Made to Break: Part Three

There was so much information in part three of Made to Break (some of it similar information from the first book we read, Computers). I will focus in this blog on one specific topic.
In Weaponizing Planned Obsolescence, I was amazed by the depth of technological espionage that occurred between the U.S.S.R and the U.S. in the 1980's while I was busy smoking in the high school bathroom. The true accounts given here could be script material for a spy movie. The life stories of Gus Weiss and the KGB mole Vladimir Vetrov were fascinating. Weiss's creation of the American Tradecraft Society (p230)was a crucial element in the protection of national security. Weiss keenly watched the Soviets develop technology that they obviously could not afford to research and develop. He and the A.T.S. spent many years protecting American technology, covertly. And with the information gathered through Vetrov, Wiess and the U.S. government were able to sabotage the Soviet pipeline project and satellite equiptment through 'planned obsolescence'(p254). The events that followed, the privatization of the Soviet oil supply, Putin's effort to regain control of it, and the U.S. entering into a war with oil rich countries, are certainly in a curious sequence. Could it be that the threat of economic growth for the Soviets and the countries they supply oil to, North Korea, China and Japan, caused the U.S. to ensure its own supply of oil through a senseless war?