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The Plutonium Files: America's Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold War
Author: Eileen Welsome
File Type: epub
Amazon.com ReviewAs World War II reached its climax, the U.S. push to create an atomic bomb spawned an industry the size of General Motors almost overnight. But a little-understood human dilemma quickly arose How was all the radiation involved in building and testing the bomb going to affect the countless researchers, soldiers, and civilians exposed to it? Government scientists scrambled to find out, fearing cancer outbreaks and worse, but in their urgency conducted classified experiments that bordered on the horrific MIT researchers fed radioactive oatmeal to residents of a state boys school outside Boston prisoners in Washington and Oregon were subjected to crippling blasts of direct radiation and patients with terminal illnesses (or so it was hoped) were secretly injected with large doses of plutonium--survivors were surreptitiously monitored for years afterward.It was these plutonium guinea pigs that set journalist Eileen Welsome on her decade-long search to expose this grisly chapter of Americas atomic age, a feat that would earn her the Pulitzer Prize. In the impressively thorough and compelling Plutonium Files, Welsome recounts her work with a reporters gift for description, characterizing early radiation researchers as a curious blend of spook, scientist, and soldier, tirelessly interviewing survivors and their families, and providing social and political context for a complex and far-reaching scandal. Perhaps most damning is that not only did these cold-war experiments violate everything from the Hippocratic Oath to the Nuremberg Code, Welsome reveals, they were often ill-conceived, inconclusive, and repetitive--they were not just immoral science, they were bad science. --Paul HughesFrom Publishers WeeklyIn a deeply shocking and important expos?, Welsome takes the lid off the thousands of secret, government-sponsored radiation experiments performed on unsuspecting human guinea pigs at U.S. hospitals, universities and military bases during the Cold War. This riveting report greatly expands on Welsomes Pulitzer Prize-winning 1994 articles in the Albuquerque Tribune, which told how 18 men, women and children scattered in hospital wards across the country were injected with plutonium by U.S. Army and Manhattan Project doctors between 1945 and 1947. As Welsome demonstrates, the scope of the governments radiation experimentation program went much further. She documents how, between 1951 and 1962, the army, navy and air force used military troops in flights through radioactive clouds, flashblindness studies and tests to measure radio-isotopes in their body fluids. Additionally, she reveals that cancer patients were subjected to total-body irradiation, and women, children, the poor, minorities, prisoners and the mentally disabled were targeted for radio-isotope tracer studies, frequently without their consent and in some cases suffering excruciating side effects and premature deaths. In 1993, Energy Secretary Hazel OLeary launched a campaign to make public all documents relating to the experiments, which had been kept secret. Welsome cogently argues that OLearys efforts resulted in a Republican vendetta that led to her ouster. Written with commendable restraint, this engrossing narrative draws liberally on declassified memos, briefings, phone calls, interviews and medical records to convey the enormity of the irradiation program and the bad science behind the flawed and dangerous testsAand to document the governments systematic cover-up. Anyone who cares about Americas history, moral health and future should read this book. 8-city author tour. (Sept.) br 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Author: Dewey Lambdin
File Type: mobi
The Seventeenth Tale in Dewey Lambdins Smashing Naval Adventure SeriesFor a fellow like Captain Alan Lewrie, Royal Navy, who despises the French worse than the Devil hates Holy Water, its hellish-hard to gain a reputation for saving them, not once but twice, when the French refugees from Haiti surrender to England rather than the vengeful ex-slave armies in November of 1803!After that, it could be all claret and cruising in the Caribbean, but for a home-bound sugar convoy, one so frustrating as to make even the happy-go-lucky Alan Lewrie tear his hair out, kick furniture, and curse like . . . well, like a sailor! Back in England for the first time in two years, there are honours from the Crown for gallant service . . . a lot more than he expected from King George III, who was having a bad morning, then a chance to move in Society after an introduction to an intriguing daughter of a peer. But then come secret orders to experiment with several types of infernal engines of war, which might delay or postpone the dreaded cross-Channel invasion by Napoleon Bonaparte, his huge army, and his thousands of invasion craft. For the rest of 1804, Alan Lewrie and his crew of the Reliant frigate will deal with things more dangerous to them than they may prove to be to the French! From Publishers WeeklySet in 1803, Lambdins less than exciting 17th Alan Lewrie adventure (after King, Ship and Sword) finds the rakish Royal Navy captain and his ship in Haiti. After helping to rescue a French fleet from a bloody slave rebellion, Lewrie and crew escort a convoy of merchant ships back to Europe. Once in London, Lewrie is knighted--for exploits covered in previous books--and is assigned to an experiment in torpedoes, which may prove useful against the expected French invasion. In fine debauched form, Lewrie balances, often to comic effect, seduction, heavy drinking, hangovers, attempts to avoid paying a debt to a fellow officer, and his cheerful determination to annoy senior officers. Lambdins frequent references to events from earlier installments might interest new readers, but will bore fans already familiar with Lewries seagoing antics. Hopefully, the next book will revive the usual effortless zip of the series. (Jan.) (c) PWxyz, LLC. ReviewPraise for THE INVASION YEARNewcomers to the series will delight in Lambdins expert deployment of period detail his mastery of the details of life on a 19th-century frigate and the irresistible Captain Alan Lewrie himself. A pleasant blend of light humor, drama and cracking historical naval action.--Kirkus ReviewsYou might say Dewey Lambdin is in a groove. --HistoryWire.comPraise for the Alan Lewrie SeriesStunning naval adventure, reeking of powder and mayhem. I wish I had written this series.--Bernard CornwellIf Horatio Hornblower is the gentlemans sailor and Jack Aubrey is the thinking mans sailor, Lewrie is of and for the working class. Pugnacious and randy, hes a refreshing sea breeze.--San Jose Mercury News[A] smashing series.--The Washington TimesReaders who havent yet sampled Lewries adventures need only know that comparisons to Forester and OBrian are entirely appropriate.--BooklistYou could get addicted to this series. Easily.--The New York Times Book ReviewThe brilliantly stylish American master of salty-tongued British naval tales.--Kirkus ReviewsThe best naval adventure series since C. S. Forester.--Library JournalLewrie is a marvelous creation, resourceful and bold.--James L. Nelson, author of the Revolution at Sea Saga
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