Conclusion

Chapter 13: Footnotes

2 . For a discussion of the definition of secrecy see Sissela Bok, Secrets: On the Ethics of Concealment and Revelation (New York: Vintage Books, 1989), 5-9.

3 . As discussed in the text that follows, the executive orders on national security information are perhaps the most basic source on the definition of national security requirements in the context of security classification. The currently effective order, Executive Order 12958, provides that "'national security' means the national defense or foreign relations of the United States." The precise contours of this definition are, as discussed in what follows, a perennial subject of attention. Executive Order 12958 further provides that "a person may have access to classified information provided that: (1) a favorable determination of eligibility for access has been made by an agency head or the agency head's designee [i.e., a security clearance]; (2) the person has signed an approved nondisclosure agreement; and (3) the person has a need-to-know the information." Executive Order 12958, sec. 4.2(a), 60 Fed. Reg. 19836 (April 20 1995). The nondisclosure agreement referred to will typically refer, in turn, to various statutes that make it a crime to disclose classified information without authorization--for example, the Espionage Act and the Atomic Energy Act, as also discussed in the text.

4 . Espionage Act, 18 U.S.C. 793-794.

5 . Military Installation and Equipment Protection Act, 18 U.S.C. 795-797.

6 . President, executive order, "Defining Certain Vital Military and Naval Installations and Equipment, Executive Order 8381," Federal Register 5, no. 59 (26 March 1940).

7 . Army Classification Guide, AR 320-5 (1936).

8 . Ibid.

9 . Manhattan Engineer District, 26 November 1945 ("Security Manual") (ACHRE No. DOE-050595-B), 21.

10 . Noted by Stafford Warren, who came from the University of Rochester to be the medical director of the Manhattan Project. Stafford L. Warren, interviewed by Adelaide Tusler (UCLA Oral History Program), transcript of audio recording, 21 July 1966 (ACHRE No. UCLA-101794-A), 574-575.

11 . Committee on Declassification to Major General L. R. Groves, 17 November 1945 ("Report of Committee on Declassification [Tolman Committee report]") (ACHRE No. DOE-120594-D). The committee was chaired by Dr. H. C. Tolman, a professor of physical chemistry and mathematical physics at the California Institute of Technology. Tolman had advised the government on the creation of the wartime Office of Scientific Research and Development, advised Manhattan Project director General Groves, and served on the Target Committee that made decisions on the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan. Ronald L. Kathren et al., eds., The Plutonium Story: The Journals of Professor Glenn T. Seaborg: 1939-1946 (Columbus: Battelle Press, 1994), 818-819.

12 . Committee on Declassification to Groves, 17 November 1945, 2.

13 . Ibid., 3.

14 . Ibid.

15 . Ibid., 4-5.

16 . Ibid., 13-14.

17 . Manhattan Engineer District, 30 March 1946 ("Declassification Guide for Responsible Reviewers") (ACHRE No. DOE-050495-B); Atomic Energy Commission, 1 January 1948 ("Declassification Guide") (ACHRE No. DOE-050495-B); Atomic Energy Commission, 15 November 1950 ("Declassification Guide For Responsible Reviewers") (ACHRE No. DOE-052595-B).

18 . Defense Department entities can also create and use RD. However, presidential order has been the primary source of DOD classification authority.

19 . Atomic Energy Act [[section]]10(b)(1) (1946) (emphasis added). In 1954 the Atomic Energy Act was amended, and the requirement to declassify RD was strengthened: "The Commission shall from time to time determine the data . . . which can be published without undue risk of the common defense and security . . . "42 U.S.C. [[section]] 2162. In addition, a new category of classified information, later termed Formerly Restricted Data, was created to apply to information concerning the military use of atomic weapons that was no longer RD. 42 U.S.C.[[section]] 2164.

20 . For treatments of this complex story, see Gregg Herken, The Winning Weapon: The Atomic Bomb in the Cold War 1945-1950 (New York: Knopf, 1980); James Hershberg, James B. Conant: Harvard to Hiroshima and the Making of the Nuclear Age (New York: Knopf, 1993); Richard G. Hewlett and Oscar E. Anderson, Jr., The New World: A History of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, Volume I 1939-1946 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990); George T. Mazuzan and J. Samuel Walker, Controlling the Atom: The Beginnings of Nuclear Regulation, 1946-1962 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984); and Richard Rhodes, Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995).

21 . Major Richard T. Batson, Declassification Officer, Research Division, to Dr. A. H. Dowdy, 21 March 1947 ("Reclassification of Documents") (ACHRE No. DOE-101394-A), 1. The two reports were chapters in the volume Pharmacology and Toxicology of Uranium Compounds, which was to be part of the public history of Manhattan Project research.

22 . Colonel O. G. Haywood to H. A. Fidler, 17 April 1947 ("Medical Experiments on Humans") (ACHRE No. DOE-051094-A-62), 1. In May, Fidler noted that for purposes of classification, "the Declassification Section was giving a very strict interpretation to the above term [human experiment] and included routine checks performed on plants’ personnel who may or may not have been exposed to excess radiation as well as known accidental exposures where plutonium, for instance, was introduced into the body." Fidler noted, however, that "Colonel Cooney stated that only those experiments where actual materials were intentionally introduced into the human system need to be regarded as secret." H. A. Fidler, 14 May 1947 ("Memo to the Files on Policy on Medical Reports") (ACHRE No. IND-071395-A), 1.

23 . H. A. Fidler to Carroll L. Wilson, AEC General Manager, 26 May 1947 ("Declassification Policy") (ACHRE No. DOE-121294-C), 7; Carroll L. Wilson to H. A. Fidler, 23 June 1947 ("Declassification Policy") (ACHRE No. DOE-121294-C), 1.

24 . Carroll Wilson, "Security Regulations in the Field of Nuclear Research," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 3 (1947): 322. Wilson's 27 August 1947 letter also, however, stated that information policies were under review and that "since the Commission took over the facilities and operations of the Manhattan District on January 1, 1947, the information program has followed the policies inaugurated by the War Department.

25 . Atomic Energy Commission, 20 June 1947 ("Report of the Board of Review") (ACHRE No. DOE-051094-A-191), 11.

26 . Carroll Wilson, AEC General Manager, to Dr. Robert Stone, 5 June 1947 ("Your letter of May 7, 1947 . . . ) (ACHRE No. DOE-061395-A), 1.

27 . Carroll Wilson, AEC General Manager, to Dr. Robert Stone, 12 August 1947 ("Declassification of Biological and Medical Papers") (ACHRE No. DOE-061395-A), 1.

28 . John A. Derry, AEC Acting General Manager, to Walter J. Williams, Manager, Field Operations at Oak Ridge, 9 August 1947 ("Establishing Criteria for Proper Classification of Information") (ACHRE No. DOE-020795-B).

29 . Further items included the following:

(1) All medical records, reports and correspondence which embodies or refers to other technical information classified secret or higher. . . .

(3) All medico-legal and insurance statistics which refer directly to process hazards.

(4) Claims, allegations or reports of injury on 'investigation prohibited' cases where the material or process involved is considered to be classified secret.

(5) All medical reports, references and correspondence dealing with certain special hazard problems, as for example, the medical aspects of criticality accidents.

Albert H. Holland, AEC Acting Medical Adviser, to the Chairman, Classification Board, 12 September 1947 ("Proposed Classification for Unique Operational and Production Hazards, Including Medical Classification") (ACHRE No. DOE-101394-A), 1.

30 . Ibid., 2. Other examples of "information or matter which should be graded confidential" included these:

(1) All documents, claims, allegations and medical reports on injury on 'investigation prohibited' cases, including reports of the Advisory Board on Occupational Disease Claims.

(2) All 'programmatic' medical research.

(3) All records of exposure to classified substances.

(4) All documents and correspondence which state, refer to or give information of known medical or public health hazards.

Ibid., 1.

31 . J. C. Franklin, Manager, Oak Ridge Operations, to Carroll L. Wilson, AEC General Manager, 26 September 1947 ("Medical Policy") (ACHRE No. DOE-113094-B-3), 2-3. We note that the documentation available does not permit a definitive understanding of the relationship between the rationale employed for keeping data on human radiation experimentation (and other human radiation data gathering) secret and the particular level of security classification to which the data were assigned. As quoted in the text, documents talk in terms of the need to keep secret information that, while not endangering national security, could nonetheless be damaging to the government. As also quoted in the text, the category of Confidential provided for classification on this basis. However, as indicated in the text, documents invoking the "adverse effect on public opinion" language also call for the classification of human radiation experimentation data as Secret, a higher level of classification. Thus, while it is clear that the rules provided for classification on bases other than national security, and it also seems clear that those calling for continued keeping of radiation experiments secret saw a need for secret keeping independent of national security impact, there also may have coexisted the view that an "adverse effect on public opinion" could equate to endangering national security.

32 . Ibid., 3.

33 . L. F. Spalding, Chief, Insurance Claims Section, to C. L. Marshall, Deputy Declassification Officer, Technical Information Branch, 11 June 1947 ("Document by Cheka and Morgan") (ACHRE No. DOE-070795-C), 1. See also L. F. Spalding, Chief, Insurance Claims Section, to C. L. Marshall, Deputy Declassification Officer, Technical Information Branch, 11 June 1947 ("Document by Cheka") (ACHRE No. DOE-070795-C), 1.

34 . Memorandum to Advisory Board on Medicine and Biology, 8 October 1947 ("Medical Policy") (ACHRE No. DOE-051094-A-419), 8.

35 . Holland had proposed that the definition of Unclassified include

All medical and biological documents, reports and research not directly relating to experimental human administration, process hazards, contamination hazards or public health hazards, and which will not result in mass hysteria on the part of employees or the public, or in idle speculation or [illegible] adverse claims against the Atomic Energy Commission or its contractors.

Holland to the Chairman, Classification Board, 12 September 1947, 2.

36 . Advisory Committee for Biology and Medicine, 11 October 1947 ("Draft Minutes, Advisory Committee for Biology and Medicine: Second Meeting") (ACHRE No. DOE-072694-A), 10. The agenda for the 11 October 1947, meeting of the Advisory Committee on Biology and Medicine also contained "publication of scientific papers" and "secrecy of work in the field of biological and medical research." Carroll L. Wilson, AEC General Manager, to Commissioners and Division Heads, 9 October 1947 ("Meeting of the Advisory Committee for Biology and Medicine") (ACHRE No. DOE-072694-A), 2. The minutes show the topics were discussed; however, there is no specific reference to human experiments data in these discussions.

Regarding restrictions on the publication of scientific papers [General Manager Wilson] expressed the hope that these restrictions [which were not identified] would diminish in time. He pointed out that information on the physical science mentioned in medical and biological papers frequently delays classification.

"Draft Minutes," 11 October 1947, 5-6. In addition, Chairman Gregg

read a memorandum on the publication of scientific papers prepared jointly by Dr. A. F. Thompson, Chief Technical Information Branch, and H. A. Fidler, Chief, Declassification Branch. The memorandum explained the present status of declassification . . . and stated that papers are not declassified when they include information on nuclear constraints for the heavy elements or reference to classified technological papers.

Ibid., 6-7.

37 . "Draft Minutes," 11 October 1947, 11.

38 . Ibid., 11.

39 . Carroll L. Wilson, AEC General Manager, to Robert S. Stone, University of California Medical School, 5 November 1947 ("Your letter of September 18 regarding the declassification of biological and medical papers was read at the October 11 meeting of the Advisory Committee on Biology and Medicine . . .") (ACHRE No. DOE-061395-A), 1. Carroll L. Wilson, AEC General Manager, to Alan Gregg, Director for Medical Sciences, Rockefeller Foundation, 5 November 1947 ("I want to thank you for your letter of October 14 concerning the questions raised by Dr. Stone in his letter to me of October 18 . . .") (ACHRE No. DOE-061395-A), 1.

40 . Dr. Harold Hodge, Chief Pharmacologist, University of Rochester, to Brewer F. Boardman, Chief, Technical Information Division, AEC Field Operations, 12 February 1948 ("Thank you for your letter of February 4th . . .") (ACHRE No. DOE-113094-B-4), 1. Following a section-by-section review of the chapter Hodge declared, "I wish to submit the argument that none of this material is human experimentation unless you would class measuring a man's height or recording his weight as human experimentation."

41 . Albert H. Holland, Medical Adviser, to Dr. Hoylande D. Young, Director, Information Division, Argonne National Laboratory, 15 March 1948 ("In accordance with your recent request, the following documents were reviewed for reconsideration of their classification . . .") (ACHRE No. DOE-120894-E-4), 1.

42 . Shields Warren, Director, AEC Division of Biology and Medicine, to Albert H. Holland, AEC Medical Adviser, 19 August 1948 ("Review of Document") (ACHRE No. DOE-101494-B), 1.

43 . Albert H. Holland, AEC Medical Adviser, to Shields Warren, Director, AEC Division of Biology and Medicine, 9 August 1948 ("Review of Document") (ACHRE No. DOE-051094-A), 1.

44 . Anthony C. Vallado, Deputy Declassification Officer, Declassification Branch, to Clyde Wilson, Insurance Branch, 8 December 1948 ("Review of Document by Knowlton") (ACHRE No. DOE-120894-E-32), 1.

45 . Clyde E. Wilson, Chief, Insurance Branch, to Anthony C. Vallado, Deputy Declassification Officer, Declassification Branch, 20 December 1948 ("Review of Document by Knowlton") (ACHRE No. DOE-120894-E-32), 1.

46 . Albert H. Holland, AEC Acting Medical Adviser, to C. L. Marshall, Deputy Declassification Officer, Technical Information Branch, 23 October 1947 ("Declassification of Document") (ACHRE No. DOE-113094-B-4), 1.

47 . In February 1948 the Insurance Branch opined that although a report ("Biochemical Studies Relating to the Effects of Radiation and Metals") "might arouse some claim consciousness on the part of former employees we are unable to predict that the Commission's interests would be unjustifiably prejudiced by its publication." Nonetheless, if latent disabilities resulted from the exposures reported, the public relations section would be involved. The Insurance Department, noting that it was conferring with Dr. Holland on "claims similar in nature to some of the exposures" discussed in the report, urged that he be called in. L. F. Spalding, Insurance Branch, to Charles A. Keller, Declassification Officer, Declassification Branch, 5 February 1948 ("Review of Document") (ACHRE No. DOE-113094-B), 1.

48 . Documents available to the Committee show that medical research reports were reviewed by Public Relations and Insurance Branch officials prior to declassification at least as late as April 1949. See 27 April 1949 letter from Anthony C. Vallado, Deputy Declassification Officer, Declassification Branch, to Warren C. Johnson, University of Chicago ("Transmittal of Fink Survey Volume ['Biological Studies with Polonium, Plutonium, and Radium'] for Final Declassification Review") (ACHRE No. DOE-032995-A).

49 . Atomic Energy Commission, 2 May 1949 ("Policy on Control of Information") (ACHRE No. IND-071395-B), 3.

50 . President, executive order, "Prescribing Regulations Establishing Minimum Standards for the Classification, Transmission, and Handling, by Departments and Agencies of the Executive Branch, of Official Information Which Requires Safeguarding in the Interest of the Security of the United States, Executive Order 10290," 3 C.F.R. (1949-1953 Compilation). The executive order provided that:

[i]nformation . . . shall not be classified under these regulations unless it requires protective safeguarding in the interest of the security of the United States. The use of any of the four security classification prescribed herein . . . shall be strictly limited to classified security info.

"Classified security information" was defined as "official information the safeguarding of which is necessary in the interest of national security." The order did, however, provide that it should not be construed "to replace, change, or otherwise be applicable with respect to any material or info protected against disclosure by statute." It would not have required the alteration of embarrassment- or public relations-based criteria if they were supported by an independent statutory basis. Thus, if statutes like the Espionage Act previously provided adequate basis for classification in the absence of national security endangerment, they would continue to do so.

51 . President, executive order, "Classified National Security Information, Executive Order 12958, sec. 1.8 (a)-(b)," Federal Register 60, no. 76 (20 April 1995).

52 . AEC Advisory Committee for Biology and Medicine, minutes of the twenty-third meeting, 8-9 September 1950 (ACHRE No. DOE-072694-A), 28.

53 . Shields Warren, Director, AEC Division of Biology and Medicine, to Leslie M. Redman, "D" Division, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, 5 March 1951 ("Dr. Alberto F. Thompson, Chief, Technical Information Service, has asked me to reply to your letter . . . ") (ACHRE No. DOE-051094-A-603), 2. Warren's letter attributes Gregg's statement to a September 1948 meeting of the ACBM. While the statement is not reflected in the minutes, a statement by Gregg in a similar vein was contained in an October letter, as discussed in chapter 8. Alan Gregg, Chairman, AEC Advisory Committee for Biology and Medicine, to Robert Stone, University of California Medical School, 20 October 1948 ("The secrecy with which some of the work of the Atomic Energy Commission has to be conducted creates special conditions for the clinical aspects of its work . . .") (ACHRE No. UCLA-111094-A-24), 1.

54 . Warren's view is reported in a 1952 letter from a PHS official. James G. Terrill, Acting Chief, Radiological Health Branch, Division of Engineering Resources, to Charles V. Kidd, Chief, Research Planning Branch, National Institutes of Health, 25 September 1952 ("At the September 8-12 meeting of the Panel at Los Alamos, several subjects were discussed that are of general interest to the Public Health Service . . .") (ACHRE No. HHS-092794-A), 1.

55 . See Department of Defense, Research and Development Board, Committee on Medical Sciences, 23 May 1950 ("Transcript of Meeting Held on 23 May 1950 . . . The Pentagon, Washington, D.C.") (ACHRE No. DOD-080694-A). (The Advisory Committee's copy of this transcript was classified Confidential and bears a 1994 declassification stamp.) See also Department of Defense, Research and Development Board, Committee on Chemical Warfare, 10 November 1952 ("Transcript of the Fourteenth Meeting Held 10 November 1952 . . . The Pentagon") (ACHRE No. DOD-080694-A). (The Advisory Committee's copy of this transcript was classified Secret and bears a 1994 declassification stamp.)

56 . The Committee's copies of the minutes of the first year of meetings of the ACBM bear a 1994 declassification stamp.

57 . Committee on Medical Sciences to Chairman and Members, Joint Panel on the Medical Aspects of Atomic Warfare, 15 December 1952 ("Department of Defense Research Program Under the Technical Objective of AW-6") (ACHRE No. NARA-062094-A). The NIH and PHS had representatives who were associate members on the Joint Panel on the Medical Aspects of Atomic Warfare. See Joint Panel on the Medical Aspects of Atomic Warfare, Minutes of the Sixth Meeting held on 31 October--1 November 1950 (ACHRE No. DOD-072294-B), and Joint Panel on the Medical Aspects of Atomic Warfare, Minutes of the Seventh Meeting held on 25-26 January 1951 (ACHRE No. DOD-072294-B).

58 . National Institutes of Health, 13 May 1952 ("Defense Activities of the National Institutes of Health [1950-1952]") (ACHRE No. HHS-071394-A), 30.

59 . Since DOD and AEC biomedical human subject radiation research was rarely classified, it would seem most likely that the classified HHS research (except in cases, such as the Marshallese, where there was a direct connection to weapons tests) did not involve humans.

60 . In a 7 May 1955 letter to AEC chairman Lewis Strauss, Gioacchino Failla, chairman of the Advisory Committee for Biology and Medicine, wrote that the AEC had reviewed the Division of Biology and Medicine's research program "and is pleased to find that less than 5% of the medical program has security classification." Failla to Strauss, 7 May 1955 ("The Advisory Committee for Biology and Medicine has reviewed again the program of research in the Division . . .") (ACHRE No. DOE-082294-B), 1. In a May 1955 letter to AEC Chairman Strauss, the ACBM recommended that the AEC "continue to sponsor all research relative to the diagnosis and treatment of radiation injury in a wholly unclassified way except those experiments directly related to weapons testing or development." Ibid. However, in Senate testimony two months earlier, the University of Chicago's George Leroy (who played a key role as an AEC adviser on bomb test research and who, as medical school dean, oversaw AEC-funded research) told Senator Hubert Humphrey that "there is a considerable amount of information which for one reason or another has not been disseminated to the medical profession and scientific profession." Subcommittee on Reorganization of the Committee on Government Operations, Hearing Held Before Subcommittee on Reorganization of the Committee on Government Operations, S. J. Res. 21, Joint Resolution to Establish a Commission on Government Security, Statement of Dr. George V. LeRoy, M.D., 84th Cong., 1st Sess., 14 March 1955, 851.

61 . NEPA Medical Advisory Panel, 22 July 1949 ("NEPA Medical Advisory Panel Subcommittee No. IX, Report No. NEPA 1110-IER-20") (ACHRE No. DOD-121494-A-2), 5. A subgroup was convened to assess what was known about the effects of whole-body exposure to radiation. In a 1951 letter to the Air Force's School of Aviation Medicine transmitting the conclusions, the Air Force's surgeon general explained that "[w]hile this information is not classified, it should not be given general publicity." Major General Harry G. Armstrong, Air Force Surgeon General, to Commandant, USAF School of Aviation Medicine, 24 January 1951 ("Data Relative to External Radiation from Radioactive Material") (ACHRE No. DOD-062194-B-14), 3.

62 . Everett Evans, Director of the Laboratory for Surgical Research at Medical College of Virginia, to Doctors W. T. Sanger et al., 23 January 1951 ("I think each of you should be informed of a problem . . .") (ACHRE No. DOD-020995-A), 1. Evans added:

There is much about this experiment I do not like but we are doing it in a manner as humane as possible . . . we have simply had to make the choice between this type of study which I hope will bring relief to atomic bombing victims or simply wait for an atomic bomb attack. . . . This issue here is one of national security.

Ibid., 2. It should be noted that the focus of the MCV atomic bomb-related research appears to have been thermal burns, and not the effects of ionizing radiation.

63 . Everett Idris Evans, Director, Laboratory for Surgical Research, Medical College of Virginia, to Colonel John R. Wood, Chairman, Army Medical Research and Development Board, 23 January 1951 ("You will find from the attached letter I am having my problems with the local press . . .") (ACHRE No. DOD-020995-A), 1.

64 . John Wood, Chairman, Medical Research and Development Board, to Everett I. Evans, Director, Laboratory for Surgical Research, Medical College of Virginia, 25 January 1951 ("Reference your letter of 23 January 1951 . . .") (ACHRE No. DOD-020995-A), 1.

65 . Ibid.

66 . Ibid.

67 . Ibid.

68 . Everett Evans, Director, Laboratory for Surgical Research, Medical College of Virginia, to Major W. F. Smyth, Superintendent, Virginia State Penitentiary, 13 December 1951 ("We continue to enjoy all the help you and your staff are giving us . .(ACHRE No.VCU-012595-A-17), 1.

69 . Major W. F. Smyth, Superintendent, Virginia State Penitentiary, to Everett Evans, Director, Laboratory for Surgical Research, Medical College of Virginia, 19 December 1951 ("I wish to thank you for your letter of December 13 . . .") (ACHRE No. VCU-012595-A-17), 1.

70 . W. G. Lalor, Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy (Ret.), Secretary, Joint Chiefs of Staff, to Chief of Staff, U.S. Army et al., 3 September 1952 ("Security Measures on Chemical Warfare and Biological Warfare") (ACHRE No. NARA-012495-A), 2. In the memo to the service chiefs of staff, the Joint Chiefs decreed that “responsible agencies” should “[e]nsure, insofar as practicable, that all published articles stemming from the BW [biological warfare] or CW [chemical warfare] research and development programs are disassociated from anything which might connect them with U.S. military endeavor.”

71 . Office of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering, Thirtieth Joint Medical Research Conference, minutes of 8 January 1964 (ACHRE No. DOD-062994-A), 3.

72 . R. Wasserman and C. Comar, Annotated Bibliography of Strontium and Calcium Metabolism in Man and Animals (Washington, D.C.: Agricultural Research Service, 1961), Publication no. 821, 1. The preface states:

Within recent years it has become necessary to understand the metabolism and movement of radioactive strontium in the biosphere. The behavior of strontium in man and animals is closely linked with that of calcium, and it is therefore necessary to consider the factors that govern the behavior of both elements. This annotated bibliography . . . should be useful to national defense workers who are doing research on the strontium-calcium relationship.

73 . In some cases, however, the fallout-related purpose of research was publicly stated. See, for example, Robert P. Chandler and Samuel Wider, "Radionuclides in the Northwestern Alaska Food Chain, 1959-1961--A Review," Radiological Health Data (June 1963): 317-324.

74 . John Bowers, Assistant to Director, Division of Biology and Medicine, to A. H. Gill, 18 February 1948 ("Your letter to David E. Lilienthal . . .") (ACHRE No. DOE-040395), 1.

75 . Shelby Thompson, Chief, AEC Public Information Service, to Frank Starzel, Associated Press General Manager, 7 December 1950 ("We have noted in the November 29 Baltimore Sun . . . ") (ACHRE No. DOE-051094-A), 1.

76 . John C. Bugher, Director, Division of Biology and Medicine, to Jesse Paul Malone, 2 April 1953 ("This is in reply to your letter of March 23rd . . . ") (ACHRE No. DOE-040395-A), 1. See also another April 1953 letter in which the AEC's Argonne Laboratory told a citizen, "We do not conduct experiments on human beings." Harvey M. Patt, Division of Biological and Medical Research, to Mr. Joseph Vodraska, New York City, 14 April 1953 ("Thank you kindly . . .") (ACHRE No. DOE-050195-B).

77 . Shelby Thompson, Acting Director, Division of Information Services, to H. C. Baldwin, Information Officer, Chicago Operations Office, 21 August 1953 ("Information Guidance on Any Experimentation Involving Human Beings") (ACHRE No. DOE-040395-A), 1.

78 . Louis Hempelmann, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, to Charles Dunham, Director, AEC Division of Biology and Medicine, 2 June 1955 ("I did not have an opportunity to speak to Roy Albert in New York . . ." ) (ACHRE No. DOE-092694-A), 1.

79 . Ibid.

80 . Roy Albert, Assistant Chief of the Medical Branch of the Division of Biology and Medicine, to Louis Hempelmann, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, 23 June 1955 ("Chuck Dunham passed along to me your letter containing suggestion for the Harshaw study . . ." ) (ACHRE No. DOE-092694-A), 1.

81 . Ibid.

82 . Ibid.

83 . Committee to Consider the Feasibility and Conditions for a Preliminary Radiological Safety Shot for Operation "Windsquall" [later named Jangle], 21 May 1951 ("Notes on the Meeting . . . 21 and 22 May 1951") (ACHRE No. DOE-030195-A).

84 . Barton C. Hacker, Elements of Controversy; The Atomic Energy Commission and Radiation Safety in Nuclear Weapons Tests 1947-74 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), 69.

85 . Benjamin W. White, 1 August 1953 ("Desert Rock V: Reactions of Troop Participants and Forward Volunteer Officer Groups to Atomic Exercises") (ACHRE No. CORP-111694-A), 10.

86 . Hacker, Elements of Controversy, 118. The pattern applied to animal experiments, as well as human data gathering. A recently declassified 1952 DOD history records that "because of anti-vivisection sentiment, release of such information would be detrimental to the testing program. Decision was made that such information fell into a sensitive, though non-classified, category and should not, therefore, be released to the public." Armed Forces Special Weapons Project, undated document ("First History of AFSWP 1947-1954, Volume 5-1952, Chapter 3-Headquarters") (ACHRE No. DOD-120794-A), 3.12.9. Other evidence indicates, however, that animal experiments were publicized.

87 . H. K. Gilbert, Commander, USAF, to Commander Eugene Cronkite, USN, 8 March 1954 ("Letter of Instruction to CMR Eugene P. Cronkite, USN") (ACHRE No. DOE-013195-A), 1.

88 . In Rochester, New York, an Eastman Kodak researcher, observing the fogging of a batch of Kodak film, traced the film materials to Iowa and deduced that radiation had been transported by air following an explosion. J. Newell Stannard, Radioactivity and Health: A History (Springfield, Va.: Office of Scientific and Technical Information, 1988), 884-886.

89 . Roy B. Snapp, 14 February 1952 ("Project Gabriel: Note By the Secretary") (ACHRE No. DOE-033195-A), 1; Shields Warren, Director, AEC Division of Biology and Medicine, to General Advisory Committee, 13 February 1952 ("Project Gabriel") (ACHRE No. DOE-033195-A), 1.

90 . AEC Division of Biology and Medicine, July 1954 ("Report on Project Gabriel") (ACHRE No. DOE-040395-A), 8.

91 . AEC, 19 January 1954 ("Supplementary Information on Gabriel: Report by the Director of Biology and Medicine") (ACHRE No. DOE-013195-A), 1.

92 . Stannard, Radioactivity and Health, 934-936, 1064-1080.

93 . Rand, the quintessential "think tank," was created to advise the Air Force on emerging issues of policy and strategy.

94 . Rand Corporation, Worldwide Effects of Atomic Weapons: Project Sunshine: AECU-3488 (Oak Ridge, Tenn.: U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, Technical Information Service Extension, 1953), v-vii.

95 . The report continues to explain in more detail: "The release in the world of several kilograms (kg) of strontium 90 within less than a decade has probably disseminated enough of the contaminant to provide amounts that are probably now detectable in samples of inert and biological materials throughout the world." Ibid., 7.

96 . Ibid., 47.

97 . Even the initial conference was kept secret. The attendees had been told: "The letter of invitation [to the conference] . . . should be classified . . . or returned to this office by registered mail." Ernest H. Plesset, Nuclear Energy Division, Rand Corporation, to Forrest Western, Biophysics Branch, Division of Biology and Medicine, 31 July 1953 ("We wish to thank you very much for your participation in the conference . . .") (ACHRE No. DOE-013195-A), 1.

98 . AEC Division of Biology and Medicine, "Report on Project Gabriel," 2.

99 . The six locales were (1) northern Utah or southwestern Idaho, (2) Kansas or Iowa, (3) New England (Boston), (4) South America, (5) England, and (6) Japan. From each would be drawn twelve human tissue samples, four from each age group: 0-10 years, 10-20 years, over 20 years. Within each age group, two samples would be epiphysial end or rib and two would be teeth. Rand Corporation, Worldwide Effects, 51.

100 . Robert A. Dudley, Biophysics Branch, Division of Biology and Medicine, to Gertrude Steel c/o Willard Libby, Professor of Chemistry, University of Chicago, 16 October 1953 ("There are several matters which I would like to bring to the attention of you and Dr. Libby . . .") (ACHRE No. DOE-013195-A), 1.

101 . Ibid.

102 . Ibid., 2.

103 . Robert A. Dudley, Biophysics Branch, Division of Biology and Medicine, to Shields Warren, Director, AEC Division of Biology and Medicine, 26 October 1953 ("We are now starting to make provision for a collection of foreign bones . . .") (ACHRE No. DOE-013195-A), 1.

104 . Robert A. Dudley, Biophysics Branch, Division of Biology and Medicine, to Raymond A. Dudley, ABCRM, 10 November 1953 ("Thanks for the information in your letter of November 4 . . .") (ACHRE No. DOE-013195-A), 1.

105 . DBM Director Bugher wrote to the Rockefeller Foundation, providing the cover story and asking for help in obtaining specimens "from Brazil, Colombia, Peru, and Chile or Bolivia." John C. Bugher, Director, Division of Biology and Medicine, to Andrew J. Warren, Director, Division of Medicine and Public Health, Rockefeller Foundation, 30 December 1953 ("Herewith I am enclosing a letter to you which might be used to explain the program of bone collections . . .") (ACHRE No. DOE-013195-A), 1.

106 . Robert A. Dudley, Biophysics Branch, Division of Biology and Medicine, to James K. Scott, Atomic Energy Project, University of Rochester, 9 December 1953 ("This letter will explain in a little more detail . . .") (ACHRE No. DOE-013195-A), 1.

107 . AEC Division of Biology and Medicine, "Report on Project Gabriel," July 1954, 13.

108 . Ibid., 38.

109 . Armed Forces Special Weapons Project, undated document ("AFSWP History, Latter Period: 1955-58") (ACHRE No. DOD-072594-B), 37.

110 . Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, November 1955 ("Recovery of Radioactive Iodine and Strontium from Human Urine--Operation Teapot [WRAIR-IS-55 {AFSWP-893}]") (ACHRE No. DOD-092394-C), 1. The substance of the work was declassified in the late 1950s.

Research continued through the early 1960s, with use of the new body counter technologies (that permitted measurement of body radiation). U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command to the Chief of DASA, 25 April 1963 ("Metabolism of Fission Products from Fallout") (ACHRE No. DOD-020195-A); U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command to the Chief of DASA, 26 April 1963 ("Ionizing Radiation Combined with Trauma") (ACHRE DOD-020195-A).

111 . Major General A. R. Luedecke, Chief, AFSWP, to the Surgeon General, Department of the Air Force, 16 December 1954 ("Fall-Out Studies") (ACHRE No. DOD-090994-C), 2.

Another contemporary instance of selective disclosure of fallout-related research, although not directly involving human beings, is discussed in a February 1955 letter written in the aftermath of the March 1954 Bravo bomb test. In this letter, Willard Libby, acting AEC chairman, writes to the chairman of the Congressional Joint Committee on Atomic Energy to report on a proposed marine radiobiological survey in the Pacific. Libby explained that it had been determined that the survey itself did not involve Restricted Data, although the results would involve Restricted Data since they could reveal weapons information. Libby further explained:

The classification "Secret" Defense Information has been assigned to the survey in order to avoid, if possible, an unwarranted recrudescence of fears in Japan of radioactive contamination of fish; and because knowledge by unfriendly interests of bomb-originated debris in the vicinity of Formosa might be used effectively to embarrass the United States. The fact of an oceanographic survey in the Pacific, however, is regarded as unclassified so long as purpose, content, and results are not revealed.

W. F. Libby, Acting Chairman, AEC, to Honorable Clinton P. Anderson, Chairman, Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, U.S. Congress, 16 February 1955 ("We would like to inform the Committee of plans . . .") (ACHRE No. NARA-070595-A), 1-2.

112 . AEC Division of Biology and Medicine, 18 January 1955 ("Biophysics Conference") (ACHRE No. NARA-061395-B), 60.

113 . Ibid., 8.

114 . The researchers had come to recognize the difficult sampling problems; not only was the statistical representativeness of individual subjects a question, but the representativeness of particular body parts. Ibid., 12.

115 . Ibid., 81. In 1995, Dr. Kulp recalled that the Columbia researchers followed legal processes to obtain cadavers. Some states required a special permit to dispose of human remains outside the state; others required specific approval from relatives for use of certain organs. At the time there were no restrictions in Houston on the use of unclaimed bodies for any scientific purpose. As a result of these policies, Dr. Kulp recalled, "The group supporting our project said they could obtain samples from virtually every body that came under their jurisdiction (not all of Houston!) that met the legal criteria." The reference to "poverty cases" was "meant to convey the fact that among the lower economic group in the city there are many unclaimed bodies." Dr. Kulp recalled: To the best of my recollection all human bone samples collected for the Columbia University studies were done legally. They came from medical school cadavers, morgues or amputation material. In all cases the sources were either bodies that had been donated for medical use, unclaimed, or residue from necessary amputations. In all cases the material (with or without Project Sunshine) would have been ashed after examination or research use and then the ash discarded. Taking a portion of this ash for the determination of its calcium and strontium-90 concentration (or for any other trace element such as radium, selenium, arsenic etc.) can hardly be a moral, ethical or legal issue under these circumstances." Dr. J. Laurence Kulp, letter to Dan Guttman (ACHRE), 21 July 1995.

116 . DBM, "Biophysics Conference," 185-187.

117 . Ibid., 187.

118 . Ibid., 12.

119 . Geochemistry Laboratory, Lamont Observatory, Columbia University, 15 April 1956 ("Project Sunshine: Annual Report, Period March 31, 1955-April 1, 1956") (ACHRE No. DOE-082294-B), 68-70.

120 . U.S. General Accounting Office, Fact Sheet for Congressional Requestors: Information on DOE's # Human Tissue Analysis Work, GAO/RCED-95-109FS (Gaithersburg, Md.: GAO, 1995), 3.

121 . Dr. Merril Eisenbud to Dan Guttman (ACHRE), 25 June 1995 ("I appreciate the opportunity you have given me . . . ") (ACHRE No. IND-070395-A).

122 . Ibid. From 1948 to 1950 "Official Use Only" was a category in the formal classification system, but since then it has been used as an informal way of connoting that information should be protected even if it is not classified. While much information labeled Official Use Only never makes it to the public, the information does not have to be protected with formal security measures, readers do not have to be cleared in order to see it, and officials cannot be criminally prosecuted for disclosing it to members of the public.

123 . Paul F. Foster, Special Assistant to the General Manager for Liaison, to the AEC General Manager, 9 November 1954 ("Discussion in Office of Secretary of Defense on 'Change in National Dispersion Policy'") (ACHRE No. DOE-033195-A), 2. This memo was circulated within the AEC; see W. B. McCool, Secretary, to Distribution, 16 November 1954 ("Atomic Energy Commission National Dispersion Policy: Note by the Secretary") (ACHRE No. DOE-033195-A), 1.

124 . Richard Hewlett and Jack Holl, Atoms for Peace and War: 1953-1961 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1989), 264.

125 . On the scientific debate, see Carolyn Kopp, "The Origins of the American Scientific Debate over Fallout Hazards," Social Studies of Science 9 (1979): 403-422. For a public AEC presentation of fallout at the time, see Gordon M. Dunning, "The Effects of Nuclear Weapons Testing," Scientific Monthly 81, no. 6 (December 1955): 265-270. (Dunning was a health physicist with the AEC Division of Biology and Medicine.)

126 . Robert A. Divine, Blowing on the Wind: The Nuclear Test Ban Debate 1954-1960 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978), 21.

127 . Stannard, Radioactivity and Health, 982.

128 . Harold M. Schmeck, Jr., "Study Discounts Risk In Nuclear Fall-Out," New York Times, 8 February 1957, 1. See J. Laurence Kulp, Walter R. Eckelmann, and Arthur R. Schulert, "Strontium-90 in Man," Science 125 (8 February 1957): 219-225. Following the initial declassification of Sunshine in the mid-1950s, the details of the Columbia work, including the identity of medical professionals who had provided assistance, became part of the public research report record.

129 . Divine, Blowing on the Wind, 106.

130 . For a contemporary reaction to the declassification see, Ralph E. Lapp, "Sunshine and Darkness," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 15 (January 1959): 27-29.

131 . W. F. Libby, AEC Commissioner, to Herman M. Kalcker, National Institutes of Health, 10 June 1957 ("I think your idea of using children's milk teeth for strontium-90 measurement is a good one . . .") (ACHRE No. DOE-041295-D), 1.

132 . The 1957 and 1959 hearings appear as Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, Special Subcommittee on Radiation, The Nature of Radioactive Fallout and its Effect on Man, 85th Cong., 1st Sess., 1957; Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, Special Subcommittee on Radiation, Fallout from Nuclear Weapons Tests, 86th Cong., 1st Sess., 5 May 1959.

133 . The AEC concluded that radiation did not cause any sheep deaths and consequently did not compensate the Nevada ranchers. Some of the ranchers remained unconvinced by the AEC's explanation and sued the government. While the court ruled in favor of the government, controversy over the case continues to this day. Congress held hearings on the subject in 1979 and concluded that the AEC had suppressed evidence during the trial. House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, The 'Forgotten Guinea Pigs': A Report on Health Effects of Low-Level Radiation Sustained as a Result of the Nuclear Weapons Testing Program Conducted by the United States Government, 98th Cong., 2d Sess., 1980, Committee Print 96-IFC 53, 15. In 1981, the judge who heard the first case ruled that the AEC fraudulently suppressed evidence in the trial. On appeal, however, this ruling was overturned. For further discussion of the sheep controversy see Philip L. Fradkin, Fallout: An American Nuclear Tragedy (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1989), 147-165; Hacker, Elements of Controversy, 106-130.

134 . Committee to Study Nevada Proving Grounds, 1 February 1954 ("Abstract of Report, Committee to Study Nevada Proving Grounds") (ACHRE No. DOE-040395-B), 1-2.

135 . Ibid., 2.

136 . Ibid., 46.

137 . Ibid.

138 . Ibid., 47.

139 . Ibid.

140 . Ibid., 50.

141 . Ibid., 46.

142 . Thomas L. Shipman, Los Alamos Laboratory Health Division Leader, to Charles Dunham, Director, Division of Biology and Medicine, 5 December 1956 (ACHRE No. DOE-020795-D-2), 3. On Sunshine, Shipman also wrote, "such a program obviously cannot be carried out with the complete lack of administration which has characterized past efforts." Ibid, 2.

143 . Hal Hollister, Environmental Sciences Branch, Division of Biology and Medicine, to Dunham et al., 27 February 1958 ("Reporting Sunshine") (ACHRE No. DOE-012595-B), 2. Other participants in AEC-sponsored biomedical research had a different perspective on the fallout research.

In 1995, Dr. Kulp recalled that, from the perspective of the researchers at Columbia, the goals were clear--"defining the amount of SR90 in the stratosphere to its mechanism of descent in the ground to the movement through the food chain to man."

The work of Sunshine, he recalled, "provided the scientific basis for the International Treaty banning atmospheric tests." J. Laurence Kulp, letter to Dan Guttman (ACHRE), 21 July 1995.

Another perspective is contained in a 1973 letter to Dixie Lee Ray, the last AEC chairman before its separation into agencies responsible for regulating (the Nuclear Regulatory Commission) and promoting (the Energy Research and Development Administration) nuclear energy. Dr. William F. Neuman, director of the Atomic Energy Project at the University of Rochester, suggested that the difficulties leading to the agency's breakup were not limited to the conflict between its responsibilities to promote and regulate atomic energy. In addition, "the AEC (its Division of Biology and Medicine in particular) has been put in the position of providing a biological justification for some other agency's political decision." He explained to Chairman Ray:

Some years back, before the Test Ban, the military wished to test various weapon designs. The Eisenhower Administration concurred. Admiral Strauss was instructed to have the AEC provide the basis for public acceptance. This meant of course that the Division of Biology and Medicine was supposed to convince the public that fallout was good for them and environmental Sr-90 contamination was accordingly expressed in 'Sunshine Units' if you recall. This very nearly tore the Division apart and we were rescued from potential disaster only by the timely signing of the big power Test Ban Treaty.

Neuman had been a participant in the fallout debate and was the spokesperson for a panel that included Libby, Eisenbud, Dunham, Langham, and other AEC-connected experts at the 1959 congressional hearings. William F. Neuman, Wilson Professor and Director, Atomic Energy Project, University of Rochester, to Dixie Lee Ray, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, 12 November 1973 ("When you visited the Rochester Biomedical Research Project . . .") (ACHRE DOE-011895-B), 1.

144 . Dwight Ink, AEC General Manager, to Seaborg, Chairman of the AEC, 9 September 1965, as quoted in House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, The 'Forgotten Guinea Pigs,' 15.

145 . Hacker, Elements of Controversy, 277.

146 . Ibid., 278.

147 . Ibid.

148 . "The worst thing in the world," Harry Truman reportedly once said, "is when records are destroyed." Merle Miller, Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry Truman (New York: Berkley, 1974), 27.

149 . The supplemental volumes to this report contain a detailed description of the record collections reviewed by the Advisory Committee.

150 . As a 14 February 1995 CIA report concluded:

CIA has found no evidence that Agency offices sponsored human radiation experiments or deliberately exposed anyone to ionizing radiation for operational or experimental purposes. As noted above, at least two Agency-affiliated contractors [deletion] and [Dr.] Geschickter [a Georgetown University researcher]) may have conducted human radiation experiments while working on other matters for the CIA. Some CIA officers probably knew of human radiation tests by other U.S. government agencies, but apparently did not consider these tests particularly relevant to the Agency's mission.

Circumstantial evidence, however, may not suffice to overcome suspicions fueled by CIA's contacts with persons and programs involved in radiation experiments sponsored by other agencies. The fact that MKULTRA held the authority to conduct radiological experiments, combined with the Agency's destruction of the main MKULTRA files in 1973, has already prompted speculation about the Agency's "real" role. These heightened suspicions will not fade any time soon.

Michael Warner, CIA History Staff, 14 February 1995 ("The Central Intelligence Agency and Human Radiation Experiments: An Analysis of the Findings") (ACHRE No. CIA-061295-A), 14.

151 . This conclusion was arrived at by DOE following an investigation conducted in response to the Committee's request for the documents. DOE Office of Human Radiation Experiments, 26 August 1994 ("Destruction of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission Division of Intelligence Files") (ACHRE No. DOE-082994-A). The DOE interviewed DOE employees who stated that they destroyed documents under direction from supervisors during this period. DOE reported that, shortly after the AEC Division of Intelligence was abolished in 1971, destruction of older file materials began. "This first file 'purge' continued until at least May 1974. Destruction was probably confined to documents dated prior to 1964." Following the DOE's creation in 1977, a second "purge" began, reportedly based on limited storage space, "destroying most surviving files." In 1988, DOE implemented rules requiring that documents classified at the Secret level be inventoried. "Many offices, however, destroyed Secret documents rather than having the burden of inventorying them. Surviving fragments of the AEC Division of Intelligence files may also have been destroyed during this third 'purge.'" Ibid., 2-3. The investigation reported that records that were kept of the documents that were destroyed had themselves been subsequently destroyed in the routine course of business.

152 . There was no central location, within agencies, or among them, that routinely kept anything but the most fragmentary records of human experiments sponsored by the agencies. During the 1950s, a central "Bio-Science" information exchange was maintained. Government and nonfederal agencies (such as foundations) formerly registered descriptions of research projects performed or sponsored by the federal government with an office of the Smithsonian Institution variously called the Scientific Information Exchange or the Bio-Sciences Information Exchange. This group, established at the recommendation of and advised by the National Research Council, collected abstracts of research in progress reports for the period 1949-1979. The Department of Commerce's National Technical Information Service began a similar program two years later.

The abstracts submitted to the Exchange were collected in annual reports and are available on microfiche in the Smithsonian Institution Archives. Unfortunately, the indices to the reports are available only on magnetic tape in a 1970s mainframe format that Smithsonian technologists are currently unable to read. For that reason, Advisory Committee staff did not review the Exchange's records.

153 . As noted in chapter 10, the VA concluded that a "confidential" division contemplated in relation to secret record keeping was not activated.

154 . Although, as discussed in chapter 11, we must be careful to distinguish the need to keep secret information, for example, weapons design or a weapon's purpose, from the need to keep secret a weapons test that may put surrounding populations at risk.