COMMENTS FROM STREET TALK NETWORK ABOUT THIS POST-

1. Do your own research on the information provided and then come up with your own conclusions.

2. This article contains many names and other information that can be researched.

3. Trust your gut feeling on information provided as this post may contain slanted information.

4. So many new names like Operation Whitecoat to do further research.

5. My thought, this type of research is still going on today.

6. There are some evil people in our government doing this.

The Dallas Times Herald article dated December 24, 1977, describes a genuine and deeply troubling chapter in American military research. During the Cold War, thousands of soldiers—along with prisoners, hospital patients, people with addictions, and citizens of other countries—were exposed to chemical agents, biological organisms, radiation, hallucinogens, and experimental drugs.

Some participants knowingly volunteered for limited medical research. Others were not adequately informed about what they would receive, were pressured by their circumstances, were ordered to keep the experiments secret, or were exposed without meaningful consent. The exact number will probably never be known because records were incomplete, classified, lost, or deliberately destroyed.

What the Dallas Times Herald article reported

The headline states:

“Fort Bliss soldiers used in 1961 nerve gas experiments”

The article, based on a Denver Post investigation, reported that the Army used American soldiers in a secret 1961 research program connected with the Army Chemical Center at Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland.

According to the article:

• More than 20 soldiers from Fort Bliss, Texas, participated in at least one series of experiments.
• The soldiers technically were described as “volunteers,” but questions remained about whether they were properly informed of the nature and danger of the experiments.
• A liquid nerve agent was placed on or administered to soldiers in controlled amounts.
• The article identifies the substance as an organophosphorus nerve agent, apparently VX or a closely related experimental compound.
• One participant suffered what Army doctors called a “temporary psychotic reaction.”
• That soldier reportedly spent approximately 85 days at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, underwent psychiatric treatment and was subsequently discharged from the Army.
• Other Fort Bliss participants reportedly had to be hospitalized until the immediate effects of the nerve agent subsided.
• One soldier described severe headaches, nausea or vomiting and periods of impaired memory following the experiment.
• A physician’s letter quoted in the article reportedly said that the soldier received enough of the agent to produce a significant organophosphorus reaction.
• Veterans or their representatives were attempting to obtain military-disability benefits and documentation concerning what had been done to them.

An important distinction is that VX is a liquid under ordinary conditions, although newspapers commonly called it “nerve gas.” A small amount can be absorbed through the skin. It disrupts the enzyme acetylcholinesterase, causing acetylcholine to accumulate throughout the nervous system. Depending on the dose, symptoms can include pinpoint pupils, sweating, vomiting, muscle twitching, weakness, confusion, seizures, breathing failure and death.

The clipping does not establish that every Fort Bliss participant experienced permanent physical injury. It does, however, document acute illness, hospitalization and at least one serious psychiatric reaction. It also demonstrates why “volunteer” cannot automatically be equated with informed consent.

The LSD, hallucinogen and barbiturate passage

At the end of the article, the Times Herald referred to an Army report issued approximately two years earlier—around 1975—which acknowledged that the Army had tested:

• LSD
• Other hallucinogens
• Barbiturates
• Nerve agents
• Incapacitating chemicals
• Related experimental compounds

The subjects were primarily military personnel. An Army Inspector General review subsequently criticized the Army’s methods of selecting volunteers and questioned whether the procedures met acceptable ethical standards for research involving human beings.

That passage was referring to the much larger Edgewood Arsenal human-experimentation program.

Edgewood Arsenal and Aberdeen Proving Ground, 1955–1975

The Army Chemical Corps conducted classified studies at Edgewood Arsenal, later incorporated into Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. Approximately 6,700 to 7,100 Army and Air Force personnel were used in experiments involving roughly 250 different substances.

The chemicals included:

• Sarin and other anticholinesterase nerve agents
• VX and related organophosphorus agents
• Mustard agents
• Atropine and scopolamine
• Experimental nerve-agent antidotes
• LSD
• PCP-like compounds
• Cannabinoids
• Barbiturates and tranquilizers
• Riot-control agents
• Irritants
• Alcohol and caffeine
• BZ, formally 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate

The Army’s purpose was partly defensive: it wanted to understand chemical weapons, develop protective clothing, find antidotes and measure how long incapacitating agents might disable an enemy. Nevertheless, the research frequently crossed the line between defensive testing and deliberate attempts to alter human behavior.

The Department of Veterans Affairs now acknowledges that approximately 7,000 soldiers were exposed to more than 250 chemicals. It also acknowledges that long-term medical follow-up was not included in the original research plans. VA: Edgewood/Aberdeen experiments

LSD experiments

LSD could produce:

• Hallucinations and distorted perceptions
• Panic and extreme anxiety
• Paranoia
• Loss of judgment
• Temporary psychosis
• Confusion and disorientation
• Fear that the effects would never end

In filmed Army experiments, soldiers under LSD became unable to follow commands, maintain formations or complete simple assignments. Some laughed uncontrollably; others became frightened or withdrawn.

For many subjects the immediate symptoms ended after the drug wore off. Other veterans later reported persistent anxiety, depression, nightmares, memory problems, flashbacks and difficulty trusting doctors or the government. Establishing that a particular illness decades later was caused by a particular dose has often been medically and legally difficult.

BZ experiments

BZ was an extremely potent incapacitating agent. Unlike LSD, which ordinarily leaves a person awake and somewhat aware of the altered experience, BZ can produce a severe delirium in which a person cannot distinguish reality from hallucination.

Reported effects included:

• Confusion lasting for days
• Hallucinations
• Inability to recognize people
• Disorganized or irrational behavior
• Loss of memory
• Elevated heart rate
• Dry mouth and difficulty swallowing
• Dilated pupils and blurred vision
• Loss of coordination
• Fear, agitation or stupor

The Army considered BZ attractive because it might incapacitate people without immediately killing them. That military definition of “nonlethal,” however, did not mean harmless.

Barbiturates and drug combinations

Barbiturates depress the central nervous system and can cause sleep, confusion, impaired breathing, coma and death at sufficiently high doses. Researchers studied them separately and in combinations with stimulants or hallucinogens.

Combining drugs created additional danger because one substance could conceal or intensify the effects of another. The research also examined whether alternating sedatives and stimulants might weaken resistance during interrogation.

The problem with “voluntary” participation

Many soldiers signed forms, but informed consent requires more than a signature. A person must be told the identity of the substance, its reasonably foreseeable risks, the purpose of the study, available alternatives and the right to refuse without punishment.

Military service creates an obvious power imbalance. A junior enlisted soldier might reasonably believe that refusing an officer, doctor or military researcher could damage his career. Incentives such as easier duty, extra leave, avoidance of undesirable assignments or additional pay could also influence the decision.

Secrecy compounded the harm. Some veterans were forbidden to discuss their experiences, even with civilian doctors. Consequently, later physicians might not know that a patient’s psychiatric, neurological, respiratory or skin symptoms followed exposure to a warfare agent.

In 2015, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Army has continuing duties to warn former test subjects about newly discovered health information and to provide medical care for illnesses proximately caused by the experiments. The court noted that more than 60,000 service members had participated in chemical-weapons research by the end of World War II. Vietnam Veterans of America v. CIA

Other major military experiments

World War II mustard gas and Lewisite tests

Nearly 60,000 American service members were involved in mustard-agent and Lewisite research during World War II. Tests included:

• Drops or patches of agent applied to the skin
• Contaminated clothing tests
• Gas-chamber exposure
• Field exercises testing protective equipment
• Race-based experiments comparing the reactions of Black, white, Japanese American and Puerto Rican troops

Some men experienced painful burns, blistering, eye injuries, breathing problems and damaged skin. Long-term consequences of substantial mustard-agent exposure can include chronic respiratory disease, scarring, eye disorders and increased risk of certain cancers.

Records identifying individual participants were often incomplete, making it extremely difficult for veterans to prove exposure. The National Academies concluded that close to 60,000 military personnel had been used as experimental subjects. National Academies, Veterans at Risk

Project 112 and Project SHAD

From 1962 through the early 1970s, Project 112 examined American vulnerability to chemical and biological attack. Project SHAD—Shipboard Hazard and Defense—was its shipboard component.

Ships, military facilities and field locations were subjected to tests involving biological organisms, chemical agents, tracers and simulants. Some sailors were not told at the time that an experiment was taking place.

The Department of Defense initially identified 5,842 service members and approximately 350 civilians as potentially exposed. Later investigations found hundreds of additional names. By December 2007, the government’s approximate total had risen to 6,440, and the Government Accountability Office warned that records and notification efforts remained incomplete. GAO investigation of Project 112/SHAD

Operation Whitecoat

Operation Whitecoat at Fort Detrick, Maryland, involved more than 2,300 military volunteers between 1954 and 1973. Many were Seventh-day Adventist conscientious objectors who agreed to participate in defensive biological research.

Subjects were exposed to or vaccinated against diseases such as:

• Q fever
• Tularemia
• Yellow fever
• Venezuelan equine encephalitis
• Rift Valley fever
• Plague
• Hepatitis

Whitecoat differed from some of the more abusive programs because participants generally received explanations, signed consent forms and could consult family or clergy. Nevertheless, military circumstances still created pressures, and long-term follow-up was limited. No deaths during the experiments have been conclusively attributed to the program.

Prison experiments

Prisoners were frequently selected because researchers had access to a confined population that could be continuously observed. But imprisonment makes genuinely voluntary consent extremely difficult. Small payments, improved living conditions, possible sentence consideration or simple relief from prison routine could become powerful inducements.

Lexington Addiction Research Center

At the federal narcotics hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, Dr. Harris Isbell conducted experiments involving LSD and numerous psychoactive substances on incarcerated people with drug addictions.

CIA-linked research included repeated doses and prolonged administration. Some subjects received drugs in exchange for access to other drugs or benefits within the institution. The 1977 Senate MKULTRA hearings raised serious questions about how these prisoners were selected and whether their consent was meaningful. 1977 Senate MKULTRA hearing in the CIA archive

Stateville Penitentiary malaria experiments

During World War II, Army-supported researchers deliberately infected prisoners at Stateville Penitentiary in Illinois with malaria, frequently using infected mosquitoes. The purpose was to test treatments needed for troops fighting in malaria-endemic regions.

Experimental antimalarial drugs sometimes produced serious toxicity. Later research found that certain Black subjects were especially vulnerable to severe red-blood-cell destruction because of G6PD deficiency—something that was not initially understood. Acute hemolysis could cause anemia, jaundice, weakness, kidney complications and potentially death. History of the Stateville research

Holmesburg Prison

From the 1950s into the 1970s, prisoners at Holmesburg in Philadelphia were used in dermatological, pharmaceutical and chemical studies. Research sponsors included private companies and the U.S. Army.

Experiments included:

• Skin exposure to irritating chemicals
• Mind-altering and incapacitating drugs
• Radioactive tracers
• Experimental medications
• Dioxin
• Chemical-warfare-related substances

Many subjects were poor, and a disproportionate number were Black. Small payments had great influence because prisoners needed money for commissary items or bail. Former prisoners reported burns, scars, skin disorders and psychological problems. Documentation does not permit every later illness to be causally assigned to a particular experiment, but the exploitation and absence of ethically adequate consent are well established.

Experiments conducted in other countries

Guatemala sexually transmitted disease experiments

Between 1946 and 1948, U.S. Public Health Service-supported researchers deliberately exposed prisoners, soldiers and psychiatric patients in Guatemala to syphilis, gonorrhea and chancroid.

Unlike the Tuskegee study—where participants already had syphilis and treatment was withheld—the Guatemala researchers intentionally attempted to cause infection. Methods included sexual exposure and direct inoculation.

The Presidential Commission concluded that at least 1,308 people were intentionally exposed. Not everyone received adequate treatment, and many subjects never gave consent. Eighty-three deaths occurred among people enrolled in the wider research program, but the surviving evidence does not prove that every death was caused by an experimental infection. The commission called the experiments “ethically impossible.” Presidential Commission report

CIA-funded research in Canada

At Montreal’s Allan Memorial Institute, psychiatrist Ewen Cameron conducted “depatterning” and “psychic driving” research that received concealed CIA funding through MKULTRA.

Patients—many of whom entered the hospital for depression, anxiety or other comparatively ordinary conditions—were subjected to combinations of:

• Heavy sedation
• LSD and other drugs
• Prolonged sleep
• Repeated electroconvulsive treatments
• Isolation or sensory deprivation
• Repetitive recorded messages

Some reportedly emerged with severe memory loss, impaired functioning and loss of personal identity. These were hospital patients, not enemy agents, and many had not knowingly agreed to participate in a CIA behavioral-control project.

British nerve-agent tests at Porton Down

Britain also used military personnel in chemical-warfare experiments. In 1953, Royal Air Force serviceman Ronald Maddison died after liquid sarin was applied to his skin at Porton Down. A later inquest concluded that he had been unlawfully killed. His case illustrates that dangerous military human experimentation was not limited to the United States. Historical medical review of Porton Down

Human radiation experiments

The U.S. government also sponsored numerous radiation experiments involving soldiers, prisoners, hospital patients, children and people who were terminally ill.

Programs included:

• Plutonium injections
• Uranium and polonium studies
• Total-body irradiation
• Radioactive tracer studies
• Testicular irradiation of prisoners
• Nasopharyngeal radium treatment of service members
• Exposure of troops during nuclear weapons tests
• Intentional environmental releases of radioactive substances

Some subjects were not told that the injections or treatments were experimental. Others were described as volunteers but received incomplete risk information.

The federal Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments later examined experiments involving plutonium, children, prisoners, atomic veterans and intentional releases. It found wide variations in consent and numerous cases in which subjects’ rights and welfare were inadequately protected. Official ACHRE report index

What harm can be established?

The historical record supports several different conclusions:

1. Immediate physical injuries are documented. These include chemical burns, vomiting, delirium, psychotic reactions, respiratory distress, infections, blood disorders, hospitalization and—in certain experiments—death.

2. Some agents have recognized long-term effects. Mustard agents can cause chronic respiratory and eye disease and certain cancers. Significant radiation exposure can increase cancer risk. Nerve agents can cause serious acute neurological injury, although the long-term consequences of small experimental doses remain less certain.

3. Psychological injury was real even when permanent chemical injury could not be proven. Subjects reported nightmares, anxiety, mistrust, humiliation and fear after learning that the government had concealed what was done to them.

4. Secrecy itself caused additional harm. Veterans were sometimes unable to tell their doctors about the exposure, identify the agent or substantiate a disability claim.

5. Not every later illness can scientifically be attributed to an experiment. The lack of proper follow-up, destroyed records and absence of untreated comparison groups make definitive conclusions difficult. Government statements that studies found no statistically significant long-term effect do not prove that no individual was harmed.

The Government Accountability Office concluded that the precise scope of these programs may never be known. Army documents identified 7,120 Army and Air Force participants in Cold War incapacitating-agent research, but that figure does not include all mustard-gas, biological, radiation, prison, CIA or overseas programs. GAO report on secret military tests

The central wrong was not simply that dangerous substances were studied. Defensive medical research can be necessary. The deeper wrong was using people without complete disclosure, exploiting military or prison authority, imposing secrecy, failing to provide lifelong medical monitoring and then forcing injured individuals to prove exposures that the government itself had concealed.