Clouds of secrecy : the army's germ warfare tests over populated areas / Leonard A. Cole ; foreword by Alan Cranston.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cole, Leonard A., 1933-2022.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Biological warfare--Study and teaching--United States.

Biological warfare.

Biological warfare--Environmental aspects--United States.

Biological warfare--Environmental aspects.

United States.

Physical Description:

xi, 188 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Totowa, N.J. : Rowman & Littlefield, 1988.

Summary:

In the 1970s, Americans learned that for decades they had been unsuspecting guinea pigs in a series of astonishing experiments conducted by the U.S. Army. Military researchers had been secretly spraying clouds of bacteria over populated areas in order to study America's vulnerability to biological weapons. No precautions were taken to protect the millions of people exposed, despite known risks to their health.

The army continues to assume the right to resume bacteriological testing at its own discretion -- a 1986 report to Congress indicates that open air testing is now taking place at a military facility in Utah as part of the Reagan administration's expanded biological warfare program.

Clouds of Secrecy is a probing examination of the Army's germ warfare testing program from World War II to the present. Using extensive information from congressional hearings, courtroom testimony, interviews, and government documents, the author details the nature of the Army's biological experiments, the reasoning behind the tests, and the effects on exposed human populations.

These experiments prompt questions not only about the rationale and conduct of the biological warfare research program, but also about the relation of science to contemporary society. Is such testing, as one critic described it, "science gone mad?"

Contents:

1. Clouds of Secrecy: Introduction 3

2. Infecting the Enemy: Biological Warfare in the Past, and the Road to Testing 11

Part 2 Tests and Legacies

3. Living near Gruinard Island 23

4. Fort Detrick's Mysteries 32

5. The Army's Germ Warfare Simulants: How Dangerous Are They? 44

6. Airborne in the U.S.A.: Open Air Vulnerability Tests in Minneapolis, St. Louis, and the New York City Subway System 59

Part 3 The Government on Trial

7. Edward Nevin and the Spraying of San Francisco 75

8. The Trial 85

Part 4 New Fears, Old Responses

9. Terror or Error: The Yellow Rain Puzzle 107

10. Engineering Genes for Defense: Recombinant DNA Technology and Biological Warfare 121

11. Return to Testing: Field Experiments, the Dugway Issue, and Ethical Questions 136

12. Worries and Ambiguities 152

1. Excerpts: "Information for Members of Congress: U.S. Army Activities in the U.S. Biological Warfare Program," March 8, 1977 163

2. Excerpts: Army report included in Hearings before the Senate Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research, March 8 and May 23, 1977 167

3. Excerpts: Reports by Dr. Stephen Weitzman and Dr. J. Mehsen Joseph that refute the army's contentions about the safety of its testing program over populated areas 169

4. Excerpts: Current open air testing from "Biological Defense Program," a report by the Department of Defense, May 1986 175.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0847675793 :

OCLC:

15791698