The John Campbell Syndrome

I am intrigued, amused and amazed by John W. Campbell’s article, taking me harshly to task for: 1) being right and 2) being wrong about Russian space technology. He agrees that I have plenty of evidence to prove that Cosmonaut Leonov’s film of a “space walk” was made in an Earthbound motion picture studio and that the “first” photos of the hidden side of the moon were not photos at all but were artwork. Yet he contends that I am way off base in assuming that if the Soviets lie blatantly about one thing, you cannot trust them to tell the truth about another. In Mr. Campbell’s mind, the Russians do “a much better job of communicating the truth, by presenting a lie.”

Such reasoning may be worthy of science-fiction plotting, in which Mr. Campbell is a recognized authority, but it is hardly the way to evaluate the claims—repeat: claims—of space research achievements by a nation that has never once permitted outside neutral observers to be at the scene of their launches or recoveries of spacecraft. That same nation, the Soviet Union, furthermore has never released any hard scientific data acquired through space experiments of whatever kind.

LM

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Lloyd Mallan

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I am intrigued, amused and amazed by John W. Campbell’s article, taking me harshly to task for: 1) being right and 2) being wrong about Russian space technology. He agrees that I have plenty of evidence to prove that Cosmonaut Leonov’s film of a “space walk” was made in an Earthbound motion picture studio and that the “first” photos of the hidden side of the moon were not photos at all but were artwork. Yet he contends that I am way off base in assuming that if the Soviets lie blatantly about one thing, you cannot trust them to tell the truth about another. In Mr. Campbell’s mind, the Russians do “a much better job of communicating the truth, by presenting a lie.”

Such reasoning may be worthy of science-fiction plotting, in which Mr. Campbell is a recognized authority, but it is hardly the way to evaluate the claims—repeat: claims—of space research achievements by a nation that has never once permitted outside neutral observers to be at the scene of their launches or recoveries of spacecraft. That same nation, the Soviet Union, furthermore has never released any hard scientific data acquired through space experiments of whatever kind.