Cold War

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"Kachajian's Rebellion" (October) reminded me of a similar experience I had at a company I managed. In the spring of 1983, the company received an unsolicited order for our computer system from a hospital in the Soviet Union. Under the export laws, we had to ask for an export license. One year later, we had submitted more than 40 pounds of documentation to the Department of Commerce, with copies to other government agencies. Because we were discontinuing the product in 90 days, we tried to get the order canceled, but we couldn't. We set a unit aside and finally received a license at the end of the summer of 1984.

In the meantime, we designed a new product, spending extra time and money. In the same week, we received Food and Drug Administration approval to market the new product and a notice from the Department of Commerce that no special licenses were required for small microprocessor systems.