Clouds of Secrecy The Army's Germ Warfare Tests Over Populated Areas

by Cole, Leonard A.

• ISBN13: 9780822630012
• ISBN10: 082263001X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-02-02
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

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.

Author Biography

Leonard A. Cole teaches political science at Rutgers University, Newark, in the program on Science, Technology, and Society

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii
Senator Alan Cranston
Preface	ix
Part One Overview
Clouds of Secrecy: Introduction	3	(8)
Infecting the Enemy: Biological Warfare in the Past, and the Road to Testing	11	(12)
Part Two Tests and Legacies
Living near Gruinard Island	23	(9)
Fort Detrick's Mysteries	32	(12)
The Army's Germ Warfare Simulants: How Dangerous Are They?	44	(15)
Airborne in the U.S.A.: Open Air Vulnerability Tests in Minneapolis, St. Louis, and the New York City Subway System	59	(16)
Part Three The Government on Trial
Edward Nevin and the Spraying of San Francisco	75	(10)
The Trial	85	(22)
Part Four New Fears, Old Responses
Terror or Error: The Yellow Rain Puzzle	107	(14)
Engineering Genes for Defense: Recombinant DNA Technology and Biological Warfare	121	(15)
Return to Testing: Field Experiments, the Dugway Issue, and Ethical Questions	136	(16)
Worries and Ambiguities	152	(29)
Appendices
1. Excerpts: ``Information for Members of Congress: U.S. Army Activities in the U.S. Biological Warfare Program,'' March 8, 1977	163	(4)
2. Excerpts: Army report included in Hearings before the Senate Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research, March 8 and May 23, 1977	167	(2)
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	(6)
4. Excerpts: Current open air testing from ``Biological Defense Program,'' a report by the Department of Defense, May 1986	175	(6)
Index	181