Friends in High Places: The Bechtel Story : The Most Secret Corporation and How It Engineered the Wo Laton Mccartney (surface ebook reader .TXT) 📖

was a Republican or a Democrat. McCone pressed and argued with him until Ike finally gave in: all right, he was a Republican. The next step was formulating a statement for the press, broadly hinting at Eisenhower’s candidacy, without formally declaring it. The hours dragged out as the five men in the room haggled over phrasing. Finally, at 3:00

that afternoon, the statement was ready and released to a throng of reporters waiting outside. The bridge had been crossed; Eisenhower wasm.

As president, Dwight Eisenhower would remember his friends, including John McCone, whom he would name chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. Under McCone’s aegis, the nation would begin gearing up for the age of expectedly cheap and trouble-free nuclear power. Dozens of new plants, costing billions of dollars, would be necessary. Required too would be a construction company to build them. As “lucky” Steve Bechtel had put it, one step was following another.

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1. Each summer the Bechtels and their friends from government and business visit the Bohemian Grove for their annual encampment. Here under the redwoods members and guests gather around a bonfire. (Woodfin & Camp Assoc.)

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2. In 1906, theW A. Bechtel Company was awarded one of its earliest contracts, a grading job for Western Pacific. This was the first time the company utilized a steam shovel. (Bechtel Corporation)

3. With their fortunes improving by 1915, the Bechtels posed for a family portrait. From left to right standing are Clara, Warren and Steve. Seated are Ken, Alice and “Dad.” (Bechtel Corporation)

4. By 1924, W A. Bechtel was one of

the biggest contractors in the West. Here

during a break on a railroad ;ob he

posed with his three sons. (Bechtel

Corp.)

5. In June 1927, en route to the Bowman Dam construction site high in the Sierra Nevada, “Dad” and Clara Bechtel chatted with operators of one of the big “Cat 60” tractors used by the company. (Bechtel Corp.) 5

6. “Dad” Bechtel died in

Russia before his crowning achievement, Hoover Dam,

was

completed.

Here his middle son, Steve

(far right), ioined other officials of the Six Companies on an inspection tour of the pro;ect in 1937.

(Bechtel Corp.)

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7. Steve Bechtel (right) and John A.

McCone went into business together

in 1937 and later during World War

II ran many of the major shipyards

and construction projects in support

of the war effort. (Bechtel Corp.)

8. W hen Prince Amir Faisal, Saudi

Arabia’s Foreign Minister and King

Ibn Saud’s second son, visited San

Francisco in 1944, Steve Bechtel took

him on a tour of Marinship, the

showcase of Bechtel’s wartime efforts.

Years later when Faisal became the

Saudi monarch, he would award

Bechtel some of the biggest contracts

in Saudi Arabia. (Bechtel Corp.)

9. Bechtel built many pipelines, including Tapline, which brought Saudi oil to market. Some extended

thousands of miles across the desert.

(Bechtel Corp.)

10. After Bechtel had established itself as a major presence in Saudi Arabia, Steve Bechtel moved the

company into nuclear power. In

1949 the Atomic Energy Commission

asked Bechtel to build an experimental breeder reactor at the agency’s Nuclear Reactor Test Station west of

Idaho Fails, Idaho. Called ERB-1,

the facility was designed to test

whether nuclear power could be converted to electrical power. (Department of Energy) 11. Working with General Electric, Bechtel also built the Dresden Nuclear Power Station for Commonwealth Edison. Located outside Chicago, Dresden was America’s first major power plant.

12. One of the chief architects of Bechtel’s nuclear program was W Kenneth Davis, who left the company in 1981 to serve as Deputy Secretary of Energy in the Reagan Administration. (Department of Energy)