Bush's Elite League

Abstract

Vannevar Bush insisted that hope nobody'll ever write a biography of me, I think it probably would be terrible. am not one who keeps a diary, he observed earlier, because I do not take myself too (p. 392). Both statements must be taken with more than a grain of salt. Bush's vanity, even arrogance, were matched only by his brain power and capacity for contradiction. Indeed, when Time's cover and related story featured him on April 3, 1944, Bush, who obviously cooperated with the magazine and relished the attention, had the temerity to chastise a magazine staff member for giving the agency he headed unwanted publicity and stressing his importance over that of his numerous colleagues. If still living, Bush would no doubt respond similarly to this first-ever biography, written by C. Pascal Zachary, a senior writer for the Wall Street Journal, specializing in technology, labor, and global economics. The crusty, blunt-spoken Yankee would unquestionably bask in the glow of Zachary's warm and generous admiration of and praise for him, but he would also bristle at the author's unwillingness to turn away from the numerous foibles of a seriously flawed individual. Zachary draws upon a rich collection of personal papers and interviews in pursuing his subject. His selected bibliography also includes most of the major secondary publications relevant to his subject. Nonetheless, a few important titles are missing, such as Vincent C. Jones, Manhattan: The Army and the Atomic Bomb (1985), and Ronald Schaffer, Wings of Judgment: American Bombing in World War 11 (1985). Vannevar Bush's principal importance grows out of his role in creating and heading the National Defense Research Committee/Office of Scientific Research and Development (NDRC)/(OSRD) during World War II. Zachary's biography, therefore, adds further to our knowledge of the most welldocumented period in American history. Why the Second World War has this distinction is a fascinating story which begins no later that 1933. Franklin D. Roosevelt's determination to reorganize the executive branch for purposes of