GOVERNMENT RESEARCH
Topics related to "government research" are far reaching - not only does it include experimentation on United States citizens, but also military troops and personnel and vulnerable populations in other countries.
PLEASE NOTE: Images and descriptions displayed in this museum may be disturbing for some viewers.
Discretion advised.
GOT (RADIOACTIVE) MILK?
The Controlled Environmental Radioiodine Tests (CERT) were a series of experiments involving the release of radioactive iodine into the environment for animal and human exposure. The controlled environmental chamber was created at the Experimental Dairy Farm in Idaho in which cows and human participants were expected to inhale or ingest radioactive iodine.
[Image: Controlled Environmental Radioiodine Tests, Progress Report Number Four, 1969. Man in lab coat kneeling next to cow with a device to measure thyroid uptake of radioactive iodine.]
OPERATION MIDNIGHT CLIMAX
Operation Midnight Climax was the largest-scale operation that was part of CIA project MK Ultra, which involved testing LSD on unsuspecting public officials and United States civilians.
[Image: The Pop History Dig. A Washington Post front page article on June 11, 1975 announcing the commission's report on MK Ultra to the public.]
MASS CASTRATION
The eugenics movement in the 1900s was growing and after the Supreme Court put it into law, castrations were normal. Victims were castrated for being widowed, feeble-minded, mentally ill, or for simply being an outcast.
[image: University of Albany (SUNY)/ Emma Buck shown with her daughter Carrie (right).]
PLUTONIUM INJECTIONS DURING THE MANHATTAN PROJECT
Doctors from 1945 to 1947 injected plutonium into individuals causing severe vomiting, dizziness, and chronic illness without any ethical consent.
[image: U.S. Department of Energy 1945. Plutonium metal buttons Los Alamos. These are plutonium buttons used in the Manhattan project]
COVER UP - JAPAN / WWII
After Japan’s defeat in World War II, the United States government chose to cover up Japan’s medical experimentation, and willingly pardoned Japanese scientists and doctors responsible for such experiments in exchange for their research.
[image: Reed, 2006. Remains of one of Unit 371’s germ factories in Manchuria serve as a reminder of the atrocities that took place during Japan’s occupation of China during World War II]
IODINE 131 EXPERIMENTS
In the late 1900s, Native Americans were unknowingly involved in a multitude of experiments using radiation treatments. The Iodine 131 Study is one that has now been uncovered and found to be unnecessary medical experimentation.
[image: The National Museum of Nuclear Science and History, 1939. Image of Joseph Hamilton with radioactive sodium experiment.]
FORCED LATINX STERILIZATION
A long-time practice in the U.S. was the forced sterilization of those deemed unfit to procreate for the betterment of society. Seen as racially inferior, Hispanic and Latinx people were encouraged, persuaded, and coerced to undergo such procedures.
[image: University of Michigan, 1943. Form from California Sterilization and Social Justice Lab for 15-year-old’s sterilization]
OPERATION ACOUSTIC KITTY
The CIA ingeniously attempted to transform ordinary cats into covert listening devices by surgically implanting them with microphones and transmitting equipment, showcasing the extremes of innovation and secrecy in intelligence operations.
[Image: Oregonian/OregonLive, D. P. | T. (2019, May 22). Photograph of Operation Acoustic Kitty]
TRUTH SERUM TRIALS: 1943
The 1943 truth serum project, conducted by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), aimed to develop chemical substances capable of inducing truthfulness in individuals under interrogation. This initiative sought to enhance wartime intelligence gathering through the administration of compounds like scopolamine and sodium pentothal.
[Image: U.S. Army Brigadier General Paul Francis Gaynor. In Search of Black Assassins. (n.d.).]