Free The Star by Arthur C. Clarke Page A

question directly.
    ‘Fascinating things, these electronic computers,’ he mused. ‘I suppose I shouldn’t tell you this, but your gadget reminds me of what happened to Project Clausewitz. A curious story, and one very expensive to the American taxpayer.’
    ‘Look,’ said John Wyndham anxiously. ‘Before you start, be a good sport and let us get our glasses filled. Drew!’
    This important matter having been attended to, we gathered round Harry. Only Charlie Willis still remained with the machine, hopefully trying his luck.
    ‘As you all know,’ began Harry, ‘Science with a capital S is a big thing in the military world these days. The weapons side—rockets, atom bombs and so on—is only part of it, though that’s all the public knows about. Much more fascinating, in my opinion, is the operational-research angle. You might say that’s concerned with brains rather than brute force. I once heard it defined as how to win wars without actually fighting, and that’s not a bad description.
    ‘Now you all know about the big electronic computers that cropped up like mushrooms in the 1950s. Most of them were built to deal with mathematical problems, but when you think about it you’ll realise that war itself is a mathematical problem. It’s such a complicated one that human brains can’t handle it—there are far too many variables. Even the greatest strategist cannot see the picture as a whole: the Hitlers and Napoleons always make a mistake in the end.
    ‘But a machine—that would be a different matter. A number of bright people realised this after the end of the war. The techniques that had been worked out in the building of ENLAC and the other big computers could revolutionise strategy.
    ‘Hence Project Clausewitz. Don’t ask me how I got to know about it, or press me for too many details. All that matters is that a good many megabucks worth of electronic equipment, and some of the best scientific brains in the United States, went into a certain cavern in the Kentucky hills. They’re still there, but things haven’t turned out exactly as they expected.
    ‘Now I don’t know what experience you have of high-ranking military officers, but there’s one type you’ll all come across in fiction. That’s the pompous, conservative, stick-in-the-mud careerist who’s got to the top by sheer pressure from beneath, who does everything by rules and regulations and regards civilians as, at the best, unfriendly neutrals. I’ll let you into a secret: he actually exists. He’s not very common nowadays, but he’s still around and sometimes it’s not possible to find a safe job for him. When that happens, he’s worth his weight in plutonium to the Other Side.
    ‘Such a character, it seems, was General Smith. No, of course that wasn’t his real name! His father was a senator, and although lots of people in the Pentagon had tried hard enough, the old man’s influence had prevented the General from being put in charge of something harmless, like the coast defence of Wyoming. Instead, by miraculous misfortune, he had been made the officer responsible for Project Clausewitz.
    ‘Of course, he was only concerned with the administrative, not the scientific aspects of the work. All might yet have been well had the General been content to let the scientists get on with their work while he concentrated on saluting smartness, the coefficient of reflection of barrack floors, and similar matters of military importance. Unfortunately, he didn’t.
    ‘The General had led a sheltered existence. He had, if I may borrow from Wilde (everybody else does), been a man of peace, except in his domestic life. He had never met scientists before, and the shock was considerable. So perhaps it is not fair to blame him for everything that happened.
    ‘It was a considerable time before he realised the aims and objects of Project Clausewitz, and when he did he was quite disturbed. This may have made him feel even less friendly towards his