In the Cold War this nation among others did things that were done for the "greater good" of the nation and the means justified the ends. Bull shit, there has been a book written by the pyschiatrist who worked at Edgewood Arsenal during many of the periods when the doctors and scientists were experimenting with LSD, BZ, scopolomine and other drugs in an attempt to further research into mind control.
The goal was to find a way to get enemy agents to talk or to create super soldiers, that would continue fighting even if they were wounded. I know it sounds like science fiction, but then again the CIA and DOD was funding it, so everything was possible, they had basically unlimited budgets.
Doctor James Ketchum is the pyschiatrist that has attempted to rewrite the history of the experiments. He has published the book himself and is selling it himself. He tells the version of it where the experiments were all safely done and no one was hurt in the experiments. He has negelected to include the March 2003 IOM report on Sarin which shows of the 7120 men used from 1955 thru 1975, that by FY 2000, that 40% of the men were prematurely deceased, 2098 men who died before they turned 65 years of age. These men were the healthiest young men the Army had to offer, they were all prescreened medically and psyhcologically before being selected for the "medical research unit" at Edgewood Arsenal.
Dr Ketchums history:http://www.scienceboard.net/jobs/resumes.asp?action=details&candidate_id=559
Professional Experience
Military Psychiatry Assignments (US Army):
Internship (rotating)
Letterman Army Hospital, CA (Jan 58-Dec 60)
Resident, Psychiatry
Walter Reed Army Hospital, DC (Jan 58-Dec 60)
Research Psychopharmacologist
Edgewood Arsenal, MD (Jan 61-Sep 66)
Post-Doctoral Fellow in Neuropsychology
Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA (Oct-66-Sep68)
Chief, Clinical Research Department
Edgewood Arsenal, MD (Oct 68- Jun 71)
Chief, Behavioral Science Division
Ft. Sam Houston, TX (Jun 71- Sep 73)
Chief, Psychiatry Department
Ft. Benning, GA (Oct 73-Aug 76)
Retirement as Colonel, Regular Army (30 Sep 76)
Legion of Merit
The report also shows that of the 4022 survivors of the experiments that 54% of them are disabled another 2200 men, for a combined rate of 74.43% either dead or disabled, so for his book on the experiments to proclaim that no soldiers were harmed in the experiments, is a great stretch of the truth.
The revisionist history written by Doctor Ketchum is called
Chemical Warfare Secrets Almost Forgotten, AuthorHouse Publications, 2006. He is marketing himself and there is no ISBN number, which is unusual
Linda Hunt mentioned him in her book Secret Agenda: Operation Paperclip
Hunt, Linda. Secret Agenda: The United States Government, Nazi Scientists, and Project Paperclip, 1945 to 1990. New York: St.Martin's Press, 1991. 340 pages, including 60 pages of notes.
As World War II was winding down in Europe, the U.S. began looking for Nazi scientists and intelligence officers. They didn't want them for war crimes, although some were guilty of these, but rather to recruit them for the Cold War against the Soviets. President Truman had directed that no Nazis be allowed to immigrate. Nevertheless at least 1600 scientists and their dependents were brought in under Operation Paperclip, and hundreds more under related programs.
Although most of the publicity has concerned NASA's use of rocket scientists such as Wernher von Braun and Arthur Rudolph, Nazi scientists also conducted chemical warfare experiments on 7000 U.S. soldiers at Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland from 1955-1975. The CIA and Army intelligence even paid the scientists to experiment with LSD and other psychochemicals, as the search continued for the ultimate mind-control weapon.
To gather material for this book, Hunt had to plow through the records of numerous government agencies, archives, and libraries, spend years on Freedom of Information Act requests, and threaten the Army with an FOIA lawsuit. It was worth it.
ISBN 0-312-05510-2
This book was recently listed at UsedBookCentral.com
This is not exactly well known history, but the information is available if you search for it,Doctor Sidney Gottlieb, Doctors Van Sim and Frederick Siddell first Gottlieb was the CIA make it happen guy, he is linked to many assasination attempts of 3rd world leaders, and testified to Congress about it in 1973 Sidney Gottlieb Doctors Van Sim and Siddell were America's foremost authority on chemical weapons and the effects of them on the human body, they spent their entire life working on research taken from the Nazis and the Japanese on human experimentation in WW2, plus the experiments they conducted on this nations enlisted men of the Army and Air Force.
The veterans used in these experiments are prevented from suing the government by a legal decision called the "Feres Decision" which prevents active duty military from suing the military for muedical problems created by their military service, forget the fact that what they did from 1955 thru 1975 was illegal and in direct violation of the 1947 Nuremeberg Codes that we created so we could try the Nazis for war crimes after the end of WW2. Sec of Defense Wilson authorized the experiments in 1953 just six years after the creation of the Codes. How quickly we can ignore laws that we create, I guess this is a case of the law only applies to the losers of the war.
I object to Doctor Ketchum writing and releasing a book that does not accept responsibility for the 74.43% death and disability rate of the men used at Edgewood Arsenal, his claims to the contrary are at best naive wishing, the facts remain 2098 men died before FY 2000 under the age of 65 and 2200 more men are disabled, the only thing we had in common was the experiments at Edgewood.
I think that speaks for itself.