Behind the fog : how the U.S. Cold War radiological weapons program exposed innocent Americans / Lisa Martino-Taylor.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Martino-Taylor, Lisa, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Biological weapons.

Chemical weapons.

Military research--United States.

Military research.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 211 pages)

Other Title:

Behind the Fog

Place of Publication:

New York, New York ; London : Routledge, 2017.

Summary:

Behind the Fog is the first in-depth, comprehensive examination of the United States' Cold War radiological weapons program. The book examines controversial military-sponsored studies and field trials using radioactive "simulants" that exposed American civilians to radiation and other hazardous substances without their knowledge or consent during the Cold War. Although Western biological and chemical weapons programs have been analyzed by a number of scholars, Behind the Fog is a strong departure from the rest in that the United States radiological weapons program has been generally unknown to the public. Martino-Taylor documents the coordinated efforts of a small group of military scientists who advanced a four-pronged secret program of human-subject radiation studies that targeted unsuspecting Americans for Cold War military purposes. Officials enabled such projects to advance through the layering of secrecy, by embedding classified studies in other studies, and through outright deception. Agency and academic partnerships advanced, supported, and concealed the studies from the public at large who ultimately served as unwitting test subjects. Martino-Taylor's comprehensive research illuminates a dark chapter of government secrecy, the military-industrial-academic complex, and large-scale organizational deviance in American history. In its critical approach, Behind the Fog effectively examines the mechanisms that allow large-scale elite deviance to take place in modern society.

Contents:

1. Atomic world (culture of secrecy ; Manhattan Project, Phase 2, Radiological ; Weapons experimentation)

2. Radium legacy

3. Blinded by science

4. Militarized Academy (Stanford University)

5. Structure of deceit (PHS, NIH, and embedded studies ; Fernald School)

6. Military analogs (Hidden in plain view ; Target One: Minneapolis ; St. Louis Army Chemical Corps Experiments ; Winnipeg, Canada ; Leighton effects ; National Research Council Reviews Army data ; Parsons and the Army)

7. Army Chemical Corps and open-air field studies (St. Louis Open-Air Dispersion Study, Part two ; Pruitt-Igoe Public Housing Complex ; St. Louis, Part II ; SRI and the Atomic Veterans ; Post-study claims by Officials)

8. In this house: embeddedness and the Military Radiation Studies (AEC Isotopes Project ; Gabriel and Sunshine ; Vanderbilt Radiation Studies)

9. Fallout "simulant" testing (Canadian and U.K. Studies ; U.S. Open-Air Radiation Experiments)

10. Deviance, secrecy, and closed worlds

Conclusion

Methodology and afterword (Components for future exploration).

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on: online resource; title from PDF information screen (Taylor & Francis Group, viewed January 30, 2023).

ISBN:

1-315-29519-9

1-315-29521-0

9781315295213

OCLC:

993977523