Bonum Certa Men Certa

IBM and the Bomb - Part I: How IBM Played a Technical and Diplomatic Role in the Cold War

Not a bombshell, but certainly a lesson in diplomacy and history (recently declassified, as our introduction noted)

Thomas J. Watson, Jr.
Thomas J. Watson, Jr., IBM chairman and chief executive officer (CEO), then U.S. Ambassador to Russia from 1979 to 1981. Public Domain, American Embassy, Moscow.



Summary: IBM's role in US (domestic) and international politics, especially in light of political appointments acquired by Thomas Watson (the father) and his two sons

THE BIGGEST money is to be found where the government invests the most. In the United States nothing has a budget anywhere near as high as the military's. Historically this has been the case because of the World Wars and imperialism; some US Presidents warned about this. The 'death industry' (Department of War rebranded "Defence") does not just willfully shrink itself or goes away. It is always looking to grow, expand, to influence and control everything it can. One need not be a cynic to grasp all this.



"...speaking of self-serving charities, the IBM Watsons have their own."IBM was highly involved in the Cold War and it became rich in the process. Contrary to the PR slant (1% of the profits etc.), IBM loves war and segregation; it has long profited from US imperialism in particular. One might as well swap the "I" in IBM with "Imperialist" (not "International"). When corporations and governments are almost inseparable it is inevitable that oftentimes businesspeople (active or 'retired') will enter politics, representing their own interests/ideologies and/or business interests. Money (profit) and policy (rules of power) are closely connected, for one can be leveraged to attain the other. We see a lot of that in Bill Gates, who for over a decade disrupted politics all around the world for personal agenda; he has investments to which he wishes to funnel taxpayers' money in every country. It's a racket. It's not a charity, it is only disguised as such. And speaking of self-serving charities, the IBM Watsons have their own. In fact, formed in 1979 was the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs (coinciding with the political career of Thomas J. Watson, Jr.).

Watson's political career wasn't without opposition. Consider the following (notice the subject in particular):

watson-opposition

In early 1979 he was already meeting with Soviet officials (it used to be classified "SECRET").

watson-meeting

It may all seem shallow and boring. Some of it remains "SECRET" and the following has redactions labeled "SECRET" (still, to present):

plenary-watson-1

plenary-watson-2

Here's the text:

1. ON FEBRUARY 2, 1979, THOMAS WATSON, CHAIRMAN OF GENERAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON ARMS CONTROL AND DISARMAMENT AND WILLIAM JACKSON, GAC EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, VISITED EMBASSY BERN, CALLED ON DCM CROWLEY, JOINED ASAT DELEGATION IN WORK IN PREPARATION FOR AFTERNOON PLENARY, AND DISCUSSED STATUS OF ASAT TALKS WITH SECRET SECRET

PAGE 02

BERN 00682 051005Z

BUCHHEIM AND BRADBURN.

2. WATSON, JACKSON, BUCHHEIM AND BRADBURN WERE JOINED AT LUNCH BY KHLESTOV. CONVERSATION WAS GENERAL IN NATURE. CROWLEY

Sheryl P. Walter Declassified/Released US Department of State EO Systematic Review 20 Mar 2014

Sheryl P. Walter Declassified/Released US Department of State EO Systematic Review 20 Mar 2014 SECRET

NNN

Sheryl P. Walter Declassified/Released US Department of State EO Systematic Review 20 Mar 2014

Sheryl P. Walter Declassified/Released US Department of State EO Systematic Review 20 Mar 2014


Page 2 is still all blanked out. Notice the decaption and disposition dates. Those are still considered too sensitive (even half a decade ago).

plenary-watson-3

In short, what we have here is the IBM dynasty meeting Soviet officials and deciding at a diplomatic capacity how to handle the Cold War.

"In short, what we have here is the IBM dynasty meeting Soviet officials and deciding at a diplomatic capacity how to handle the Cold War."This sort of matters because nowadays Microsoft is the same. "Bill [Gates] has high political ambitions for his cult," a person told yesterday, "and staying out of the [police] report was just one small maneuver, as was avoiding having Microsoft testify in congress this week."

Ever noticed how "GAFA" gets grilled but Microsoft is miraculously absent? As if Apple is a monopolist and Microsoft is not?

"At the moment the US President is enriching himself through his businesses and partners, blatantly misusing public office for personal gain. There's no lack of examples.""He can't position himself as candidate for VP this time," the person continued, "but my money is on him trying to run for the top office next round. Keep in mind he already even travels in convoys with decoy cars."

At the moment the US President is enriching himself through his businesses and partners, blatantly misusing public office for personal gain. There's no lack of examples.

The next part will talk about nepotism, perhaps even bribery, as we already know that Gates bribes a lot of politicians all around the world and we also know that the Watsons paid presidential candidates.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Good Explanation of Why IBM Has Chosen to Conceal Mass Layoffs (of 'Expensive' Staff) as "R.T.O." (Even For People Who Never Worked at the Office to Which They're Ordered to "Return")
Many remaining IBM (or Red Hat) workers in Europe are in "cheaper" places such as Brno
Microsoft's Serial Strangler and Matthew J. Garrett Join Forces in Trying to Gag Techrights (for Exposing Microsoft Corruption and Crimes Against Women)
Whose terrible idea was it?
Free University of Bozen-Bolzano Proud to Host Free Software Talk by Richard Stallman
ahead of Monday's talk
Slopwatch: Anti-Linux Machine-Generated FUD (LLM Slop) From GBHackers, CybersecurityNews, and Guardian Digital, Inc (Google News Promotes Slop Plagiarism, Misinformation)
Companies that lie try to drown out the signal with falsehoods
 
Politicians Ought to Invite Dr. Richard Stallman and Prof. Eben Moglen to Speak About Policies, Licensing, Digital Sovereignty
Is there something in Europe other than RMS' talk this coming Monday (that we're not yet aware of)?
Links 22/02/2025: Labour Department Investigates Microsoft Infosys Amid Mass Layoffs, Large Law Firms Caught Red Handed With LLM Slop (Defrauding Clients and Courts)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/02/2025: Analog Stuff, Sigil, and SSGs
Links for the day
Microsoft's Market Share in Cameroon Falls to New Lows
This means a lot of Android users (iOS is about 4 times smaller), but Android does not mean freedom
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, February 21, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, February 21, 2025
The Streisand Effect is Real
So don't be evil. Also, don't strangle women.
Links 21/02/2025: Linux Foundation Openwashing, Microsoft Copilot Goes Down
Links for the day
Links 21/02/2025: Doomscrolling and European Ham Radio Show
Links for the day
Links 21/02/2025: TikTok Layoffs, WebOS Software Patents in Bad Hands
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/02/2025: Web Browsers, Mechanical Shortcuts, and Internet Hygiene
Links for the day
Richard Stallman 'Only' Founded the FSF
there's no reason to be upset at the FSF for keeping their founder in the Board
Techrights Disconnected From the United States Two Years Ago
Did people really need to wait for the US government to become this hostile towards the media before recognising the threat?
Before Trying Censorship by Extortion the Serial Strangler From Microsoft Literally Begged Us to Delete Pages
This is very clearly just a broad campaign of intimidation
Hype Watch: Weeks After Microsoft Disappointed Investors With "Hey Hi" It's Trying Some "Quantum" Hype (Adding Impractical Vapourware to Accompany This Hype and Even LLM Slop in 'News' Clothing)
Remember "metaverse"? What happened to media hype about "blockchain" and "IoT"?
Report About February Mass Layoffs at Microsoft (Third Wave of Microsoft Layoffs in 2025) Comes Back From the Dead
Yesterday we wrote about an article in CRN (reporting Microsoft layoffs) being removed without any reasons specified
Links 21/02/2025: Myanmar Scam Centre and Disruptions at USPTO
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, February 20, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, February 20, 2025
gbhackers.com is Not Hackers, It's LLM Slop Outputs (Fake 'Articles') That Attack 'True Hackers'
A site called linuxsecurity.com keeps doing this and now we see the slopfarm gbhackers.com doing the same
Gemini Links 20/02/2025: Law of Warming and Cooling, Health, and Devlog
Links for the day
linuxsecurity.com Continues to Spread Lies or Machine-Generated FUD (Microsoft LLMs Likely the Source) About OpenSSH and Linux
this LLM problem is global
Links 20/02/2025: Microsoft Infosys Layoffs and IRS Layoffs (Good News for Rich Tax Evaders)
Links for the day
IBM Layoffs in Europe Already Happening or Underway (UK and Spain). They Try Not to Call These "Layoffs".
"CIO" in particular was repeatedly mentioned lately, as was Consulting
People Who Came From Microsoft Demanding Removal of Articles About Them, About Microsoft, and About Microsoft GitHub is "Generous" (According to Them)
Imagine choosing a law firm that borrows money in the same year just to avoid overdraft in the bank!
Possibly a Third Round of Mass Layoffs at Microsoft in 2025 ("Cloud Solution Architects, Customer Roles"), Report Removed or Censored
This is literally the top story for "microsoft layoffs" right now
Instead of 'DoS Protection' Cloudflare is Allegedly Conducting 'DoS Attacks' on Users of Browsers Other Than Firefox and GAFAM's DRM Sandboxes (Chrome, Safari and Others)
If you value the Web, you will avoid Cloudflare
Mixing Real With Fake in One 'Article' (by "Director of Content, Help Net Security")
From what we can gather, he got machines to generate some slop for him
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, February 19, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, February 19, 2025