Talk:Lockheed bribery scandals/Archive 1

Archive 1

Netherlands

In the Netherlands there was also a "Lockheed scandal", relating to the purchase of F-104G Starfighters for the airforce in which Prince Bernhard was implicated for allegedly receiving bribes from Lockheed in order to ensure the aircraft would win out over the Mirage V for the purchase contract.

Not sure if this belongs on this page or should get a page of its own.

Lockheed Scandal

• (This discussion is copied from Talk:Lockheed Corporation, and is placed here to show why the article was de-merged, expanded, and moved to the currnt location. - BillCJ 02:31, 12 July 2007 (UTC))

There is little or no information about what was termed in the 1960's the "Lockheed scandal".

Where bribes were handed out for lockheed to attain contracts to supply western europe, most notably west germany, with jet fighters.

This is briefly mentioned on this page, but the redirect is to a vanilla "about lockheed" page, which has no reference to the scandal: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Hartmann

And the same paragraph is repeated in the main text, but a little more information or detail might be in order from US sources, where they may now have access to information about the investigations and economic impact of the scandals.

Comments please?

- Xelous - 21st June 2007

Should make a good article, assuming we can find some verifiable sources. I found this source on the Netherlands Prince Bernhar's role in the scandal, but nothing else at the moment (haven't searched Google yet tho). - BillCJ 16:04, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Lockheed Bribery Scandal is also a redirect here, and possible alternate title. - BillCJ 16:16, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

F-104#International_service and Bernhard_of_Lippe-Biesterfeld#Scandals has already some written information about the scandal - perhaps that can be gathered into a starting article. --MoRsE 22:38, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. I've been reading a couple of Corky Meyer's books about his experiences at Grumman as a test pilot, and he headed the Grumman team that was selling the F11F-1F Super Tiger to the countries that Lockheed bribed to by the F-104. He has some unique observances, but alot of it is his personal opinions, and not objectively useful beyond being used as colorful quotes. Meyer did state that he wans't allowed by Grumman Corp to use bribes in any way. But he has definitely piqued my interests in the topic. As for a title, how about Lockheed 1960s bribery scandal? - BillCJ 23:25, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Title works for me. A question: I remember that there was a scandal surrounding some bribery and the C-5 program...same one or is there more than one Lockheed bribery scandal? AKRadecki^Speaketh 23:42, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure on the C-5 part. Most of the F-104 stuff happened in the late 50s/early 60s, right before the C-5 development began. That's probably something the research stage would reveal. - BillCJ 23:49, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

I have vague rememberances of it causing problems for some members of congress...but you're right, research! AKRadecki^Speaketh 23:59, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

I'd be interested in participating in this. --John 01:54, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. What would you be commfortable doing? I haven't started any research yet, and good online sources may be hard to find because of the time period. Wikipedia doesn't have much in depth in the articles above, so this will pretty much have to be done from scratch. I'm not that good at writing text from scratch, esp from printed sources. I don't mind doing some online searching, and dumping text in a sanbox to be rewritten later, and I'm pretty good at formatting and editing. If writing's not your strong suit either, then we could split up some sources, work on those, check wach other's work, and then edit them together. I can set up a sandbox on my userspace, and then we can start finding sources, and discuss more on the sandbox's talk page. - BillCJ 02:20, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

I can write original text if it's distilled from sources. If we can find good sources I can write something, I have a book and a couple of websites already in mind. I like the sandbox idea. I suggest you do it and tell me here and/or in my talk where it is and I will look at it and try to develop it. It's a fascinating subject. --John 02:53, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

OK,it's at User:BillCJ/Sandbox/Lockheed 1960s bribery scandal. We can use a different title when we go ilive if we have a better one. - BillCJ 03:28, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. Give me 24 hours or so. --John 03:52, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

Well, it took a bit more than 24 hours but I'm quite pleased with it! Thanks for the chance to write an article, I haven't done that for ages. --John 02:58, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

Italy

There's an Italian section waiting to be written, I just ran out of steam. Anybody? If not I'll probably have a go over the next few days. --John 03:06, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

Balance?

While this article has a neutral tone it does miss out some important facts relating to the F-104 Starfighter, as it stands the reader would think that Lockheed profited from the sale of 900 (actually 916) individual aircraft to Germany. Only 136 aircraft were Lockheed built, the remainder were built via a consortium in Europe (with some parts from Canada) under license. The license was no doubt another source of income for Lockheed (which is not mentioned). Similarly in Japan, of the 220 aircraft only 23 were Lockheed built under the same arrangement. Whilst Prince Bernhard was apparently not an angel he did secure the production of 100+ Starfighters in his own country as that section suggests was his aim ($1.1 million was the price of one F-104 by coincidence). Italy is the same. Many F-104s were bought by US funds to supply other countries under the MAP programme so there was probably no need to bribe. There is a book which I have never seen which might have more detailed information: F-104 Story: "Kickback-Killer" (Diary of a starfighter). I don't know about the other aircraft types and I am not defending Lockheed's actions in any way. What I would like to do is add the production numbers (by company) to the country sections to let the reader decide. From my enquiries in Germany this is still a 'taboo' subject 45 years on. Nimbus (Cumulus nimbus floats by) 02:15, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Good points. However, we should try to find out the exact price breakdown for the Lockheed-built and license-built F-104s, so that we offer complete info. As to your comments regarding the German officer in an above section, I have no doubt that many good people sincerely felt that the F-104 was the best choice. The point of this article though is that it was not a level playing field. And while the F-104 may well have won all the competitions without Lockheed's bribes, Lockheed certainly was unwilling to find out! - BillCJ (talk) 03:53, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

The prices are very similar with the European built aircraft apparently costing slightly more. The exact license arrangements and costs I don't know. I was thinking of starting an article which covered the 'deal of the century', German selection and procurement and European consortium production, it was quite a complicated major collaboration project. A job for a few rainy days! Off to work now, cheers. Nimbus (Cumulus nimbus floats by) 14:32, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Saudi Arabia

The section states that Lockheed paid Khashoggi $106M in commission, but it doesn't provide any evidence that the commissions were then used by Khashoggi to pay bribes to secure the purchase of Lockheed products (although it does seem likely). The Saudis bought C-130s and L-1011s from Lockheed, but they never bought the F-104. Mztourist (talk) 12:54, 2 February 2011 (UTC)

Merger

This article is a stub, and probably won't become more of a stub. Its content belongs in the articles for the Lockheed Corporation and Lockheed L-1011 TriStar. Willy Logan 05:37, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

No, it was a wide-ranging scandal, with broad causes and impact, that radically changed Japan's government and changed American law; it was not merely an episode of one corporation's biography.

Please write more on this "wide-ranging scandal, with broad causes and impact, that radically changed Japan's government and changed American law" That's exactly what I was searching for and could not find. Maybe the title should change to "Lockheed Scandals". --Billyjoejimbob42 23:41, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Luftwaffe

Do we want coverage of Hartmann's objection (which I wasn't able to source)? What about the F-104's safety record in service? I commented out the former for now. --John 04:08, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

I think the saftey record backs up Hartmann's comments, but without it doesn't really fit well (seems like sniping). If we can source Hartmann's comments, I do think the whole thing is relevant in showing the Germans had been advised not to buy the Starfighter. Also, thanks for removing the Mirage III garbage from the F-104 page. I had added the fact tag awhile back. Since then I've been reading Corky Meyer's book on his time with Grumman as a test pilot, and he headed the Grumman Super Tiger sales team. He states flat out that the Super TIger was preferred by many in the German AF, and came very close to winning. He also quoteded an excert from the German government's announcement of the F-104's win, which stated "The American Starfighter has a slight merit of the Grumman Super Tiger . . . The French Mirage IIIA does not meet our tactical requirments." I'm still working on how to fit some of what he says in other places about the Lockheed bribes, which he was well aware of in 1957-59. Alot of what he writes is personal observations, and really only suited to adding some color.

Speaking of color, thanks for cropping the ANA pic. It was the only ANA pic I could find. Feel free to add other pics if you find some that are relevant. - BillCJ 16:32, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

I have a copy of a detailed letter from Werner Panitzki who after flying all the contenders wrote most enthusiastically about the Starfighter and put forth a logical argument for its procurement, I honestly believe that as a military officer and pilot that he was not influenced by money although it can't be ruled out. Nimbus (Cumulus nimbus floats by) 03:32, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

IIRC, the original Luftwaffe role for which the Starfighter was eventually chosen was one the aircraft as-designed was ill-suited for. The original requirement was for a low-level attack aeroplane, and in his book Wings On my Sleeve Eric "Winkle" Brown states that a contributing factor to the F-104 being chosen was that Germany's military aircraft industry had been moribund since the end of WW II, being confined to the assembly of foreign aircraft such as the Hawker Sea Hawk and Fairey Gannet bought-in as kits, and the Starfighter was seen politically as a means of quickly getting 'up to speed' in contemporary Mach 2 supersonic fighter technology, hence the reason for the licensing and manufacturing deal. Brown had been a liaison officer with the Marineflieger at a fairly high level, and knew many of the German political people concerned with the procurement.

BTW, IIARC Brown himself had recommended the Blackburn Buccaneer for the original low-level role. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.4.57.101 (talk) 14:36, 6 February 2012 (UTC)