Author: Lawrence E. Lamb, M.D.

ISBN: 1933538392

Dr Lawrence E Lamb has enjoyed a long career of public service, most notably in assisting the astronauts of the USA in preparing themselves physically and in designing the medical systems that would determine levels of safety in space. In this memoir, copiously illustrated by photographs of the great and the good and copies of letters from the same, Lamb recounts his experiences with the program. He takes great efforts to outline the part played in this by Lyndon B Johnson and talks of his relationship both with Johnson and with other leading establishment figures. The story is one which is a vital part in understanding how America got into space and readers with an interest in that history will find much of value here.

Lamb is apparently a former syndicated newspaper column, although I must confess that his fame has not spread to me here in Bangkok. He seems greatly exercised in trying to explain and justify certain decisions that he and those he admired made in the past. Many words are spent explaining why he so resolutely refused to permit the would-be astronaut Deke Slayton to fly in space (he had a heart problem and might have fainted for a couple of seconds, as he had done before). More words are spent on a missing $500,000 which was due to be sent to an institution with which Lamb was associated but did not arrive. This all has the feeling of a man trying to set straight what he asserts to be inaccurate records. Should he be believed? It is impossible to tell without seeing all sides of the argument of course.

Lamb makes great play of the fact that ‘the Soviets’ were bent on world domination and that only America existed to protect the ‘free world.’ This political analysis might have stood fifty years ago to frighten the poor and uneducated but it is no way for a grown adult to behave in the twenty-first century. If his understanding of the world is as limited as this then it is not surprising that he seems to have contracted a number of enemies over the years – or at least, that is the impression that a reader of this book is likely to obtain. Nevertheless, those parts of the history through which he lived and was part and which are not part of the self-justification are interesting and the writing is lucid and energetic.