Wernher von Braun - Tom Lehrer

Link to the original song

CONTENT WARNING

war crimes      WMDs      death      mass executions

"And what is it that put America in the forefront of the nuclear nations?

And what is it that will make it possible to spend twenty billion dollars of your money to put some clown on the moon? 

.…Well, it was good old American know-how, that's what, as provided by good old Americans like Dr. Wernher von Braun!"

First, let us set the stage:

The year is 1965.

Being the only major country that had not seen fighting on the home turf during World War II, the USA spent twenty years as a new superpower. The old world had crumbled during the war, and the USA was left at the top of the pile of rubble. But its supremacy was not unchallenged. The USSR emerged as the natural rival to the USA, and the tension between these two was rising. The only thing that prevented the outbreak of another world war was the fact that nuclear weapons were at play now. Both nations knew that a war involving nuclear exchanges would have no victor, only unparalleled destruction. Thus direct confrontation was impossible; the only way was to bleed the cold enemy by a thousand cuts in the form of proxy wars using puppet states. NATO and the Warsaw pact resulted in the infamous "iron curtain" descending on Europe. Various small countries in South America and East Asia saw themselves turned into battlefields where the USA and USSR fought each other indirectly.

The USSR and USA competed with each other wherever competition was possible - not just in the domains of military might or economic prosperity, but those of politics, technology and art as well. The struggle between the nations transcended the realm of geopolitics - it was seen as a clash of civilizations and ideologies, much like the Second World War. It was in such a backdrop that the space race began.

What started as the pursuit for the tactical advantages offered by space technology quickly turned into a quest for glory - surely, the first nation to touch the heavens would have their name swashed across the untouched dark sky. When the USSR took an early lead in the race by launching the first satellite (Sputnik) and producing the first cosmonaut, the American public grew anxious. Calls were made to devote more resources to space exploration and money flowed into the newly created NASA. Among the various disparate organizations which were united under the aegis of NASA was the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, where Wernher von Braun, the Rocket Man (as he would later come to be called), was working. Wernher von Braun was far from a "good old American'' - he was a German immigrant with a shady past, recruited by the USA for his mastery over aerospace engineering.

Tom Lehrer; the satirist, musician and the presenter (here), is critical of the motives behind the Apollo missions (and manned space programs in general), and considers the whole undertaking to be sheer lunacy (pardon the pun). When it came to space exploration, Lehrer's pessimism is contrasted sharply with Wernher von Braun's optimism - where Wernher von Braun saw humanity reach out towards the stars, Lehrer sees only human vanity at its peak. When asked in an interview about the Columbia space shuttle disaster which resulted in dead astronauts, Lehrer responded by pointing out that the true disaster was not the explosion but the program itself and that the dead astronauts, by volunteering, were asking to be turned into confetti.

When this song was written, there was still considerable debate on whether the Apollo programme was worth investing in. Some believed that domestic issues needed the funds being directed towards NASA, while others instead believed that those funds needed to be directed towards the military. Even among those who recognized the importance of space, some argued that the money was better spent developing satellite technology instead of being spent on a moonshot (again, pardon the pun). Looking back with the benefit of hindsight, we can appreciate the importance of the moon landings. However, things were a lot less certain in 1965, and a significant majority of the public believed that Apollo would either end in disaster or would turn into a boondoggle, sucking up funds which could have gone to more useful projects.

Meanwhile, Wernher von Braun's thoughts can be summed up by this quote:

"It [The rocket] will free man from his remaining chains, the chains of gravity which still tie him to this planet. It will open to him the gates of heaven"

"Gather 'round while I sing you of Wernher von Braun

A man whose allegiance

Is ruled by expedience

Call him a Nazi, he won't even frown

"Nazi, Schmazi!" says Wernher von Braun"

Now let's know a bit more about this uncaring Nazi genius. 

Wernher von Braun was an aerospace engineer who worked for the German military under the Nazi regime. He was instrumental in the creation of the V2 programme - where rockets were launched indiscriminately at civilian targets. In 1944, when it became obvious to him that Germany had no path to victory left, Wernher von Braun decided to surrender to the Allied forces invading from the west. It was probably the best option he had at that time, considering that the USA had plenty of need for and resources to fund individuals like him. The USA was also more likely to be lenient towards ex-nazis than the USSR, which had borne the brunt of the Wehrmacht's atrocities.

Upon being given a position at NASA, Wernher von Braun was quick to deny his loyalty to the Nazi ideology and maintained that he was forced to work for the military since they were the only people who had use for his skills. He denied having knowledge about the Holocaust and claimed that he was not involved in any war crimes, though it was a known fact that the V2 programme relied on slave labour (in fact, more people died making the rockets than being hit by them). Whether his denials were believed was a moot point since he was practically immune from any consequences for his actions - he was far too valuable for the USA to consider prosecuting him.

The more one starts digging deeper, the more macabre the past becomes. For one, he held the rank of colonel in the SS (the infamous Nazi paramilitary organization). What is more, there is credible testimony from the inmates of the Dora Concentration Camp that Von Braun visited the camp regularly to pick out workers for the V2 programme, along with allegations that he witnessed executions. Wernher von Braun responded by stating that he was pressured to join the SS by his supervisor and that while he was aware of the conditions at Dora, he was powerless to do anything to change them.

While the details of Wernher von Braun's past were not well-known in 1965, the fact that he used to be a Nazi could not be hidden (despite the best efforts of the US intelligence). Wernher von Braun cultivated the public image of a person who was interested only in rockets and space and never cared for fascism, which allowed the USA plausible deniability if someone asked them why they were willing to put a Nazi in charge of their space program.

“Don't say that he's hypocritical. 

Say rather that he's apolitical

Once ze rockets are up, who cares where zey come down?

“That's not my department!" says Wernher von Braun"

Wernher von Braun was once quoted as saying, “The rocket worked perfectly, except for landing on the wrong planet.” This was in 1944 when the first V2 rocket hit London.

Wernher von Braun argued that the only opportunity to pursue rocketry was in the German military and that he did not work on V2 out of bloodlust. He only made the rockets fly; he did not decide where they landed. He saw himself as someone above ideology, someone interested in engineering for its own sake, someone whose talents were exploited by monsters - he did not kill those civilians in London; the rockets did. And who decided to fire the rockets at London? 

Not him.

That's for sure.

The bullet kills

But the gun fires the bullet

Does the gun kill?

But the hand triggers the gun

Does the hand kill?

But the mind moves the hand

Does the mind kill?

But Duty compels the mind

And the State imposes Duty

Does the State kill?

This line of reasoning, dubious as it may seem, was apparently enough to convince the US War Department (later renamed the "Department of Defense", an example of Orwellian levels of newspeak) that he was not morally culpable for the V2 programme. But then again, the USA was generally lax when it came to punishing war criminals and was often happy to let them go unpunished if doing so served its own interests.

Consider, for example, the case of Imperial Japan. As part of the peace treaty, the USA granted immunity to all members of the imperial family, some of whom were responsible for atrocities that shocked even the Nazis (specifically, Nanking. The situation there was so bad that John Rabe - the head of the local Nazi chapter and official representative of Germany in China - stepped in to shelter Chinese civilians from the IJA, even though Imperial Japan was an ally of Nazi Germany).

Now, it is easy to judge the actions of the USA as immoral from a comfortable armchair in the 21st century. But the actions of a state cannot be explained through the lens of conventional morality. The state cannot be thought of as a moral agent since the state has no conscience. The state operates at the level of a beast, unconstrained by moral norms, acting purely in its own self-interest. These observations are not a condemnation of the state but merely an aid to understanding the reasons behind the actions of a state.

 The actions of a state with respect to International Relations can be explained using two basic laws:

1) The strong do what they please.

2) The weak suffer what they must.

While a state uses laws to maintain moral norms within its jurisdiction, the interactions between two states happen on a stage of anarchy. Consequently, moral analysis is nearly useless when it comes to explaining how International Relations work. 

The USA needed Japan as an ally against the USSR and was thus discouraged from making the terms of the peace too harsh. The Emperor of Japan would be deposed if Japan surrendered to the USSR, so Japan was eager to make peace with the US before it was invaded by the USSR. Thus they came to terms - Japan becomes a pacifist state hosting US troops, and the Emperor is not prosecuted for war crimes.

Similarly, the US made a deal with valuable ex-nazis. In exchange for not defecting to the USSR, they could start a new life in the USA and have their crimes against humanity swept under the rug. Hence the formation of Operation Paperclip - a US intelligence programme to secretly import German scientists and engineers into the USA before the USSR got a hold of them. Despite the then president Truman's order that members of the Nazi party were not to be allowed to enter the USA, the intelligence agencies in charge of the operation let through several ex-nazis, including some high-ranking ones. Their files were scrubbed clean of any details which linked them to the nazi party. The only identification for the tampered files were paper clips attached to them by US intelligence officers, who used this method to covertly mark those they wished to recruit. Even after details of this operation came to light, only a single paperclip scientist was ever prosecuted, and not a single one was convicted. 

The USSR had an analogous programme - Operation Osoaviakhim, in which over 2500 Nazi scientists were abducted from the Soviet Occupation Zone in a single day. After their period of employment under the government concluded, they were returned back to Germany. They were ordered never to speak of their activities in the USSR and were given special treatment in return. The situation was quite clear - any Nazi engineer who the USA did not recruit would end up working for the USSR, which was directly against the interests of the USA. In this context, Operation Paperclip is somewhat more understandable, just as Wernher von Braun's decision to surrender to the USA is. 

"Some have harsh words for this man of renown

But some think our attitude

Should be one of gratitude

Like the widows and cripples in old London town

Who owe their large pensions to Wernher von Braun"

This limerick is characteristic of Lehrer's sharp wit and dark humour. By sarcastically suggesting that the victims of the V2 rockets owe thanks to Wernher von Braun, Lehrer reminded his audience that there were plenty of people whose friends and family would have been alive were it not for Wernher von Braun's actions. The US space program took off thanks in part to the research done as part of the V2 programme, and we are asked to consider if the technological progress produced as a result of war is truly worth its human cost.

One can argue that necessity breeds invention and what greater necessity is there than the need to preserve one's country during wartime? And shouldn't technological progress be seen as a silver lining of war? Why should it be seen as tainted by the evils of war? The progress would have happened anyway, it was merely expedited by the war.

Von Braun's views on this subject could be summed up by this quote:

"Science does not have a moral dimension. It is like a knife. If you give it to a surgeon or a murderer, each will use it differently. Should the knife not have been developed?"

“You too may be a big hero

Once you've learned to count backwards to zero

In German, oder Englisch, I know how to count down

“Und I'm learning Chinese!", says Wernher von Braun"

 The last line of the song is a reference to the emerging threat posed by the People's Republic of China (PRC), which was (and still is, at the time of writing this article) run by the CCP and carried out its first nuclear test in 1964, just one year before the song's release. The US public was alarmed by the PRC's entry into the nuclear club since it was seen as a close ally of the USSR.

Lehrer takes a jab at Von Braun's loyalty to the USA here. "If Wernher von Braun had betrayed his homeland and defected to the USA once the tide of war turned, who is to say that he would not betray the USA in favour of another power like the PRC?" Lehrer seems to be asking.

When listening to the live recording of the song, we notice that the laughter of the audience is tinged with worry. From their perspective, the USSR and the PRC present existential threats to their nation and way of life. With this ominous yet hilarious note, the song ends.

For years after the release of this song, rumours circulated that Wernher von Braun took offence and sued Lehrer, as a result of which all royalties for the song went to Wernher von Braun. This was nowhere close to true, as Lehrer clarified in later interviews. Lehrer abandoned show business shortly afterwards (before showbusiness abandoned him) and returned to his job as a mathematician while releasing all his work into the public domain. Though he remains with us (at the time of writing the article), he has given up on performing satirical songs since he believes that political satire became redundant when Henry Kissinger (who commended the government of Pakistan for their genocide in Bangladesh, among other things) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

After realizing his lifelong dream of the moon landings, Wernher von Braun went on to publish numerous books exploring space travel and celestial engineering (even collaborating with one of the titans of science fiction, Arthur C Clarke) and win the National Medal of Science in Engineering (the highest honour in his field). He died of pancreatic cancer the same year and rests in the USA, of which he had become a naturalized citizen. The Rocket Man's mixed legacy continues to be re-examined today (mostly by columnists like myself who have nothing better to do than generating think-piece after think-piece picking at Wernher von Braun's legacy like vultures picking at a carcass). Mixed though his legacy may be, none can deny that it was a great one. Wernher von Braun may be dead, but his spirit lives on through NASA.

 "Nature does not know extinction, only transformation"

-Wernher Von Braun