Abstract
The theme of this volume, and of the conference at which these papers were first delivered, is the interaction of science and technology with the military, especially in the modern arms race. One of the major purposes of the conference was to examine critically “the appearance of an inaccessible and unquestionable scientific rationality” that may result from “a growing scienticization and technization of military policy.” When examined historically, how well do the actual decision-making processes conform to this ideal? To what extent are factors that in theory are excluded by the alleged rationality, in practice actually considered? Often when asking this question people have in mind considerations such as the institutional interests of the armed forces or the financial interests of private manufacturers. However, the claim of rationality also seems to exclude a very different set of concerns: ethical arguments. A breakdown in the claimed rationality need not always signify that forces of narrow interest and greed are let loose; it may also signify the inclusion of important social values in the decision-making process.
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Notes
I must confess that I stumbled upon the material by accident, while researching the general history of radiation safety standards. This suggests that much more material on this debate and others might be uncovered by a deliberate search. Ironically, shortly after this conference, similar ethical issues were presented to a broad audience in the movie “Project X,” which portrays a modern radiation endurance experiment on chimpanzee “pilots.”
Richard G. Hewlett and Francis Duncan, A History of the Atomic Energy Commission, vol. 2, Atomic Shield, 1947/52 (University Park: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1969), p. 71. For histories of the entire project, see W. Henry Lambright, Shooting Down the Nuclear Plane (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967); and Comptroller General of the United States, Report to the Congress: Review of Manned Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion Program, Atomic Energy Commission and Department of Defense (Washington, D.C.: Comptroller General of the United States, 1963).
“U.S. at Work to Apply Atomic Power to Planes and Missiles,” New York Times, February 23, 1947, p. 43, col. 3.
New York Times, September 17, 1947, p. 13, col. 5.
“Cheap Atom Power Due By 1960,” New York Times, January 26, 1947, p. 18, col. 1.
New York Times, February 23, 1947, p. 43, col. 3.
Frederick R. Neely, “Why Atoms Don’t Fly: Atomic Engines,” Collier’s 121 (April 10, 1948), 30.
“Agenda for June 23, 1948, Meeting of Advisory Committee on Radiation Exposure of Military Personnel, Palmer House, Chicago,” The Papers of Lauriston Taylor, Countway Library of the Harvard Medical School, Box 81–13, File: “NEPA 1948–1951, Correspondence.”
Ward’s attendance may have been arranged at the last minute; the printed agenda does not list his name. However, the handwritten notes of MIT physicist Robley D. Evans, a committee member, record Ward’s participation: Robley D. Evans, “NEPA — 23 June 1984 — Notes by R. D. Evans,” Taylor Papers (8), Box 81–13, File: “NEPA 1948–1951, Correspondence.”
Hanson Baldwin, The Price of Power (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1948).
Ibid., p. 323.
Ibid., endpapers.
Evans, “NEPA — 23 June 1948” (9), p. 1.
“Memorandum for Major General Frederick A. Smith. Subject: Aircraft Requirements for a Strategic Atomic Bombing Campaign Against the USSR in 1952 Using Aerial Refueling, March 1, 1948,” Declassified Documents Reference System (Washington, D.C.: Carrollton Press, 1976), 241C.
Evans, “NEPA — 23 June 1948” (9), p. 1.
Ibid., p. 4.
Ibid.
Ibid., p. 3.
V. P. Calkins, “Proposed Initial NEPA Biochemical Program,” Taylor Papers (8), Box 81–13, File: “NEPA 1948–1951, Correspondence.”
Evans, “NEPA — 23 June 1948” (9), p. 3.
Ibid., p. 6.
Ibid., p. 4.
Ibid., p. 9.
Ibid., p. 5.
Ibid., p. 8.
Ibid., p. 9.
Ibid.
Ibid.
NEPA Medical Advisory Panel, Tabulation of Available Data Relative to Radiation Biology (1949), Taylor Papers (8), Box 81–13, File: “NEPA 19481951, Correspondence”
Ibid., p. 2.
R. R. Newell, “Report on Survey of Opinion in Regard to Desperation Does of Irradiation” (April 3, 1949), Taylor Papers (8), Box 81–13, File: “NEPA 19481951, Reports.”
“Minutes of the Advisory Committee on Radiation Tolerances of Military Personnel, Carlton Hotel, Washington, D.C., April 3, 1949,’ Taylor Papers (8), Box 81–13, File: ”NEPA 1948–1951, Correspondence.“
NEPA Medical Advisory Panel, Tabulation of Available Data (29), pp. 7–9.
Newell, “Report on Survey of Opinion” (31), p. 1.
NEPA Medical Advisory Panel, Tabulation of Available Data (29), p. 2.
“Minutes of the Advisory Comittee” (32), pp. 3–6.
“Report of the Committee on Human Experimentation” (April 3, 1949), Taylor Papers (8), Box 81–13, File: “NEPA 1948–1951, Correspondence”.
Ibid., p. 1.
Ibid.
“Minutes of the Advisory Committee” (32) p. 4.
“Report of the Committee on Human Experimentation” (37), p. 2.
“Minutes of the Advisory Committee” (32), p. 3.
“Supplemental Report of the Judicial Council of the A.M.A.,” Journal of the American Medical Association 132 (December, 28, 1946), 1090; “Ethics Governing the Service of Prisoners as Subjects in Medical Experiments — Report of a Committee Appointed by Governor Dwight H. Green of Illinois,” Journal of the American Medical Association 136 (February 14, 1948), 457–458; A. C. Ivy, “The History and Ethics of the Use of Human Subjects in Medical Experiments,” Science 108 (July 2, 1948), 1–5.
“Minutes of the Advisory Committee” (32), p. 1.
Ibid., p. 5.
Ibid., p. 1.
“NEPA — Notes on Cincinnati Meeting of 3 October 1949,” Taylor Papers (8), Box 81–13, File: “NEPA 1948–1951, Correspondence.”
Ibid., pp. 2–5.
Ibid., p. 1.
Ibid., pp. 2–5.
Ibid., p. 3.
“Doctors Undergo Bomb Test Burns,” New York Times, February 25, 1951, p. 36, col. 1.
“NEPA… 3 October 1949” (47), p. 3.
Ibid., p. 4.
Ibid.
“Chronological Review of Important Events in the History of NEPA’s Effort to Secure Support for Its Recommendation on Human Experimentation,” attached to letter, M. C. Leverett to Shields Warren, February 15, 1951, Taylor Papers (8), Box 81–13, File: “NEPA 1948–1951, Correspondence.”
“NEPA… 3 October 1949” (47).
“Chronological Review” (56), p. 2.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Robert S. Stone, M. D. “ Irradiation of Human Subjects as a Medical Experiment” (January 31, 1950), Taylor Papers (8), Box 81–13, File: “NEPA 1948–1951, Correspondence.”
Ibid., p. 1.
Ibid.
Ibid., p. 2.
Ibid., p. 3.
Ibid., p. 3.
Ibid., p. 4.
“Chronological Review” (56), p. 3.
Ibid.
“Meeting of the NEPA Research Guidance Committee, St. Francis Hotel, September 12, 1950,” Taylor Papers (8), Box 81–13, File: “NEPA 1948–1951, Correspondence.”
Ibid., p. 5.
“Chronological Review” (56), p. 4.
Ibid.
Ibid.
W. A. Selle, Secretary, “Minutes of the NEPA Research Guidance Committee Meeting, NEPA 1765, December 12, 1950,” Taylor Papers (8), Box 81–13, File: “NEPA 1948–1951, correspondence.”
Ibid.
Ibid., p. 4.
Ibid., pp. 5–6.
Ibid., p. 4.
Ibid.
Ibid., p. 6.
Ibid., p. 5.
Ibid.
Ibid., p. 6.
Letter, M. C. Leverett to Dr. Shields Warren (56), p. 1.
Eisenhower resisted, telling his aides to drag their feet, until a reactor light enough to fly was actually operating; “Memo, Bryce Harlow, Special Assistant to the President, June 26, 1957,” Declassified Documents Reference System (Washington, D.C.: Carrollton Press, 1981), 394A. See also Lambright, op. cit., 1967 (2), pp. 17–18.
Selle, “Minutes… December 12, 1950” (75), p. 5.
“U.S. Military Plane Production,” U.S. News and World Report 25 (December 10, 1948), cover.
“Shall We Have Airplanes?” Fortune, January 1948, p. 78.
The President’s Air Policy Commission, Survival in the Air Age (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1948).
“The Wildest Blue Yonder Yet,” Fortune, March 1948, p. 156.
“Air Policy for the Atomic Age,” U.S. News and World Report 24 (March 12, 1948), 19.
Resident’s Air Policy Commission, op. cit., 1948 (90), p. 80.
Neely, op. cit., 1948 (7), p. 10.
The Presidential Commission’s basic recommendation was the development and large-scale production of jet aircraft. Even in the portion of the report dealing with research and development, atomic propulsion received a perfunctory paragraph, while electronics and guided missiles each received two full pages; President’s Air Policy Commission, op. cit., 1948 (90), pp. 80–84.
“Pattern for Arms Spending: New Emphasis on Air Power,” U.S. News and World Report 29 (June 4, 1948), 11.
“Our Own Armaments Race: Services Rush Novel Weapons to Win Funds,” U.S. News and World Report 26 (May 20, 1949), 15.
“Can Planes Alone Win a War?” U.S. News and World Report 26 (April 1, 1949), 19.
Ibid., p. 21.
Hewlett and Duncan, op. cit., 1969 (2), pp. 73–74, 106–107, 208, 211.
Ibid., pp. 490–491.
Ibid.
Ibid., p. 491.
Letter, Marion W. Boyer to Robert LeBaron, January 10, 1951, Taylor Papers (8), Box 81–13, File: “NEPA 1948–1951, Correspondence.”
Dr. Alan Gregg, Dr. Austin H. Brues, Dr. Simeon Cantril, Dr. Andrew H. Dowdy, Dr. Louis H. Hempelman, Dr. Robert F. Loeb, Dr. Curt Stern, and Dr. Shields Warren (ibid., p. 2).
Brues, Cantril, Dowdy, and Warren.
Boyer to LeBaron (104), p. 4.
Hewlett and Duncan, op. cit., 1967 (2), p. 491.
Ibid., p. 490; Lambridght op. cit., 1967 (2), p. 29.
“Atom Plane on Way to Drawing Board,” New York Times, February 23, 1951 p. 1, col. 4; David Anderton, “The Engine: Fission Aloft,” Aviation Week 54 (June 4,1951), 21–22.
David Anderton, “The Plane: Flying Boat First,” Aviation Week 54 (June 11, 1951), 21–32.
Stone, op. cit., 1950 (61), p. 5.
Boyer to LeBaron, (104) p. 1.
Penciled note by Evans in the margin of Boyer to LeBaron (104), p. 3.
Letter, M. C. Leverett to R. D. Evans, February 7, 1951, Taylor Papers (8), Box 81–13; File: “NEPA 1948–1951, Correspondence.”
Letter, Harriet L. Hardy, M. D., to R. D. Evans, February 15, 1951, Taylor Papers (8), Box 81–13, File: “NEPA 1948–1951, Correspondence.”
Boyer to LeBaron (104), p. 1.
Ibid., p. 3.
“Army to Make Test of Atomic Weapons on Combat Troops,” New York Times, (September 18, 1951, p. 1, col. 5. For a general history, see Howard Ball, Justice Downwind: America’s Atomic Testing Program in the 1950s (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986).
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Whittemore, G. (1988). A Crystal Ball in the Shadows of Nuremberg and Hiroshima: The Ethical Debate over Human Experimentation to Develop a Nuclear-Powered Bomber, 1946–1951. In: Mendelsohn, E., Smith, M.R., Weingart, P. (eds) Science, Technology and the Military. Sociology of the Sciences, vol 12/1/2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2958-1_6
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