Hidden in plain sight: CORONA and the clandestine geography of the Cold War

This dissertation explores the geographic and geodetic applications of the now declassified CORONA reconnaissance satellite system (1958--1972) and the geodetic and allied sciences in the early Cold War (1947--1972) culminating with the presentation of the World Geodetic System of 1972.;The dissertation advances the argument that: (1) a great convergence of the geographic, geodetic and allied sciences occurred during the early Cold War, precisely to both wage and prevent nuclear war; (2) this convergence was prosecuted under an evolving series of secrecy protocols that transformed all parties and agencies associated with it, but the parties' obligations to disguise, conceal, and misrepresent the relationships has obscured that history; and (3) the mechanisms devised to achieve but disguise fundamental progress in the geographic, geodetic and allied sciences constitute a model of Cold War-era knowledge production called the Shuttered Box. This model, which continues to exist and evolve, challenges traditional assumptions about the very nature and organizational structure of the contemporary geographic and geodetic and allied sciences and their institutions.;The dissertation is structured as eight chapters, most of which are ordered around the CORONA reconnaissance satellite program, and particularly the clandestine applications of CORONA data to national mapping and geodetic applications by the US Geological Survey.;Chapter One presents the dissertation hypothesis and methodology. Chapter Two reviews the CORONA declassification process and the extant major critical studies of the program, in the light of still-classified (at this moment) successor reconnaissance systems, and the present national protocols governing declassification and protection of national security. Chapter Three presents the Shuttered Box as a formal model of Cold War knowledge production. Chapter Four explores the Cold War foundations of the World Geodetic System in the pioneering interactions between the various research and instructional enterprises in the geodetic and allied sciences organized in the immediate post-war period at Ohio State University. Chapter Five analyzes historic interactions between the civilian and classified remote sensing initiatives of the Landsat and CORONA programs. Chapter Six describes the Cold War origins and development of analytical cartography, as the discipline was first identified by Dr. Waldo Tobler. Chapter Seven describes the application by federal agencies, both civilian and classified, of CORONA and post-CORONA reconnaissance to global and national mapping programs. Chapter Eight summarizes the dissertation and its conclusions, analyses the significance of the conclusions for the discipline of geography, and presents anticipated future research directions.