Gregory Freeman: Remember? We Believed The Feds Once. P-D 7/15/1994

Headline: REMEMBER? WE BELIEVED THE FEDS ONCE
Reporter: By Gregory Freeman

Publication: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Fri., July 15, 1994
Section: WAR PAGE, Page: 5C, Edition: FIVE STAR

AMERICA HAS COME a long way since the 1940s and 1950s, when rallying around our government was considered the patriotic thing to do.
Especially during World War II and afterward, Americans generally went along with what the government said. After all, this was the government that had won the war and brought us peace and prosperity. This was the greatest nation on Earth. To many, this nation could do no wrong.

It all seems so naive today. Americans are willing to criticize their government, loudly and clearly. Dissent over government policy is common. From radio talk shows to computer bulletin boards, people rail against the president, Congress, the Supreme Court and other institutions of officialdom. It's as if the 60's credo, "Question Authority, " had become the national slogan.

But if you've ever wondered why people no longer trust the government, look at the revelations this week that the feds deceived the public as long ago as 1953, conducting large-scale biological tests on millions of unsuspecting people across the country.
   The government engaged in a campaign of mass deception about its experiments on human guinea pigs from St. Louis to New York City.
   The government had said tests were of a possible "smoke screen" that could be used to protect cities from aerial observation during enemy attack.
   This was during America's "duck-and-cover" days, when schoolchildren were told that in case we were attacked with a nuclear bomb, we could somehow protect ourselves by ducking and covering our heads.

We believed it then; we'd be considerably less inclined to believe it now.
And why shouldn't we disbelieve?
How many times have we been duped?

Going back to 1932, the government has been duping us.
   The shameful Tuskegee Study is a prime example. Beginning that year and continuing in the name of science, the study by the U.S. Public Health Service deceived 400 blacks in Macon County, Ala., into thinking they were receiving treatment for syphilis. In fact, they were not treated at all. Instead, the health service was studying them for the long-term effects of the disease. The experiment continued until 1972.
   Or take Agent Orange, a herbicide used to defoliate the jungle and deny cover to the enemy in the Vietnam War. After American soldiers began developing health problems - ranging from the veterans' skin rashes to their children's birth defects - the government denied having any information about the defoliant's long-range effects. It wasn't until a class action suit was filed that the government 'fessed up and provided a $180 million settlement to affected veterans and their families.
   Or consider the LSD tests by the federal government in the 1950s. The government, suspecting that the drug would be useful for incapacitating enemies, gave LSD to hundreds of subjects - some of them unsuspecting. The experiments, conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency, were code-named MK-ULTRA.
   One such guinea pig was Frank Olson. An Army chemist, Olson jumped to his death from a 10th-floor hotel window in 1953, two weeks after LSD was slipped into his drink. His family later received an apology from President Gerald Ford - and a settlement from the government.

Is it any wonder, then, that people no longer trust those in power, regardless of party?
Is it really surprising that the federal government conducted tests on people here, spraying zinc cadmium sulfide - which has since been identified as a cancer-causing agent - in the city's poor areas and in its downtown business district? Or that the government took advantage of Americans' patriotism and desire to help make this country stronger by testing chemicals on unsuspecting people?

In fact, in light of all that has happened, can there be any question why democracy requires constant vigilance?
   Because of all that's gone on in the last half century, it may be a long time - if ever - before Americans really believe that they can trust their government again.
   Through the government - and its many policies of deception - America has turned into a nation of skeptics.
   And those who ran the government then and who run it now have only themselves to blame.

Daniel Schesch - Webweaver

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