Dark Side of the Moon: Wernher von Braun, the Third Reich, and the Space Race (W.W. Norton), by Wayne Biddle

To Americans during the Space Age, Wernher von Braunwas the German who would put the United States on the moon. Everyoneknew he had directed the Nazi V-2 rocket program, but in the Cold War, pittingthe United Statesagainst the U.S.S.R. in a technology race, few cared to ask questions aboutBraun’s past.

Wayne Biddle’s beautifully written account asksthose questions, but his answers aren’t entirely satisfactory. DarkSideof the Moon wonders about the moral obligation of science (against thosewho think science has no moral obligation), but stumbles in the ambiguousthicket of history. Braun’s science-fiction-fed ambition to become a rocketscientist and send men into space could only have been furthered, in his timeand place, by working with the Nazi regime in the dangerous environment of apolice state with closed borders.

Biddle undermines his own argument that Braun washighly complicit by quoting Hitler: “In this Reich, everyone in any responsibleposition is a National Socialist.” In plain English: Play the game or don’tplay. The picture of Braun that actually emerges from Biddle’s research is nota Nazi true believer but a talented if glib careerist, determined to earn acomfortable living through pursuing his dreams under any government. If he hadfallen into Stalin’s hands at the end of World War II, the hammer and sicklemay have been the first flag on the moon.