Deliberately infecting people with malaria. Massive infection with syphilis. Tests that caused bones and blood vessels to burst in the eyes. Sounds like experiments of exceptional madmen? This is what the US military's research programs looked like in the 20th century.
The United States conducted experiments that could be considered highly unethical almost from its inception. The willingness to bend the rules and cross borders intensified in the 20th century as a result of anxiety over World War II and then the Cold War.
More and more research on chemical and radioactive substances was started, attempts were made to find out about dangerous diseases. Soldiers, prostitutes or the mentally ill were used for the trials. Sometimes the research 'subjects' volunteered, sometimes they had no choice ...
American kamikaze
The increased production of fighter planes in the 1940s posed a fundamental question for American engineers:what kind of gravity load can a person bear without risking serious health problems? Research in this area continued during the Second World War, but also after it, along with the accelerating arms race. In 1954, the problem of the evacuation of military pilots from machines without leading to their deaths appeared on the wallpaper. To check the possible maximum overloads ... a special sledge was built.
Of course, it was not a well-known attribute of winter games. Sonic Wind Number 1 , were powered by rocket engines. The first tests were conducted with chimpanzees at the Holloman base. But then it was time for the people. An air force officer - John Stapp was selected for the experiment. He served in the US Air Force from 1944 as a doctor. His mission in life was to explore the physical limits of the human body. More specifically:your own organism.
John Stapp in one of the many experiments he has been involved in.
According to C. Cassidy and P. Doherty, authors of the book You're Dead Already , before Stapp sat down in the infernal sled "he almost suffocated while testing oxygen systems and was almost skinned while flying in an open cabin at nearly 920 kilometers per hour."
The man knew well that he might die, and yet he decided to risk it again. The rocket sled with the strapped soldier accelerated to mach 0.9, i.e. 1100 km / h. The machine was then stopped in just 1.4 seconds. Stapp's body was subjected to a load of 46.2 G. For comparison - the roller coaster ride is “only” 5 G. The pilot survived, but it came at a cost. He came out of the murderous sledge with cracked ribs and broken wrists. The blood vessels in the eyes also couldn't bear the pressure.
Testing the chemical heritage of the Nazis on their own citizens? Why not!
After the end of World War II, many Nazi scientists found themselves in the United States . Together with them, the Americans gained access to the recipes of combat gases created for the needs of the Third Reich. Despite the negative impact of using the services of these scientists, the US military decided to conduct in-depth testing of the symptoms associated with the attack with the chemicals and their treatment. About 7,000 soldiers and 1,000 civilians have been exposed to small doses of 250 types of chemicals, including LSD, Sarin and benzodiazepines.
The US Army tests and other shocking causes of death are described in the new book by Cody Cassidy and Paul Doherty, “You're Dead Already”, published by Znak Horyzont.
The research was conducted at Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland. In 1975, the program ended in an atmosphere of scandal. The soldiers participating in it accused the researchers of a lack of professional ethics. This resulted in an avalanche of civil lawsuits and government reports. A similar area of research was dealt with under "Project 12". Spraying methods using aerosols of biological and chemical agents were tested there.
The test rats were provided by an orphanage and a psychiatrist ...
Other scientific units also participated in the research of the US Army. The University of Chicago Faculty of Medicine has become involved in a malaria research program. For 29 years, the organisms of inmates in Joliet prison have provided doctors with information about the development of the disease. Malaria was also infected in Illinois psychiatric hospital patients in the 1940s.
In turn, in 1939, a group of 22 children from a military orphanage in Iowa was subjected to an experiment called "Monster Study" - "a monstrous study". Mary Tudor, a PhD student under the supervision of Professor Wendell Johnson of the University of Iowa, wanted to prove that stuttering is caused by psychological pressure. Some of the children were praised for their excellence in speech, others were brutally and bluntly blamed for their lack of speech. By pressure, attempts were made to induce the disease in them. The children became secretive, afraid to speak, one even escaped from the orphanage, and others struggled for many years with the psychological consequences of an experiment aimed at humiliating them and undermining their faith in their own abilities.
The "Monster Study" experiment was conducted on behalf of the University of Iowa (College of Liberal Arts &Sciences in the photo).
The truth about the unethical experiment was swept under the rug, never published. It wasn't until 2007 that the victims of the Monster Study won compensation for themselves.
Involuntary Resettlement in the name of "science"
The army's obvious area of interest was nuclear weapons. On August 25, 1945, shortly after the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Senator Brian McMahon stated:
To test the destructive power of an atomic charge, I would like to see Japanese ships that will be hit by such a bomb in the sea.
The desire to expand knowledge and the then political situation resulted in a series of experiments involving the dropping of atomic bombs on prepared target ships. And not belonging to the enemy, but their own. The units were set up on the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands archipelago. Earlier, all its inhabitants were displaced from the area. Also on board the ships were animals - rats, mice, pigs, guinea pigs and goats. The first texts were made in 1946. In total, over the next decade, more than twenty nuclear tests were carried out in the area, blowing up payloads in the air, in the water and deep under the surface of the ocean.
Bird's eye view of Able's test (1946).
The area of the atoll has been irretrievably polluted. It became impossible to live here, grow plants and catch fish. The population lost their homes and many of the inhabitants of more distant islands were exposed to deadly radiation, increasing the risk of cancer. The site was never cleared, and thorough research into the ecological consequences of decades-old explosions was not undertaken until after 2010.
When own citizens are missing…
Eager for knowledge, American scientists did not limit themselves to using their own citizens as guinea pigs. When there was such a need, or even a whim, they reached for the "human resources" of other countries. In the years 1946-1948, Guatemala in Central America became the next testing ground for their research. With the cooperation of local officials, soldiers, prostitutes and the mentally ill were infected with syphilis. The infections were of course deliberate, but the "patients" themselves were not informed about the whole procedure. The patients were then treated with antibiotics.
The chief physician was John Charles Cutler, a medic who had participated in a similar experiment conducted on black farmers in Tuskegee, Alabama. About 600 farmers took part in Dr. Cutler's first program, men, most of whom were sick at the time of the study.
The doctor gives a placebo to one of the residents of Tuskegee.
Farmers believed that the research concerns the so-called bad blood. It was a local term for symptoms of syphilis, as well as anemia and general fatigue. In return for participating in the research, they received free meals and medical care. The families of those who died during the experiment were to receive $ 500. What was supposed to last 6 months was extended to ... 40 years. It was not until a whistleblower article published in 1972 that brought the inhuman work to a halt.
In Guatemala, Cutler went much further. 1500 people were infected with syphilis on purpose. Some of them were given the germs of the disease directly. The others were infected while having sex with sick prostitutes who had been substituted for them. The latter were paid for by the scientists overseeing the research. In addition, the ways in which gonorrhea is transmitted were also investigated. The experiment ended in 1948 for reasons that are not entirely clear. However, the Guatemalans had to wait until 2012 for an apology…