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 22:14:59 +0000

I cannot find anything on the Internet about the large program in the middle 1950s where the USA sent 1-ton VW-Bug-sized gondolas suspended from 200-foot tall high altitude [90,000 feet] from Brodeaux France too east of Japan until one night the Soviets managed to shoot down multiple balloons over Russian territory. There was a big flap in the press when Secretary of State John Foster Dulles refused to permit Nikita Khrushchev to bring a captured gondola and tour the USA to show what the Government was playing over Russia. The eventual goal of this program would have been to radar-map the Soviet Union. The crash program to produce the Lockheed U-2 aircraft was initiated when the balloon program was abandoned.

By: YA

YA — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:49:53 +0000

Steve: you may wish to know that PVO Strany is not an official name, it is a journalistic term. If you want to refer to PVO by name, call it just PVO (acronym for “Air Defense” in Russian).

By: Greg Moreno

Greg Moreno — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 03:26:48 +0000

I came here looking for tips, ideas, and inspirations for entrepreneurs but now I am more interested in your war and spy stories

By: Flow » Blog Archive » Daily Digest for August 7th - The zeitgeist daily

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 08:26:32 +0000

[...] Shared The Secret History of Silicon Valley Part VII: We Fought a War You Never Heard Of « Steve Blank [...]

By: steveblank

steveblank — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 06:21:59 +0000

Gene,
Thanks, but why?

steve

By: gene

gene — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 00:23:12 +0000

Thanks for picking up this series again, it is my favorite of all the ones you are writing.

By: Mark Essel

Mark Essel — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 19:58:31 +0000

I think any engineer just hopping into aerospace or defense work would greatly benefit this background Steve. Interesting stuff, I’ll have to sift through it more carefully later.

By: Apple’s Tablet Computer and The Worst PR Writing : Floriday Properties

Apple’s Tablet Computer and The Worst PR Writing : Floriday Properties — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:38:34 +0000

[...] about the earliest days of entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley, it’s worth checking out this post from serial entrepreneur Steve Blank. It’s the first of two posts on the subject, and [...]