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at great length the possible use of chemical agents as a substitute
i
.for nuclear weapons.
The program initiated, at that time therefore had three' specific
'objectives:
to determine what hallucinogenic drugs might provide an.
effective alternative to more drastic weaponry; to ascertain the
potential application of such drugs in intelligence operations;
and finally,
to attempt to develop an antidote to such drugs should
they be used against U.S. or Allied forces.
Once decisions were made at levels above that of the Department
of the Army to proceed with the testing of psychoactive and other drxigs,
the Chemical Corps, then a separate technical service of the Army,
headquartered at Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland, entered into a series
of contracts with various universities,
state hospitals, and medical
foundations.
Unfortunately, many of the early contracts are unavailable.
Our best information is that many of these contracts were routinely
destroyed some time ago.
However, we have located some documentathn,
all of which indicates that the Army's primary interest was in acquiring
the results of investigations and experimentations being conducted by
these civilian research organizations.
•
.*v..
Our review has encompassed a total of fifty-two contracts,
>
starting from the early 50's and continuing to the 70' s.
I should like
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to stress that of the fifty-two contracts of which we have knowledge,
only a small number
(13) involve testing compounds which might be
•
*
described in a broad sense as hallucinogenic or delirient.
The 39
remaining contracts can all be placed into three categories j
first,
tests of various anticholinergic agents, such as atropine, and basic
research into organophosphates,
in a constant effort to refine anti-
dotes to organophosphate nerve poisons; second,
tests of various
common drugs in medical use,
such as morphine, and other analgesics
as well as miscellaneous non-psychoactive drugs; and,
third, non-drug
tests of physiological functions,
such as lung function or skin permeability
In the interest of time,
I have not prepared detailed remarks on these
contracts,
but I have pertinent documents should you have any questions.
Turning to the research on hallucinogenic drugs, we discovered
9 such contracts.
The first two of these were negotiated in 1951 with
the New York State Psychiatric Institute, a leader in the field of the
use of hallucinogen! cs in the diagnosis and treatment of the mentally
ill.
The subjects were psychiatric patients.
The records are ambiguous
concerning the matter of the consent of the patients.
The drugs util-
ised included LSD, .mescaline,
and others;
In the course
of one of
these contracts,
a subject, Mr, Harold Blauer, then a patient at the
New York State Psychiatric Institute, was administered a dose of a
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mescaline derivative which proved fatal.
Details of Mr. Blauer's
death have already been made public and are available to the committee
and are appended to my statement.
The Blauer death is the subject
of a pending claim by the two daughters against the Army.
A 1955 contract with Tulane University involved the administration
of LSD, Mescaline, and other drugs to mental patients who had there-
tofore had electrodes implanted in their brains as a part of their
medical treatment unrelated to an Army contract.
The electrodes
were utilized to study the effects of the drugs on the brain's functioning.
The methodology used might be subject to some criticism on the ground
that a range of compounds was administered to at least one patient
without apparent relation to therapy or diagnosis.
However, work
on the brain chemistry of mental illness was still pioneering work
\
m 1955,
and perhaps
it is not surprising in the cool light of analysis
20 years later that some of the techniques then employed now appear
less than perfect.
The five remaining contracts were with the University of
Washington,
the Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene,
Inc.,
the
University of Maryland and the Institute for Behavioral Research.
Four of the
five studied LSD,
the remaining one studied many
'
compounds including amphetamines.
They covered the time period
1953 to 1965.
None of them appears remarkable,
but,
again,
I have
more complete information should you desire
it.
^
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Although the medical profession has had ethical codes and
procedural safeguards on the use of human beings in drug experimen-
tation for over a century,
I must in all candor admit that they appear
not always to have been followed in these tests.
These standards
require,
for example,
that the individual be informed as to all aspects
of the nature, methods and effects of the experiment,
that he give his
voluntary written consent before any testing and that he be free to
withdraw from the experiment at any time.
The Surgeon General
will elaborate on these matters in his testimony.
These are the
obligations of the attending physician, or the researcher conducting
the experiment.
Our records, admittedly incomplete, do not reflect
that these procedures were necessarily followed by the research
organizations with whom we contracted.
To insure compliance with
*
v
these requirements,
the Army has,
since at least the early 60*s,
followed the practice of requiring contract clauses setting stringent
Tr*
•.
controls over the use of human beings in experiments.
Such a
clause is present,
for example,
in our contract with the Institute
for Behavioral Research.
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Chemical Corps Testing of LSD
, Based upon the results obtained under early contracts with
civilian research organizations, military-related testing of
/
hallucinogenic s was initiated.
Insofar as we have been able to
determine. Army in-house testing of LSD on human subjects com-
menced some time in 1955 and was conducted intermittently through
1967 using military and Army civilian personnel recruited from the.
Army areas within the United States.
Most of this testing was conducted
at Edgewood-Arsenal, Maryland.
In addition, available information indicates that a number of field
tests were conducted at certain other Army installations.
The purpose
of these field tests was to determine the effects of LSD administration
«
on the ability of soldiers to perform various normal military functions.
•
\
For example,
in December 1957,
16 men were tested under LSD
influence during operation of a radar van at Aberdeen Proving Grounds,
•r*
Maryland.
During this same period,
at Edgewood Arsenal, 40
individuals were tested under LSD
influence in the performance of such
activities as rifle assembly and disassembly, masking and skin
decontamination procedures,
a volley ball game, and close order drill.
Films were made of the latter test and used as a demonstration
vehicle within the Army as to the effects of LSD.
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In September,
1958,
field tests were conducted at Fort Bragg,
North Carolina,
One of these tests involved administration of LSD
•
*
to 20 Special Forces personnel engaged in a guard post exercise and a
Simulated interrogation exercise.
In another series of tests at Fort
Bragg,
59 men from the XVIII Airborne Corps Field Artillery were
«<
tested under LSD influence while engaged in a meteorological Purvey,
a ground survey, a 40 mm artillery crew drill, and fire direction
center and forward observer exercises.
These latter tests were
also filmed.
Available information also indicates other field tests involving
personnel of the advanced officers courses at the Chemical Corps
School, Fort McClellan, Alabama; four members of an instructor
class at Dugway Proving Grounds,
Utah,
in 1959; and approximately
34 members of an infantry advanced course at Fort Benning, Georgia,
in January,
I960.
Available records characterize all of the LSD test subjects,
both at Edgewood Arsenal and at the field locations, as volunteers.
However, as
I will discuss later in connection with testing of LSD,
for intelligence purposes,
it is not certain how much advance information
was imparted to each prospective subject regarding the possible-effects
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<as LSD or the exact nature of the experiments to be conducted, or
whether some coercion may have been brought to bear upon prospective
subjects by their superiors in order to obtain their participation.
Testing of LSD for Intelligence Purpose s
During the period 1958 through 1962 a series of experiments
were conducted specifically designed to evaluate potential applications
LSD to intelligence operations.
In particular, these experiments
focused upon the possible use of LSD as an aid in intelligence interro-
gations.
In this regard it was desired to determine whether, as a
result of the administration of LSD, a well-trained and experienced
intelligence agent could be made to divulge classified information that
could not be obtained, from the agent solely through use of conventional,
questioning.
A series of clinical experiments were performed during the period
1958 through I960 at Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland.
These experimeit s,
which were conducted as a joint project of the U. S. Army Intelligence
Board and the Medical Research Directorate of the Army's Chemical
Warfare Laboratories, used as subjects military intelligence personnel
made available by the U.S. Army Intelligence Center.
Subjects were
specifically selected for a high degree of security conditioning and
intelligence experience.
In addition, preliminary mental and physical
examinations were a prerequisite to acceptance into the program.
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Available records indicate that approximately 31 Army
intelligence personnel participated as subjects in the program.
Because these records are incomplete,
there are significant
/unanswered questions as to whether participation in the program was
truly voluntary by today’s criteria.
Planning documents indicate that
prospective subjects were to be advised generally as to the nature of
the program, and that they could terminate their participation at any
time.
In particular, prospects were to be advised that the project
would consist of a series of mental and physical tests of human reaction
to a specific material which would be administered under in-patient
clinical conditions.
Prospects were not, however, to be informed
as to the exact properties of the material to be administered or its
potential intelligence application, nor,
in connection with certain of the
experiments,
the time,
location,
or method of administration.
This
information was withheld in order not to prejudice experimental
results by suggestion.
Planning documents also indicate that each
prospect who agreed to participation in the program was to sign a
statement indicating in part that the general nature of the experiments
had been explained to him from the standpoint of possible hazards
'
- A..
to health; that he understood that the experiments would be so
-
* i*
conducted as to avoid all unnecessary physical and mental suffering
and injury; that he would be at liberty to request that the experiments
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be terminated at any time; that he recognized that in the pursuit of
certain experiments transitory discomfiture may occur; and that
there had been no coercion, undue moral suasion or other adverse
pressure brought to bear in his volunteering; and that he had done
so of his own free will.
Available records do not indicate, however,
whether these procedures were in fact followed in each case, or
exactly what information was imparted to the prospective subjects.
The experiments at Edgewood were conducted by qualified
medical personnel of the Chemical Warfare Laboratories under
controlled clinical conditions.
Project officers of the U.
S. Army
Intelligence Center provided technical advice and assistance in the
‘
structuring of experiments.
In addition to a number of standard tests
of mental and physical abilities related to performance of intelligence
tasks, conducted so as to compare pre and post drug administration
results, the experimentation program included certain structured
situation's wherein the applicability of the drug for intelligence purposes
was assessed.
In these situations an attempt was made to overcome
the security training and experience, principally interrogation
resistance,
of the subjects by exploitation of the effects of the drug.
The structured situations consisted of:
(1)
Simulated social, receptions
where LSD was administered surreptitiously to the subjects
(in cocktails);
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(E)
Simulated stress situations wherein subjects were given polygraph
examinations after administration of LSD; and (3) Administration of
LSD in conjunction with confinement in an isolation environment.
i
In each situation medical personnel were present at all times.
Observation reports by those supervising the experiments, as well
as subjective reports by the subjects themselves, were used in
assessing the effect of the drug.
In general,
it was found that use of
LSD,
either alone or in conjunction with conventional interrogation
techniques, could be effective in reducing the resistance to interrogation
of well-trained and experienced intelligence personnel.
In view of the results of the clinical experimentation at Edgewood
Arsenal, and in recognition of. the limited. capability to structure
realistic interrogation situations in a laboratory environment using
volunteers, a proposal was submitted by the U.S. Army Intelligence
Center,
in coordination with the Chemical Warfare Laboratories,
to
conductfield- experimentation in conjunction with actual interrogation
situations.
This proposal was approved by the Army's Assistant Chief
of Staff for Intelligence,
arid subsequently two series of field tests
were conducted.
•
•
a;.
Available records indicate that on 10 April 1963, the Deputy
.7
Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence directed that no further field
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