Minute 018: The Senate Committee

GUEST HOST: Rory Aylward Stone, Hall and Dempsey are flying to Piedmont by helicopter. “Didn’t you read the Wildfire material I’ve been sending you?” asks Stone. Very little,” replies Hall. “I never went in much for science fiction!” “Nor do I!” says Stone. The Rayburn Office building is shown, with a title crawl across the bottom of the screen. TITLE CRAWL: THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON SPACE SCIENCES… CLOSED HEARING… APRIL 14, 1971. General Sparks is seated at a table in front of a panel of five Senators: Senators Dow, Wyatt, McKenzie, Phillips, and Sollenger. “It seems to me, General,” says the Senator Phillips, from Vermont, “Dr. Stone put one over on you. In fact, he made us all think his Wildfire Lab could handle contamination from outer space.” “I disagree with the senator from Vermont,” says Senator McKenzie. “Dr. Stone, a Nobel Prize winner, twice president of the National Academy of Sciences, is well known here in Washington. Is the implication that Dr. Stone deliberately misled us?” “Perhaps not deliberately, Senator,” says General Sparks. “I’m reasonably certain that before the night the Wildfire Team was mobilized, Dr. Stone didn’t know Scoop existed.” “I’m astounded,” replies Senator McKenzie. “Reasons of national security,” explains General Sparks Very smart,” says the Senator Phillips. “We’ve had experiences with scientists before.”