The Files America’s Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold War

EILEEN WELSOME

Delta Co n ten ts

Prologue 1

PART ONE: THE “ PRODUCT”

1. The Acid Taste of Plutonium 15 2. The Rad Lab 20 3. 1942: The Met Lab 32 4. A Tolerable Dose 42 5. The Is Launched 55 6. Plutonium Rising 65 7. Planning the Experiment 75 8. Ebb Cade 82 9. Next in Line: Arthur and Albert 88 10. Trinity Site 97 11. A “Small Piece of the Sun” 105 12. The Quest Continues 120 13. The Rochester Production Line 124 14. A Misdiagnosed Housewife 136 15. Chicago; Upping the Dose 146 16. Postwar Berkeley: The Final Injections 149 viii Contents

PART TWO: ATOMIC UTOPIA

17. At a Crossroads 165 18. Comings and Goings 178 19. The AEC and the Politics of Secrecy 189 20. Shields Warren: “Patriotic Enough to Lie” 197 21. "Wrapped in the Flag" 207 22. The Vanderbilt Women 219 23. The Fernald Boys 229

PART THREE: THE PROVING GROUND

24. Stalin s Labor Day Surprise 239 25. The First GI Guinea Pigs 249 26. "Hot Particles” 255 27. Scorched Earth Maneuvers 261 28. Citizen Volunteers 270 29. The Cloud Samplers 272 30. Dispatch from Ground Zero 285 31. The Inverted Mushroom 290 32. Body-snatching Patriots 299

PART FOUR: “ THE BUCHENWALD TOUCH "

33. “Mice or Men?” 317 34. Houston's “Paperclip” Doctor 330 35. Cincinnati’s Battlefield 337 36. The Chambers of Oak Ridge 352 37. Captive Volunteers: Prisoners in Oregon and Washington 362 38. The Plutonium Experiment: Phase Two 383 39. “Tragic Deaths Full of Pity and Sorrow” 403 Contents ix

Part Five: T he reckoning

40. "We're Coming Clean ' 419 41. Revelations and Tribulations 434 42. January 1994: The Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments 447 43. Harvest of Sorrow 452 44. Closing the Book 459 45. A Presidential Apology 469 46. “Never Again” 471 47. Whitewashes, Red Herrings, and Cold Cash 475

Epilogue 481 Acknowledgments 490

Notes 494 Major Sources Used in Notes 552 Index 569