Behind the Fog: How the U.S. Cold War Radiological Weapons Program Exposed Innocent Americans

Description

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. Lisa Martino-Taylor is Associate Professor of Sociology at St. Louis Community College. Martino-Taylor earned her doctorate in Sociology at the University of Missouri–Columbia and researches issues related to power, elite deviance, social and environmental justice, and U.S. military development and testing of radiological weapons. INTRODUCTION I: ATOMIC WORLD A Culture of Secrecy Manhattan Project Phase Two- Radiological Weapons Experimentation II: THE RADIUM LEGACY III: BLINDED BY SCIENCE Radioactive Warfare IV: THE MILITARIZED ACADEMY Militarization of the Academy Stanford University/Stanford Research Institute V: STRUCTURE OF DECEIT PHS, NIH and Embedded Studies No Turning Back Military Crosshairs Final Weapons Targets Fernald School VI: MILITARY ANALOGS Hidden in Plain View Target One: Minneapolis St. Louis Army Chemical Corps Experiments Winnipeg, Canada Leighton Effects A Parallel Study A Dubious Narrative The National Research Council Reviews Army Data An Unlikely Champion Parsons and the Army: A Lucrative Partnership VII: THE ARMY CHEMICAL CORPS AND OPEN-AIR FIELD STUDIES The St. Louis Open-Air Dispersion Study- Part Two The Pruitt-Igoe Public Housing Complex St. Louis Part II SRI and the Atomic Veterans Post-Study Claims by Officials VIII: IN THIS HOUSE: EMBEDDEDNESS AND THE MILITARY RADIATION STUDIES AEC Isotopes Project Dual-Use Technology Gabriel and Sunshine The Vanderbilt Radiation Studies IX: FALLOUT "SIMULANT" TESTING Fallout Simulants Canadian and U.K. Studies U.S. Open Air Radiation Experiments X: DEVIANCE, SECRECY, AND CLOSED WORLDS Secrecy and Group Conformity Closed World Dynamics Control of Discourse Dehumanization CONCLUSION After the Dust has Settled A Tangle of Objectives BIBLIOGRAPHY METHODOLOGY AND AFTERWORD Components for Future Exploration APPENDIX A: ABBREVIATIONS LIST INDEX