Book Reviews: Soldiers of Reason; Hollywood Babylon

Soldiers of Reason: The RAND Corporation and the Rise of the American Empire by Alex Abella (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $27, 9780151010813/0151010811, May 2008)

Hollywood Babylon--It's Back!: An Overview of Exhibitionism, Sexuality, and Sin as Filtered through 85 Years of Hollywood Scandal by Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince (Blood Moon Productions, $24.95, 9780974811888/0974811882, June 2008)

The RAND Corporation, originally housed 60 years ago in a nondescript building near the beach in Santa Monica, Calif., has worked hard not to call attention to itself. Alex Abella, who persuaded RAND to give him unprecedented access to most of its archives, discreetly slides the curtain back to reveal the fascinating history of one of our first think tanks.

That access allowed Abella to provide vivid descriptions of many of RAND's seminal projects: development of the first comprehensive satellite feasibility assessment, design of the hydrogen bomb and refinement of a systems analysis process for evaluation of nuclear policy. You can also credit RAND for the 1960s catch-phrases failsafe, counterforce and thinking the unthinkable.

The military emphasis of RAND's research program is not surprising since its major early client was the U.S. Defense Department, but few researchers were military men. Only the most academically distinguished were recruited, and Abella's biographical profiles of key players like Albert Wohlstetter, Bernard Brodie and Herman Kahn illustrate how high the bar for admission was set. RAND celebrates its numerous Nobel-laureates and public policy pundits like Henry Kissinger and Thomas Schelling, but would prefer to forget fellow alumnus Daniel Ellsberg who brought RAND so much attention when he outed one of its studies, known afterwards as The Pentagon Papers. Impressively connecting RAND's work to major issues in American life today, Abella shows RAND's vast influence on all of us.

A few miles inland from RAND lies the home of the American movie industry, always eager for the spotlight if the close-up is flattering and good for business. Hollywood may get more than it bargained for with Hollywood Babylon's compendium of stories, rumors and myths. Virtually every page features one kind of train wreck or another, usually accompanied by spectacularly lurid photographs. Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince provide a hair-raising list of compromises and strategically granted sexual favors as proof that some stars will do anything for a part. Not even Grace Kelly and Lucille Ball escaped having to get down and dirty on the proverbial casting couch, according to Porter and Prince. Read these pages to learn what Robert Mitchum is said to have taught Marilyn Monroe on the set of The River of No Return that would prove useful during her rumored affair with J.F.K. Try as you might, you won't be able to stop turning the pages.

For me, the most shocking tale involved George Murphy (later a U.S. Senator): he allegedly advised Ronald Reagan, after his divorce from Jane Wyman, to shop around for a second wife suitable to be First Lady. Here we learn that while Doris Day and Nancy Davis were the two leading candidates, Reagan also had clandestine assignations with Marilyn Monroe.

In revealing so many facts previously under wraps, these two books, in fact, raise the question of how much more remains hidden. We may never find out. RAND's brand of secrecy with its claim of "national security" carries a legitimacy that keeps snoops at bay, and Hollywood insiders are souls of discretion in protecting careers; the distinctive code of silence observed in each of these successful organizations clearly is designed to serve respective images, brands and illusions smartly.

Considering that RAND and Hollywood seem worlds apart except geographically, it comes as a surprise when Kennedy and Reagan cross over between these two startlingly different books: they may each have delighted in the companionship of Monroe, but they definitely seem to have benefited from RAND's research projects. Abella claims that Kennedy won the 1960 Presidential election courtesy of a RAND strategy; he also reminds us that the theoretical basis of the Reagan Revolution originated at RAND. Could Marilyn Monroe be anything but proud of everyone involved?--John McFarland