Cold War at 30,000 Feet: The Anglo-American Fight for Aviation Supremacy PDF
Preview Cold War at 30,000 Feet: The Anglo-American Fight for Aviation Supremacy
J e f f r e y A . E n g e l COLD WAR AT 30,000 FEET The Anglo-American Fight for Aviation Supremacy Cold War at 30,000 Feet Jeffrey A. Engel Cold War at 30,000 Feet The Anglo-American Fight for Aviation Supremacy Harvard University Press Cambridge,Massachusetts,andLondon,England 2007 Copyright©2007bythePresidentandFellowsofHarvardCollege Allrightsreserved PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Engel,JeffreyA. ColdWarat30,000feet : theAnglo-Americanfightforaviationsupremacy / JeffreyA.Engel. p. cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN-13:978-0-674-02461-8(alk.paper) ISBN-10:0-674-02461-3(alk.paper) 1.UnitedStates—Foreignrelations—GreatBritain. 2.GreatBritain—Foreignrelations— UnitedStates. 3.Technologyandinternationalaffairs—History—20thcentury. 4.Aeronautics—Technologicalinnovations—History—20thcentury. 5.Aircraftindustry— Politicalaspects—UnitedStates—History—20thcentury. 6.Aircraftindustry—Political aspects—GreatBritain—History—20thcentury. 7.UnitedStates—Foreigneconomic relations—Communistcountries. 8.GreatBritain—Foreigneconomicrealtions—Communist countries. 9.ColdWar. 10.UnitedStates—Foreignrelations—1945–1989. I.Title II.Title: Coldwaratthirtythousandfeet. E183.8.G7E49 2007 338.4(cid:2)762913340973—dc22 2006049667 ForKatie M.T.T.C.T. Contents Preface ix Introduction 1 1 TheArsenalofDemocracyversusBritishPlanning 17 2 SellingJetstoStalin 53 3 DeathbyNene 90 4 CometDreams 125 5 ALeadLost 159 6 ApproachingChina 187 7 TheViscountConspiracy 216 8 AviationontheNewFrontier 252 Conclusion 290 Notes 305 Archives,Manuscripts,andPrivateInterviews 331 Acknowledgments 335 Index 337 Illustrationsfollowpage158. Preface This is not the study I set out to write. I thought the story of British and American aviation diplomacy would be a tale of export promotion capable of demonstrating the economic impact of foreign policy decisions on com- munities.BecauseduringtheColdWaraviationwas—asitremainstoday— an industry important enough to garner the attention of presidents and primeministersalike,Ithoughtastudyofgovernmenteffortsonitsbehalf would entail following money’s well-worn path of influence to the prom- isedlandofsales,jobs,andpower. I realized after two days in the archives that I had an entirely different storyonmyhands.AviationdiplomacyduringtheColdWarwasnotamat- terofexportpromotion,Idiscovered,butofexportcontrol.Thiswasnota storyofpolicymakersforcingopenclosedforeignmarketsoractingasinter- national guides for corporations seeking prosperity. Instead, Western gov- ernments focused on containing and controlling the strategically valuable (and potentially quite profitable) aviation technologies those corporations producedinordertokeepthemfromcommunisthands,justlikeOlympus oncesoughttokeepfirefrommankind.Thiswasnosimpleprocess,because for policymakers the imperatives of security and sales were often at odds. CorporationsonbothsidesoftheAtlanticOceansoughttoselltheirwares farandwide,evenbeyondtheironcurtain,withlittleconsiderationforthe long-term consequences if communists acquired their best technologies. Timeandagain,corporateleaders—eventhosewithgovernmentormilitary experience—actedoutofconcernonlyfortheirbottomline,seekingbuyers wherevertheycouldfindthem.GovernmentofficialsinLondonandWash- ington therefore frequently had to restrain sales efforts lest overexuberant exporterstiptheColdWar’sdelicatestrategicbalancetowardtheirenemies; yet even the most hawkish strategists realized that Western corporations ix
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