Talk:Tsien Hsue-shen

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Contents 1 Role at JPL 2 Who called Tsien Hsue Shen King of Rocketry? 3 Analogy to Wu Ningkun seems a bit misleading 4 Army Assignment in Germany

[edit] Role at JPL

I don't think that Tsien was a JPL director. The article needs to be corrected.

This needs to be sourced.

Tsien is said to be embarassed about his past in the west and has destroyed documents associated with that time and has asked friends not to speak of it.

In Chinese interviews, Tsien has talked often about his time in the United States, and I've never gotten the impression that he is embarrassed by it.

This came from an article about Chang's book. The article implied that this was in Chang's book. I have no idea if it is or not, I can only go on what was said. If someone has Chang's books and can refute it that would be good.Ark30inf 01:49, 18 Oct 2003 (UTC)

I haven't read Chang's book but I am sure that Tsien had never been interviewed by Chang during the writing process of the book. 大将军, 都督中外诸军事 (talk) 00:51, 24 Jan 2004 (UTC)

The book doesn't say anything about embarassment. On the contrary, it implies that Tsien was angry and felt betrayed by the US government, and is still waiting for an apology. - mako 02:49, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

I concur that Tsien was not a director of JPL, but rather a co-founder. Tsien worked alongside his mentor Theodore von Kármán and friend Frank Malina on work that led to JPL. He was part of the informal rocketry group that CalTech folks called the "Suicide Squad," led by Frank Malina. Chang's book (pp. 106, 109) says he was section leader of "JPL-1, the original AAF engine research program." (AAF = Army Air Force) Apparantly, this mistake was in the Wikipedia article on JPL as well, and has since been corrected. --Rocksci 14:56, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

It appears that co-founder of JPL appeared in the article before, but was replaced by grad student of the founder, this based on a failed Google search of the JPL website. I did the search as well, and uncovered the document JPL 101; it discusses JPL early history, talks about what happened to the co-founders, including Tsien. So I have replaced director by co-founder. also, NASA did not exist yet; so I have re-worded to indicate that JPL was originally part of CalTech. JPL 101 also cites Tsien as a co-author of the first JPL memo. I've updated the career in US section accordingly. --Rocksci 06:54, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Who called Tsien Hsue Shen King of Rocketry?

I am sorry; I have not heard this term King of Rocketry applied to Tsien Hsue Shen before. What is the source?Hillgentleman 13:43, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Analogy to Wu Ningkun seems a bit misleading

"...he returned to China after being accused of being a communist by the United States government during the red scare of the 1950s the same way Wu Ningkun was accused of being an American spy in mainland China."

As far as I know, based on the autobiographical memoir by Wu Ningkun, and the memoir by his daughter, Wu was suspected of being an American spy, during the '50s but not officially accused by the authorities. He was denounced and sent to a concentration camp as an "ultra-rightist". I also think their experiences were quite different. So I think the analogy is rather misleading.

Another reason to remove the analogy is that many intellectuals were persecuted in China during the anti-rightist campaigns of the '50s and the Cutural Revolution, and many (especially if they had studied abroad) were suspected of being American spies. So, I don't see a reason to single out Wu in the context of Qian Xuesen's story.

Cowdemon 16:02, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Army Assignment in Germany

Although the Army sent Tsien to Germany and had him wear the uniform a of Lieutenant Colonel, I don't think he was really commissioned. (That is, I don't think he was trained in Army protocols and given command responsibility.) I believe Iris Chang discusses the arrangement in some detail. The goal was to quickly get him into Germany to that he could evaluate German weapons development.

Also, was this really the Army Air Force that sent him in? I've never seen a source explicitly state this.

--Rocksci 16:29, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

According to Chang:

p109: "[Kármán] asked him to join him in Washington, D.C., and to work with him as part of a three-man staff and also as a member of the Scientific Advisory Group, which would aid the chief of staff of the Army Air Force in examining all possible options of air conflict in any future war."

p112: "The Air Force also promoted Tsien to the rank of assimilated colonel and gave him the title of expert consultant."

- mako 16:58, 15 March 2007 (UTC)