AMERICA'S ONE LAST CHANCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00845R000100080004-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 13
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 8, 2010
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: August 1, 1977
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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STAT
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Checkpoint
Vo1.V No.S, August 1977
`America's one last chance'
The White House and the Con-
gress are lost in world crisis now
spreading out of control. The sink-
ing nation8l security of the U.S.
cannot be regained by either a
presidential decision td cancel the
B-1 bomber or a congressional deci-
sion to proceed with it.
Approaching American tragedy
and chaos cannot be averted by ei-
ther turning weak in the face of ex-
panding clear and present danger
from foreign powers hostile to
America, as the "softliners" urge
upon the President, or by endlessly
escalating the Kremlin/W'hite
House science and technology race
to produce the power to obliterate
world civilization, as the "hardlin-
ers" urge. Eventual American
disaster cannot be avoided by either
withdrawing U.S. troops from
Korea, or by keeping them there, or
by any shallow tactical maneuvers
in the propaganda SALT talks.
Endless escalation of the defense
and intelligence budgets can never
again bring to the American people
a sense of security for one simple
reason: the top-of-the-line Pentagon
weapons systems have become sui-
cide systems. If either the Kremlin
or the White House should initiate
modern, all-out war, it would risk
the annihilation of its own popula-
tion in the ensuing world holocaust.
These two top-secret super-power
command centers today are bran-
dishing the power to destroy hu-
manity, apower the mythologies
have always claimed that God alone
could command. Neither side has
the transcendent strategic vision
appropriate to this unprecedented
magnitude and character of power.
Until my wife Harriet died last
month, she and I had spent more
than 30 years studying, observing,
speaking, writing and editing in the
field of the grand strategy of the
self-generating, generation-long
Kremlin/White House race for the
global technologies of world domi-
nation. Our efforts to be of help to
both Republican and Democratic
Presidents have been blocked by
the financial and military power
interests surrounding them. This
letter is perhaps one last effort to
break through to a President, to be
of help to him and to the American
people and to humanity. I speak for
A NETWORK NEWSLETTER FOR PEOPLE CONCERNED
WITH FUTURE CIVILIZED GLOBAL SYSTEMS
BOX 19127, WASHINGTON, D. C. 20036
PHONE (202) 785-0708 STAT
Harriet although she no longer is
alive.
A war is not lost on the battle-
field. It is lost long in advance - in
the inadequate vision in the mind of
one man, the commander-in-chief,
whether he be a Hitler, a Napoleon
or a President of the United States,
surrounded by financial and mili-
tary interests finding profits or
promotions from the .runaway race
for the power to bring an end to
human history.
There are about 150 sovereign na-
tions on this planet. The nation
which will emerge to provide inspi-
ration and world leadership in the
coming generation will not be the
superpower continually "winning"
the race to produce the means to
exterminate the human race.
Rather, it will be the powerful na-
tion which has the transcendent vi-
sion to lead the world in a new kind
of "race," inviting all other nations
to join in the research, development
and demonstration of global sys-
tems and institgtions capable of
guarding the security and progress
of all nations, just as air traffic con-
trol guards the safety and progress
of all airplanes in a cloud.
In the mythology of most world
religions, God-sized power means
the power to destroy humanity on
the one hand and, on the other, the
compassionate power to protect and
enrich life for humankind. Today,
the President of the United States
has superior command and staff as-
sistance in wielding the God-sized
power to destroy humanity in ven-
geance. But nowhere in the White
House is there a supreme strategic
council reporting personnally to
the President and to the American
people through their elected Con-
gress, separate from and in addition
to the National Security Council,
through which the President could
release a new generation of pro-
human science and technology
(knowledge and skills in all fields)
committed to the strategic goal of
national security and progress for
the American people and for the
people of all 150, or more, sovereign
nations.
This may be America's one last
chance. Howard G. Kurtz,
President,
Wer Control Planners, Inc.
Washington, D.C.
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HARRI ET B. KURTZ
June 26,1915 - June 17,1977
After graduation from Union Theological Seminary in 1962,Harriet was ordained on November
29,1964 by the United Church of Christ, to a unique prophetic ministry, focused on her ordination
commitment, " In learning how to unleash the fury of the atom,man has created the danger of his
own annihilation. This special ministry is a witness based on the belief that man can choose
Life, not Death, and can unleash an explosive new kind of strength to bring the dangers of war under
control. " Catholic Clergy, a Jewish Rabbi, an Ethical Culture leader and Protestant Ministers
o~ many denominations participated in Harriet's unusual ordination ceremony. She was then
released to go out into the world, on her own, beyond the structures or the support of her Church,
to pursue with Howard this Search for the key to a worthwhile future for humanity on Planet Earth.
Highlights from Memorial Services - Washington D.C. June 26:& Chappaqua N.Y. Jul_y 10,1977
. She understood that man's inventions were being misused, that they were threatening our
existence here on Earth. She understood that war,nuclear war, was the threat and that the secret
dealings of governments, particularly the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., in confrontation, was the basis
of the threat. And Harriet understood that there is a way to deal with this secrecy. She
recognized that from the vantage point of space one can look back on Planet Earth, and observe
its clouds and its oceans. But more important, she recognized that we can observe man's
activities too; his agriculture, his road building,his nuclear weapon 'and other destructive
armament production.
And she knew, deep in her heart I am sure, that if all nations, all peoples, every
citizen, knew what was being done to their land and what threats faced their children, THEN
all nations and all peoples would band together to bring the growing potential for disaster
to a halt.
I believe that was the potency of Harriet's belief, and the basis for the great commitment
she and Howard have made over the years:- " A GLOBAL INFORMATION COOPERATIVE ".
OPEN SKTES:: It is a very persuasive idea. I am convinced its time will come;that the
ri~iox'k of Harriet and Howard will have advanced that time.
Perhaps it is unusual that Harriet, trained in the humanities ,following the path of
God, should discover that man's most obvious achievement, his technology, could be a way to
his salvation on this Planet Earth. This certainly is an unusual perception - -seeing both
sides of the coin. But Harriet was an unusual person. We shall all miss her.
William G. Stroud,Associate Director, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
. .Harriet Kurtz shared the dream of God. She dreamed that all humanity was free to use the
tremendous energy and power given by God, to create, not to destroy, life. She stood on tip
toe and peaked into the Kingdom of God and reported back to us. But her feet were always on
the ground.
Harriet was teamed with Howard. It is a rare thing for two people to be so deeply in love,
and to love so deeply their work. I know of few people who have lived out their dreams, who have
given so much, been so absorbed in it who sacrificed their whole Iife's savings because
they had a call. You can't think of Harriet and Howard without the call. They ate, drank
and slept only to fulfill God's call for their lives. They were quite a team. Harriet had the
dream. Howard is an engineer,practical,implementing, a get-things-done person. The dream was
always about things which technology could bring to pass .not in a distant tomorrow, but next
year .5 ey ars .dust a step or two down the w~. Always the question Can't our technologies
be used to build institutions which work to help people rather than for purely military purposes
to destroy. Can't we take another forward step and break out of the old security systems
and share the fantastic world-wide information we are gleaning, with the smaller, poorer nations? "
Praise God for Harriet Kurtz, an Ambassador of Christ, the Prince of Peace.
Rev. Harry Applewhite, Central Atlantic Conference Minister, U.C.C.
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. We are here to celebrate the life of Harriet Kurtz, to honor her, to lift up her woxk
and mission, to uphold her in our memory, to send her forth in our prayers, to join her family
in feelings of appreciation,grief,courage, and to draw on the resources of faith for our
perceptions of life and death. Oh God,creative power of the universe, we thank you for the
life of Harriet Kurtz: Thank you for her ministry, which has had an impact on many people
and continues on through them to have an impact on our world.
Rev.William Moremen,Pirst Congre~ationai Church,Washington D.C.
. The memory of Harriet Kurtz will Zive forever in the hearts of her United Nations friends.
Her dreams were our dreams. Her vision of the peaceful world in which the marvelous conquests
of outer space would serve a1Z mankind, is our vision. Her great personal sacrifices and
relentless efforts at selfless service are a fine example of what idealism, faith and passion
for the human cause can achieve. She patterned her life after her deepest convictions and
thus is remembered as a very exceptional human being.
Dr. Robert Mu11er,Deputu Undersecretaru General of the United Nations
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. .The Reverend Harriet Kurtz was twice blessed -- first, with a vision that consumed her
total earthly life, and secondly, with a companion who shared this vision and now must carry
it forward,regretably alone. The vision -- peace through free exchange of knowledge -- is
Christly in context and possibly achievable with the technology God has granted us ,if only
man will cooperate. A time will come when her vision will be realized and, if my prayers
are answered, she will witness the acclaim she justly deserves. May God bless a noble soul
that in my eyes epitomized every attribute of the term "nobility".
Dr. William A. Fischer,Senior Scientist, Earth Resources Observation Systems,
U.S.Geologic Survey
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. Please extend to the family and friends of Mrs. Harriet Kurtz my deepest sympathy over
the passing of this beloved friend of all humanity. Let us find strength and comfort in the
abiding memory of her vigorous commitment to the search for peace and her gentle love for all
people.
Ambassador Andrew Younlz, U.S.Mission to the United Nations
. We are deeply saddened by Harriet's departure. A11 of us are a little better because
of what she stood for. We must carry on her work.
AFRTCARE
. My prayer is that oux heavenly father will bring to you the consolation of his grace,
in your loss and to Harriet the peace and joy which she sought for all members of God's human
family.
His Eminence Terence Cardinal Cooke
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. The woxk of Harriet and Howard Kurtz is a pioneering endeavor which points to the
direction the world must take if it is to survive. Typically, ideas which are ahead of their
time are of ten not fully appreciated. The dedication of the Kurtzes in selling all that they
have to purchase a dream of a new world, the pearl of great price, is a source of inspiration
to, and a model for us all. If the world is around in a hundred years it will be because,
along the way, someone with power began to act on what the Kurtes have been saying.
Rev. Dr. James R. Smucker, New York State Conference Minister, U.C.C.
. Mrs. Harriet B. Kurtz' death is a Loss to us all. Her vision and dedication to the
cause of humanity and world peace is an example where emulation can only fall short.
Honorable Stuart E. Eizenstat, Assistant to the President, The White House
Your tax-deductible contributions to War Control Planners,Inc.
are essential if this Search is to continue. Tt is up to you.
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THAT THERE MAY BE A FUTURE Editorial Perspective
If the American people are to be saved from eventual tragedy, the President and Congress will have
to create two different kinds of superior power. Like a successful football coach, the President must command
a superior defense team,to prevent opposing powers from breaking through to their goal of world domination.
But a nation, or a football team, with nothing more than a defense team, in time will be defeated.
In addition, the President must be in command of a superior forward team, capable of gradually
moving all confrontations and crises down the field toward the distant goal of a civilized world order. In
this future community of nations (more complex and more effective than the present United Nations ) the
people of all 150 sovereign nations will find security, and political independence, and progress the
"gut issues" for which the American people fought their Revolution.
A large sector of America will continue to be mobilized as the defense team,committed to protecting
America from clear and present danger from hostile foreign powers. But in addition, a large sector of
America will be released and guided by the President and Congress for an unprecedented era of new research
and development and demonstration of world-sized systems and management structures and legal institutions
to bring an end to war between nations, and to release the scarce energies and resources of the Earth for
the production of food,clothing,housing,clean air & water, health, education and national security for world
populations held within prudent limits.
One concrete example of forward power the President ~ Congress can unleash without delay:- As a
start, Harriet and I had opened up for pro and con and creative discussion the possibility that the United
States will invite all nations to follow our Zead in beginning to create a gigantic open-to-the-public-of-
the-world complex of global information and intelligence centers and services .utilizing greatly increased
programs of military and civilian earth-orbiting communications navigation, mapping, reconnaissance, earth
resources survey and other life-Serving satellites in a GLOBAL INFORMATION COOPERATIVE opened to the
nations of the world. opened to the press and television of the world .to maintain a public inventory of
potential public danger for the entire planet .whether danger of war .or danger of hurricane .or
danger of blight .or danger of shipwreck .or danger of pollution .or danger of forest fire or
any other potential threat to the public wellbeing everywhere and to monitor and enhance the progress
and health and security of the people of all nations, large and small.
There is no need to first negotiate with or ask permission of our enemies, before lighting a
bright white light of hope in the hearts and stomacher of the people of 150 sovereign nations, by a large
scale, Zong range, sustained commitment of American creativity and power to the most "impossible" task
civilization ever has undertaken, developing LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS FOR PLANET EARTH in the coming generation
as effectively as in the past generation, we have led the world developing the weapons capable of
rupturing or destroying world civilization.
The moment is here. The tools are available. All these satellites have been tested and proven,
many behind walls of military secrecy. Missing only is a historic national commitment proclaimed to the
people of the world by the President of the United States, and supported by a bi-partisan Congress.
The earth-orbiting,life-serving satellite systems are but one aspect of Harriet's ordination
commitment and her belief that the time has come to "unleash an explosive new kind of strength to bring the
dangers of war under control". This is the concept which has been a "Forbidden Subject" in the National
Security Council Staff under Republican and Democratic Presidents, for more than ten years. It may be
up to you to widen the pro and con and creative public discussion, in any way you see open.
Checkpoint
Non-Profit Orq.
U.S. Postage
PAI D
BOX 19127, WASHINGTON, D. C. 20036
Address Correction Requested
A pro/ect ojWwControl Planners, /nc., which is anon-profit,
educational corporation incorporated in the State ojNew York
(Box 3S, Chappaqua, N. Y.J. The newsletter CHECKPOINT
will be sent free to any who request it. Contributions are I
invited to cover costs of printing and mailin and are tax de-
uctt e. a co-or tnators are Howard and Harriet Kurtz.
.4 Tess all correspondence to the Washington Ojjice:
Box 19127, Washington, D. C. 20036 -Phone [phone].
Volume V,No.5,August 1977
Washington, D.C.
Permit No. 44818
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Checkpoint
A NETWORK NEWSLETTER FOR PEOPLE CONCERNED
WITH FUTURE CIVILIZED GLOBAL SYSTEMS
BOX 19127, WASHINGTON, D. C. 20036
PHONE (202) 785-0708
Vol. V No. 4, May 1977
Can Harriet
And Howard
Put an End to
The Arms Race?
ARNEST READER, ii you are sincerely sick of the
E nuclear arms debate, if your mind is thoroughly
boggled by the confusion of rocket stockpiles and hard-
target kill ratios and throw-weight projections, R you
are totally doped out by the diplomatic thunder between
Washington and Moscow, here is a sweet idea to con-
sider instead.
Here is what Harriet and Howard are selling as their
alternative to the arms race. This is what Harriet and
Howard would tell the President it they ever got in to
see him (which they won't, because presidents are pro-
tested from seeing people like Howard and Harriet).
Mr. President, they might say, the Golden Rule is
whirling~tl'ound out there in space -all you have to do
Ls grab hold of it. Change the world. Open a new epoch.
Save humankind from its own worst impulses.
"There has to be a conceptual breakthrough," says
Howard. "It's a new use of power, not like the Peace
Corps, not like AID. Nothing like this has happened "in
history."
"Right," says Harriet. "It is a historical breakthrough.
That's why we have to be so patient."
These two people, Howard and Harriet Kurtz, are as
patient as unhonored prophets. For 20 years, they have
been pushing their idea. Sending out reams of letters
and bulletins, carefully typed wifh the key thoughts
underlined in red. Calling on scores of governrilent offi-
cials with their home-made slide-show briefing. Talking
to countless editors and reporters, who listen politely
and often stuff the printed materials deep into the file
for unsolicited, wacky ideas.
May 1G, 1977
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD
HOWARD AND HARRIET KURTZ
oe rE.xns
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIV E3
Mondn^ 9lny 16, 1977
Mr. TEAGITF,. '~Ir. Speaker, in the
Washington I'o ~ for Sunday, May 8,
1977, there al,~xared an article on two
people with whom I have met and dis-
cussed their efforts to bring about an
end to the arms race on many occasions.
In order that all may read the article
in the event it was overlooked, I include
it at this point in the Racoon:
CAN HARRIET AND HOWARD PIIT AN END TO THE
ARMS RACS7
In the meantime, the world's nuclear arsenals have
doubled and tripled and the capacity for mass destruc-
tion is spreading to additional governments.
And Harriet and Howard are in their sixties now. She
has cancer (or she had it until the operation; the prog-
nosis is good). FYve years ago, they sold their home in
upstate New York and moved their "War Control Plan-
ners Inc." to Washington, aninth-floor apartment on
21st Street NW. They are living on his Social Security,
deeply in debt.
FutilityY Despair? Sympathetic reader, hers is the star-
tling twist. Howard and Harriet are happy in their work.
More than that, they are increasingly confident that
their idea, as Harriet puts it, "is just coming down the
pike."
T HE GOLDEN RULE ;n the sky was a vision which
they began promoting it in the early 1()6(ls as "War
Safety Control." Now, of course it is technologically esta-
blished -the United States has dozens of space satelli-
tes which orbit the globe, collecting data and photos,
monitoring everything from wheat blight to weather to
troop movements.
The Kurtzes propose that the Yresideut of the United
States create and promote, with the urgency of JFfi's
race-to-the-moon, a "global information cooperative"
which would plug every nation of the world into the, s~~s-
tem, friend and foe alike -sharing not only the conl-
mercial~nvironmental benefits, but eventually the mili-
tary intelligence which is new kept Top Secret.
( Copyright The Washington Post 1977 - Sunday ,'hay 8,1977)
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That's the point where a lot of people throw the Kurt-
zes' material into the wastebasket. It is not an idea whose
time has come -the notion' that U.S. security would be
strengthened by helping every other nation to protect
its own security.
Undaunted, Harriet and Howard argue that the idea
makes sense, not just morally, but militarily. When they
talk out their idea, it is like a family pas-de-deux be-
tween the church and the state. She is an ordained min-
ister of the United Church of Christ, commissioned in
1984 to follow an independent mission for peace. He is a
former lieutenant colonel in the Air Force, an engineer.
who prefers practical explanations.
They got into this crusade a generation ago in the
strangest way. After World War II, Howazd was working
for American Airlines, doing the planning for the first
New York-to-Moscow air service. The CAB granted a li-
cense in 1948. Howard and Harriet were studying Rus-
sian at Columbia.
The Cold War intervened. Howard was in Moscow on
May Day of 1947 and saw the new Soviet weaponry on
display there. "I could see the next war beginning," he
said. "We could,see our two babies being caught in it."
So they became permanent amateur students of global
politics. In the 1950x, they held regular roundtables on
the subject, collecting ideas, drafting hopeful proposals.
Their children, as teenagers, used to bring home friends
to join the discussion. Today they are grown (Brenda is
an actress in New York; Bryan is a banker in Chicago)
and still encourage their parents.
"Bryan," says Howard playfully, "is trying to make
enough money to catch us as we fall out of the nest."
In 1985, Howard lost his job with a management con-
sulting firm, an event which he attributes to pressure
from two defense manufacturers who were clients. "I
was given the choice of either dropping this foolishness
about peace or involuntarily resigning," he said. "I had
no other choice but to be true to my conscience and Har-
riet's."
Since. then, they have both done peace-making full
time. They mail out their newsletter, Checkpoint, to a
network of about 3,000 friends and supporters, some of
whom respond with occasional contributions. "Our par-
ish," Howard calls them.
Aa they flash slides of global perspectives on their liv-
ing-room screen, the Kurtzes describe the grand strate-
gic thinking to support their proposition. It starts with
feudal castles in Europe. Pictures of ruined castles flash
on the screen.
Howard: "For centuries men sought security behind
the walls of castles."
Harriet: "The larger the castle, the greater the sense
of security. Then technology produced gunpowder-in-
cannon. The castle became indefensible. An historic era
began to collapse...
Howazd (flashing a cartoon of a cracked castle): "If the
Lord of a castle was a dove and turned weak in the face
of his enemies, he and his people were defeated."
Harriet: "On the other hand, if the Lord of a castle was
a hawk, he and his enemies shot more aid more holes in
each other's castles. In time the ruins of castles all across
the landscape signaled the final collapse of the old secu-
rity systems."
As the Kurtzes recount it, security defined by castle
domains was replaced (after centuries of bloodshed) by
the modern nation-state with its own defensible borders.
Modern technology has spent most of the dun Lentury
attempting to break down the national defensive bound-
aries. It has at last succeeded.
Hazriet: "The nation-state is becoming indefensible. A
historic era H collapsing all around the world. Both sides
of a nucleaz waz may be obliterated. Our strategic weap-
ons are becoming suicidal weapons. We will find new
ideas or risk mutual destruction."
Howazd: "The problem we facetoday may be sia~fly.
stated: we will now develop global systema~ and i~etita-
tions to assure the security and well-being. of all nations
- or no nation will ever find security again."
ETWEEN the preacher wife and the engineer hus-
band, the basic technique of "Waz Control Plan-
ners Inc." is to take the latest marvels of waz~and-space
technology and try to imagine how this same hazdwaze
might be used to assist in global peace-keeping.
Back in 1961, for example, the Kurtzes sent afar-out
package to the new President, proposing an "allnation
declazation of independence", and suggestin? how the
United States might use modern electronics to help au
nations protect their borders. Some of the same techra}-
ques -electronic sensors as sentinels -showed up is
Vietnam a few years later as the famous "electronic bat-
tlefield." Something similar is now being proposed as an
element in the Middle East peace-making. The Kennedy
White Hottse did not reply to Howazd and Harriet.
Tea years ago, the Kurtzes shifted their tactics sumo-
what, talking up the non-military possibilities of the
satellite systems which were just then emerging. urging
that the new marvels be organized on a broad global
basis, rather than .exploited commercially by only the
most developed nations.
Their theory i$ that, once hostile nations begin shazirc~
the fruits of weather-geological-agricultural informa-
tion, the benefits of sharing military intelligence will be?
come obvious. "Ii you say we ought to share it, that
sounds moralistic," Howazd warns. "What we're saying
is that, unless we share it, we can't use it."
The non-military information collected by NASA satel-
lites is, in principle, available to all nations, shazed with
anyone who wants it. As a practical matter, thQ expertise
needed to make good use of mineral readings or new
agricultural mapping is still largely limited to major
multinational corporations and the industrialized na-
tions.
The potential benefits, for peace or for profit, are still
unknown, but easy to imagine. One NASA-Department
of Agriculture experimental satellite, for example, is
able to identify 17 different crops from 570 miles up. It
can determine whether the crops are seedlings or ma-
ture, healthy or blighted, well-watered or parched.
"Should the United States - or the Soviet Union -
have monopoly control of this global intelligence and
this power to corner the agricultural markets of th8
world?" the Kurtzes ask. Or should the United States, on
its own, launch a global system which would serve ev-
eryone, enable the world to plan its food supplies on an-
interdependent basis? The Kurtzes propose a CAIA (Cen-
tral Agricultural Intelligence Agency) without secrecy
- and without having to ask the Soviet Union whether
it approves.
The sharing of military data will also seem more
plausible in time, the Kurtzes insist, when America~la
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begin to understand that the Defense Department cau
no longer defend us.
"Conceptually," Howard says, "the Joint Chiefs are
now working on a Kamikaze strategy, threatening to de-
stroy ourselves b~ throwing more and more of our fire-
power at the enemy...
"The only reason the concept hasn't changed," adds
Harriet, "is that. strategy usually changes in the ashes of
defeat and we haven'C had this defeat. We can't have ft
This future of "war safety" which the Kurtzes envi-
sion would actually entail a whole new future for the
American military, once the generals begin to see na-
tional security differently. In the meantime, the govern-
ment bspending about i~ million on peaceful applica-
tions of apace satellites and about 10 times that amount
on secret military uses.
THE ARMAMENTS continue to build up, the arms
treaties notwithstanding, but somehow the Kurtzes
are not discouraged. They report that dozens of people
inside the government agencies discreetly encourage
their crusade, offering better space photos for the slide-
show, correcting their technical mistakes, sharing this
idea that a "global information cooperauve" is a genuiee
route to a peaceful world.
President Carter's new director of the White House
Office of SMence and Technology, Frank Press, recently
sent them a cordial response, assuring them that scient-
ists generally share their broad goals and urging them to
be patient with the constraints of experimentation.
"Aa is often the case, political and social progress lags
behind technological possibilities and sometimes
prevents us from moving as rapidly as we might wish iQ
these areas," Press wrote. "... The global satellite sy~
rem which you have so eloquantly pleaded for is in fact
evolving, but it cannot be created full-blown overnight."
Sometimes, Howard says, "we feel like the people who
spent years building a boat in the basement, only to find
there was no door big enough to let it out."
Harriet says: "Ii we have a contribution to make, it's
likely to be a very small but a very crucial one. That's
what we tell ourselves when we're trying to keep afloat.
I don't know whether that's right or not."
And, now, patient readers, armed with the hope of the
Kurtzes, you may return to reading about the arms race.
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THAT THERE MAY BE A FUTURE
William Greider's article in the Sunday edition of the largest newspaper in Washington D.C.
brings public exposure to new ideas formerly considered too 'far out' to be brought to the attention of
a President, or Congress, or the American people. This event itself may be a reflection of changing
times. The American people, and the people of this troubled planet, may be ready for the transforming
power of a new vision whose time has come .a New American Purpose for a world in crisis.
The people of each of the 150 sovereign nations on Earth yearn for the right to govern them-
selves free from domination by the Soviet Union, or the United States, or any other foreign power .
and to make progress toward the wellbeing of their populations. They yearn for security .
independence .and progress, the three 'gut issues' for which the American people fought a Revolution.
President Carter and Congress today have a dominant Zead in global systems technologies and
management skills to (1) meet a1Z requirements for national defense in the coming years, and in addition
(2)lead the world in a new generation of large scale research and development and testing of global
systems and management structures to stabilize international relations without threats of war, and to
assist all nations in their struggles for food,clothing,housing, energy, clean air 6 water, health,
education and security for populations held within prudent limits (as President Roosevelt and Congress
had the unprecedented ability to (I) prosecute World war II and in addition (2) lead the world in
research and development of new systems to release the power of the atom for the first time in historyj.
~t ,is difficult to believe that behind-the-scenes in the White House there are financial and
military interests finding escalating personal rewards from the escalating national danger of the
escalating Kremlin/White House science and technology race for the power to destroy world civilization,
who refuse to bring to the full attention of the President and Congress the precedent-shattering
pro-human global military and civilian strategic initiatives which could become the foundation for a
new world statesmanship, leading toward future civilized world systems and institutions. It may be
up to you to find your own ways to widen pro and con and creative professional and public discussion
(within your own communities and professions) of the transforming power of future science and tech-
nology committed to the development of LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS FOR PLANET EARTH, rather than weapons of
death and obliteration. To more fully inform yourself and others we suggest three initiatives:-
1. Write to Senator Adlai Stevenson, Chairman, Science Technology & Space Subcommittee, 456
Senate Office Building, Washington D.C.205I0, requesting a copy of the March 18,1977 testi-
mony before his subcommittee by Harriet & Harriet Kurtz, editors of CHECKPOINT.
2. Write to Commission on International Relations, National Academy of Sciences, Washington
D.C.20418 requesting a copy of their Report RESOURCE SENSING FROM SPACE, Prospects for
Developing Countries (Code J.H.214) ". This will be of value to thought Leaders in all
developing nations, as well as to concerned citizen groups and faculties and students in U.S.
3. Write to U.S.Government Printing Office, Washington D.C. 20402 (enclose check or money
order payable to Superintendent of Documents for $ 24.00) requesting MISSION TO EARTH;
LANDSAT VIEWS THE WORLD (GPO Stock # 003-000-00659-4) You will experience 400 of the
most beautiful and awesome color views of the nations of the whole world, on both sides of
all potential wars ,looking down on humanity from 'eye in the sky' satellites in a new Seat
of Power in the Heavens, not far from where the mythologies had claimed was where God sat.
You will begin to grasp the transcendent and unheard-of global compassionate power now within
reach of the American people through President Carter and Congress capable of Leading all
nations in the coming generation, toward a civilized international order more complex, and
more effective than the present United Nations. There is no need to ask permission of the
Kremlin or any other foreign power before launching this new era of research & development.
Checkpoint
NOn-Profit Org.
U.S. Postage
PAI D
Washington, D.C.
Permit No. 44818
BOX 19127, WASHINGTON, D. C. 20036
Address Correction Requested
A project of War Control Planners, Inc., which is anon-profit,
educational corporation incorporated in the State of New York
(Box 3S, Chappaqua, N. Y.J. The newsletter CHECKPOINT
will be sent free to any who request it. Contributions are
invited to cover costs of printing and mailing and are tax de-
ductible. The co-ordinators are Howard and Harrier Kurtz.
Address all correspondence to the Washington Office:
Boz /9127, Washington, D. C. 20036 -Phone [phone].
Volume V, No. 4, May 1977
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t
ani
ize opy pprove or a ease - - -
DATA-SHARING SYSTEM
Couple Works for Peace Through Technology
By M.L. GRAVER
rmes s~.e write.
WASHINGTON - In a small
apartment in downtown Washing-
ton, Howard and Harriet Kurtz
are working to save the would.
The Hurtzes head War Control
Planners, a nonprofit organization
that promotes world safety
through technology.
The group's basic idea is that
technology has advanced to the
point where a standoff exists
among nations. No country can
attack another without inviting its
own destruction.
"Therefore," says Kurtz, "we
must turn our technology toward
a constructive purpose. We have
gone as far as we can in the other
direction."
The constructive purpose Kurtz
has in mind is called the "Global
Information Cooperative." It
would use earth-oibiting satellites
to collect information and share it
among nations.
The Kurtzes believe this system
would help solve the problems of
humankind and ensure world safe-
ty.
e World safety would result be-
cause all kinds of military prepa-
rations could be detected and re-
ported.
"It would be possible to spot a
fleet of ships, a nuclear sub, or a
battalion of troops. Surprise at-
tacks like Pearl Harbor and D-
Day would no longer be possible,"
Rnrtz says.
The system could help solve the
problems of humankind by shar-
ing information on food produc-
tion, education, health and weath-
er.
Information would be displayed
on huge screens and would be
stored in computers for reference.
Communications lints would be
maintained through radio, televi-
sion and the print media. There
would be no classified informa-
tion.
As ambitious as the project may
sound, the U.S. already is experi-
menting with satellites which
Kurtz says could be used in the
program.
For the past year, a broadcast
satellite over India has been deliv-
ering lectures on family planning,
nutrition, etc., to people in remote
villages. A similiar satellite made
it possible for teachers in an iso-
lated area of Appalachia to take a
course from an education instruc-
torhundreds of miles away.
Earth-sensing satellites now in
orbit can scan the world and dis-
tinguish between different kinds
of crops and determine soil condi-
tions, crop yields and rainfall.
Kurtz says that soon satellites
with infrared scanners will be
able to predict which countries
will have bumper crops and which
will.have crop failures.
"The capability is iilready
there," Kurtz says.
also published in
~r/ar f;ontrot also would like to , "The U.S. has the technology,
see the satellites assisting in the the experts and the money; all
search for oil, gas and minerals that we need is the leadership,"
under the ocean's surface. They ~ says Kurtz.
could be used to track wildlife to While Kurtz says he tries to re-
help save endangered species. main nonpolitical, he was pleased
The satellites could maintain to see Jimmy Carter elected
world-wide timber inventories' president.
and detect forest fires, or aid in' . War Control already has been in
search and rescue operations. contact with a Carter representa-
"Satellites can spot a tiny life- ~ tive. Kurtz is hopeful that, given
boat in the middle of the Pacific or ,Carter's background in technol-
~
a motorist stranded in the
ogy, this is the kind of project to-
Surroundingthis global cooper-
ative,. War Control envisions a
force of international experts and
research teams. -The project
would require so many of these
professionals that schools would
train people especially for the
project, says Kurtz.
"This could solve the unemploy-
ment problems that often occur
during peace time, too. It would
be putting people to work for hu-
manity," Harriet Kurtz says.
The project, War Control
admits, will require a great deal
of money, but they insist that if
the Manhattan Project was possi-
ble, so is this.
'. NOVEMBER 22, 1976 Air Farce TieNs
ward which he will gravitate.
Meanwhile, Howard and
Harriet Kurtz work on, speaking
at .the Georgetown University
Center for Strategic and Interna-
tional Studies or testifying before
congressional committees. They
work is their apartment/office,
where every space is crammed
with technical books and corre-
spondence, writing their newslet-
ter, "Checkpoint," and trying to
capture people's interest.
The Kurtzes insist that their
organization is not just another
~dagood peace group.
"We have a practical solution.
We don't just deal in idealistic
rhetoric," Kurtz said.
Kurtz says the U.S. could initi-
ate this altruistic project without
first negotiating with other coun-
tries. He predicts that soon after
the project begins other nations
will join in.
"They will know a good thing
when they see it operating," Kurtz '
says.
Another feature of the plan is
that it would not require.partici-
pating nations to give up their
defense forces before joining the
cooperative.
In fact, War Control sees a
strong defense as a necessity until
the project is far enough along.
Then they believe nations will de-
escalate voluntarily.
"As nations work to help each
other, tensions will diminish,"
Kurtz says.
The Kurtzes have been formu-
lating and revising this plan for
the past 20 years. Howevtr, they
admit that the plan will work only
if there is an enforcement system.
Given the fact that a satellite
may show a country to have an
abundance of rice, who or what
would make that country give its
surplus to a needy nation?
Enforcement, says Kurtz, will
require some kind of security sys-
tem - a reconstituted United Na-
tions or a world public authority,
or a limited world government in
the field of war and peace, or a
new world security organization.
"Otherwise there will be chaos
and devastation. Civilization will
revert to the jungle," he said.
Working for Peace
For more than 20 yeors, Howord and Harriet Kurtz have been
working on a plan to put technology to the service of world peace
and prosperity. They now envision an all-seeing satellite system thot
would gather information shared by all countries.
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Associated Press Photo
Data co-lecfed by sa+elli+es, such as this one, can be used for global peace, argue a husband-wife +sem who advoce+~
a Golden Rule in space.
Peace via the Golden Rule
By WILLIAM GREIDER
WASHINGTON.
F YOU ARE sincerely sick of the
I nuclea.t? arms debate, if yout? mind
is thoroughly boggled by the confu-
sion of rocket stockpiles and hard-
targct kill ratios and throw-weight
projections, if you are totally doped
out by the diplomatic thunder be-
tween Washington and Dloscow, here
is a sweet idea to consider instead.
Here is what Harriet and Howard
Kurtz are selling as their alternative
to the arms race. This is what they
would tell the President if they could
ever get in to see him:
Mr. President, the Golden Rule is
whirling around out there in space -
all you have to do is grab hold of 1t.
change the world. Open a new epoch.
Save humankind from its own worst
impulses.
They are as patient as unhonored
prophets. For 20 ,years they have been
pushing their idea; sending out reams
of letters and bulletins, carefully
typed ~.cith the key thoughts un-
derlined in red; calling on scores of
government officials with their ho-
memade slide-show briefing; talking
to countless editors and reporters.
illeantime the world's n u c l e a r
arsenals have doubled and tripled,
and the capacity for mass destruction
is spr.~ading to a d d i t i o n a l
governments.
Harriet and Howard are in their
fi0s. She has cancer for she had it un-
ti: the operation; the prognosis is
good l . Five years ago they sold their
home in upstate New York and
moved their War Control Planners
inc. to a ninth-floor apartment in
1Cachin~ton. They are deeply in debt
and living on his Social Security.
They began promoting the Golden
Rule in the sky in the early 1960s as
"\Var Safety Control."
The Kurtzes propose that the Presi-
dent create and promote a "global in-
formation cooperative" that would
HARRIET KURTZ
They curry on fihe sfrugg/e .. .
plug every nation of the world into
the system, friend and fce alike, shar-
ing not only the commercial-
environmental benefits, but eventually
the military Intelligence which !s Top
Secret.
That's the point where a lot of peo
p]e throw the Kurtzes' material into
the wastebasket. Undaunted, Harriet
and Howard argue that the Idea
makes sense, not just morally, but
militarily.
She is an ordained minister of the
United Church of Christ, commis-
sioned in 1984 to follow an indeipen-
dent mission for peace. He is a
former lieutenant colonel in the Air
Force, an engineer.
They got into this crusade a
generation ago in the strangest way.
After World War II, Howard was
working for American Airlines, plan-
ning for the first New York-to-
Moscow air service. The CAB granted
a license in 1946.
The Cald War fntsrvened. Howard
was in Moscow on May Day of 1947
and saw the new Soviet weaponry on
display there. "I could see the next
war beginning," he said, "We could
see our two babies being caught in
it."
Hopeful proposals
So they became permanent amateur
students of global politics. In the
1950s they held regular roundtables
on the subject. collecting ideas, draft-
ing hopeful proposals.
Their children, as teenagers, used
to bring home friends to join the
discussion. Today they are grown
(Brenda 1s an actress in New York;
Bryan is a banker in Chicago) and
still encourage their p?3rents.
In 1965 Howard lost his job with a
management consulting firm. He at-
tributes this to pressure from two de-
fense manufacturers who w e r e
clients.
Since then they have both done
peacemaking fulltime. They mail out
thc;r newsletter, Checkpoint, to a net-
work of about 3000 friends and sup-
porters, some of whom respond with
occasional contributions.
Between the preacher wife and the
engineer husband, the basic technique
of War Control Planners Inc. is to
take the latest marvels of war and
space technlogy and try to imagine
how this same hardware might be
used to assist in global peacekeeping.
Back in 1961, for example, the
Kurtzes sent afar-out package to the
ne~v President, proposing an "all-
nation declaration of independence"
and suggesting how the U.S. might
use modern electronics to help all na-
tions protect their bordet?s.
Some of the same techniques -
electronic sensors as sentinels -
showed up in Vietnam a few years
later as the famous "electronic battle-
field." Something similar is now being
proposed as an element in the Middle
East peacemaking. ~~ ~- -?<
Ten years ago, they shifted their
tactics somewhat, talking up the non-
military possibilities of the satellite
systems that were then emerging,
urging that they be organized on a
broad global basis.
Their theory is that once hostile
nations be}:in sharing the fruits of
w e a t h e r-geological-agricultural In-
formation, the benefits of sharing
military Intelligence will become ob-
vious.
The potential benefits, for peace ar
for profit, are still unknown but easy
to imagine.
One NASA-Dept. of Agriculture ex-
perimental satellite, for example, la
able to identify 17 different crops
from 570 miles up. It can de~tn?m~ne
whether the crops are seedlings or
mature, healthy or blighted, ~vell-
watered or parched.
The Kurtzes propose a CAIA (Cen-
tral Agricultural Intelligence Agencyl
without secrecy -and without hav-
ing to ask the Soviet Union whether It
approves.
The sharing of military data will
also seem more plausible in time, the
Kurtzes insist, when Americans begin
to understand that the Defense Dept.
can no longer defend us.
President Carter's new director o[
the White House Office of Science
and Technology, Frank Press, re-
cently sent the Kurtzes a cordial res-
i~onse, assuring them that scientists
renerallN share their broad goals and
urging them to he patient with the
constraints of experimentation.
Sometimes, Howard says, "we feel
like the people mho spent years tmild-
ing aboat in the basement, only to
find there was no door big enough
to let it out."
Harriet sa}?s, ''It we have a con-
tribution to make, it's likely to be a
very small but a very crucial one.
That's what we tell ourselves when
we're trying to )seep afloat. I don't
know whether that's right or not."
Washington Post Outlook
Washington Post Phofoa
HOWARD KURTZ
...from their of-home office .
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 14 AlrFaewTYnM OCTOBl3t2I 1977 reprinted with pert ~, sion
of Air FnrrA ~imac
py
pp
~~~~V~~~~~~ Bruce CaIlancler
Time to Give Military Dve Credit
WHAT TAE 111