Can-Do and the Computer

Once upon a time a can-do type from Ford took over at the Pentagon. First thing he did was cut costs. He cut out the atom-powered airplane, and he cut out the space glider, and he cut out all jumbo H-bomb manufacture—things like that. Businessmen thought he was great because, hell, everybody knows an organization travels lighter when the fat’s lopped off.

When the Austin crowd came in, old can-do kept cutting away. He cut out all World War II guns on destroyers, and he cut off all old-fashioned propeller airplane production, and he cut off the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Anybody who wondered out loud was this guy off his nut, he’d point to a computer and say: “Care to argue with that, Buster?”

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W. H. von Dreele

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Once upon a time a can-do type from Ford took over at the Pentagon. First thing he did was cut costs. He cut out the atom-powered airplane, and he cut out the space glider, and he cut out all jumbo H-bomb manufacture—things like that. Businessmen thought he was great because, hell, everybody knows an organization travels lighter when the fat’s lopped off.

When the Austin crowd came in, old can-do kept cutting away. He cut out all World War II guns on destroyers, and he cut off all old-fashioned propeller airplane production, and he cut off the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Anybody who wondered out loud was this guy off his nut, he’d point to a computer and say: “Care to argue with that, Buster?”