BEHIND THE SCENES: Ups & Downs

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¶ The celebrated misfire of the Vanguard satellite (TIME, Dec. 16) falls into the category of battles that were lost for want of a nail. Studying films and performance data, technicians have traced Vanguard's failure to a leak sprung in a fuel line. The leak produced two quick effects: 1) because an improper ratio of fuel was being pumped into the thrust chamber, the missile lost thrust; 2) escaping fuel spurting against the hot pump assembly caught fire, turned Vanguard into a grounded inferno when the fire backlashed to the fuel tanks. Total cost of the malfunctioning part that punctured U.S. prestige and delayed a $110 million project: about $100.

¶ If and when NATO nations reopen disarmament discussions with Russia, the man who represented the U.S. at last summer's talks in London is an odds-on bet not to do it again. Reason: State Department Disarmament Adviser Harold Stassen, who kept the State Department quivering nervously during the 1957 negotiations, continues to disagree on basics with Secretary of State Dulles. Like Adlai Stevenson, Stassen believes the U.S. must make a conference-opening concession, i.e., cessation of nuclear testing for a short period as a demonstration of faith. Dulles is unalterably opposed to that idea and also to Stassen's notion that results can be got if the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. hold private talks. Dulles in his preparations for Paris requested no position papers on disarmament from Stassen, left Washington wondering how much longer Childe Harold will continue in his State Department post.

¶ The best-oiled Negro political machine in the U.S. is run by Chicago's Congressman William L. Dawson, 71 ("The Lion of the South Side"). Nobody knew it better last week than United Auto Workers' Political Action Committeeman Willoughby Abner, who got thrown out as president of the booming (13,300 members) Chicago chapter of the N.A.A.C.P. because he picked a personal fight with Dawson. A year ago Abner sensed that many a Chicago Negro felt Dawson was wrong in helping work out a compromise civil rights plank at the Democratic National Convention. Abner persuaded South Side Negroes (but not enough) to cut Dawson in the November election, began to build a U.A.W.-weighted political organization in Dawson's practically private First District. Accepting the vendetta, Dawson built up his own anti-Abner squad inside the N.A.A.C.P. When the chapter's annual election rolled around. Abner, seven of his officers, and eight Abner-picked directors were swept out of office.

¶ Top candidate for director of the Defense Department's new Buck Rogers-minded Advanced Research Projects Agency: John A. McCone, California industrialist (shipbuilding) and onetime (1950-51) Under Secretary for Air. Defense Secretary Neil McElroy's plan is that ARPA will take charge of such new weapons systems as anti-missile missiles and, possibly, satellites themselves before they become factors in interservice rivalry. With such a charter, the ARPA boss could easily evolve into a weapons czar without any fanfare.