#RAND

People (6)

• Anthony Russo Rand Corporation field analyst who conducted Viet Cong interviews in South Vietnam from 1965, prepared the first documented report of American complicity in systematic torture of prisoners, saw his findings suppressed by Rand's VC study director, and later co-conspired with Daniel Ellsberg to copy and release the Pentagon Papers.
• Jason Matheny IARPA director who founded Georgetown's Open Philanthropy-funded CSET, ran technology policy at Biden's National Security Council, became RAND's chief executive in 2022 and was an original Anthropic trustee.
• Jeff Alstott IARPA program manager and National Security Council technology director who became founding director of RAND's Technology and Security Policy center and helped shape the compute thresholds in Biden's AI executive order.
• Konrad Kellen Rand Corporation analyst and former World War II psychological warfare professional who, working from the same Viet Cong interview transcripts as Leon Gouré, reached the opposite conclusions: that VC morale was high, organizational cohesion was strong, and the war was unwinnable; his findings were formally published but ignored by policymakers.
• Leon Goure Rand Corporation social scientist who led Phase II of the Viet Cong Motivation and Morale Study from 1965, redirected its findings to support an air power thesis through systematic selection and suppression of contrary data, forged colleagues' signatures on a policy memorandum, and supplied the optimistic briefings on VC morale that Walt Rostow and Robert McNamara consumed while the war escalated.
• Tasha McCauley Robotics and geospatial entrepreneur, RAND adjunct and UK board member of Effective Ventures, who as an OpenAI director voted in November 2023 to remove Sam Altman and then left the board.