Table Of ContentSECRET SCIENCE
SECRET
SCIENCE
a century of
poison warfare
and human experiments
ULF SCHMIDT
1
3
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For Katia, Luca, and Bella
Acknowledgements
The world was a diferent place ten years ago when I started work on this
book; the second Iraq war was about to be launched to rid the international
community of the threat of Saddam Hussein’s alleged stockpiles of weapons
of mass destruction; in the United States and Britain, especially, the subject
of deadly chemical weapons shaped part of the political thinking and national
security strategies in what was to become known as a global war on terror;
it was a world which had not yet woken up to the uncomfortable realities
governing our post-modern lives, in which the delusion of endless growth
and prosperity and the uncritical admiration of a liberal market economy
made it seemingly impossible for national governments to even contem-
plate a global banking crisis of the proportions of the one we experienced
in 2008. Since then the world around us has changed beyond recognition
and with it our sense of place and security. As former certainties have given
way to profound uncertainties, most of us have come to realize that the
fragility of our existence cannot be overcome through material goods alone,
but that stability and inspiration are instead to be found in a community of
likeminded people. As a senior scholar at a British university, and the found-
ing director of the University of Kent’s Centre for the History of Medicine,
Ethics and Medical Humanities, I have enjoyed the particular privilege
of being part of an international community of scholars who have been a
source of strength and constant encouragement to me, and without whom
this book could not have been written.
Over the years, I have incurred many debts from friends and colleagues
who have supported the project with their ideas, sources, and helpful guid-
ance. Amongst these, some clearly stand out: Alan Care, a personal injury
lawyer with a moral conscience, a kind of British ‘Erin Brockovich’, who
over a ifteen-year period became one of the leading legal representatives of
Britain’s chemical warfare veterans; without his stubborn determination
‘never to give up’ righting the wrongs committed against British and Allied
servicemen during the Cold War period, many of the key documents used
viii acknowledgements
in this study would never have seen the light of day. What started as a work-
ing relationship on a complex legal case soon turned into one of friendship.
Special mention too must be made of Kenneth Earl who in May 1953 was
exposed to the nerve agent Sarin at Porton Down, only two days before the
death of Leading Aircraftman Ronald Maddison. A real gentleman who
made you want to hear about the fate of the British chemical warfare vet-
erans, Kenneth quickly became the public face of the Porton Down Veterans
Support Group. His sense of optimism and belief in justice infected and
buoyed everyone around him. On several occasions he came to Kent to
share his story with my Special Subject students in what were clearly some
of the best seminars I have had the privilege to chair. I am also grateful to
all the many veterans, including Terry Alderson, Mike Cox, and Eric Gow,
who over many years supplied me with information about their time as
experimental subjects at Porton Down, Edgewood Arsenal, and other secret
research facilities: subjects who knew very little, if anything, about the sub-
stances being tested on them or the risks they were incurring. Next on the
list of people to whom I owe a particular debt of gratitude are my research
assistants Ryan Hills and David Willcox; both did a tremendous job in con-
ducting dozens of interviews with veterans and former scientists, and in
creating the foundation of what is today known as Kent’s Porton Down
archive. However, there is one scholar to whom I owe a greater debt than
to anyone else: Julian Perry Robinson of the Science Policy Research Unit
(SPRU) at the University of Sussex. He provided my assistants and me with
unfettered access over a prolonged period to a wealth of historical and con-
temporary sources. His expertise in the ield of chemical and biological
warfare policy is simply second to none. I would like to thank him for not
only supporting the project from its inception but for making detailed
comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript, which have signiicantly
improved the scope and quality of the book.
I am grateful to a number of senior oicials and scientists for agreeing to
share their experiences and expertise in a series of tape-recorded interviews,
especially Lord Butler of Brockwell, then Master of University College
Oxford, for discussing his review of secret intelligence on weapons of mass
destruction; David Langley, a senior government adviser on chemical and
biological warfare, for his invaluable insights into the often contentious rela-
tionship between secret science and policy; and Robert Maynard, a leading
expert on toxic chemicals from the Health Protection Agency, for helping
me to better understand the personal networks and long-term continuities
acknowledgements ix
within Britain’s chemical warfare community. These conversations provided
me with essential background information which allowed me to gain a
‘sense’ of the research culture in top-secret Allied research facilities.
This book would not have been possible without generous support from
various funding bodies. I am especially grateful to the Wellcome Trust for
granting me a major project grant entitled ‘Cold War at Porton Down:
Medical Ethics and the Legal Dimension of Britain’s Biological and Chemical
Warfare Programme, 1945–1989’, which provided me with much-needed
resources, time, and lexibility for pursuing this study wherever the evidence
took me. I am grateful to Anthony Woods, David Clayton, and the staf of
the Trust for all their helpful advice throughout the life of the grant; it is
thanks to James Peto that key indings of the study have previously been
presented to a wider public as part of the War and Medicine exhibition
organized by Wellcome Collection in 2008–2009. I am likewise indebted to
the Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia for awarding me a
Herbert D. Doan Fellowship at a critical juncture in the life of the project;
special thanks go to Ronald Brashear, Carin Berkowitz, and the friendly staf
of the Othmer Library of Chemical History. My stay there not only enabled
me to examine key archival collections, but allowed me to engage in cre-
ative conversations with scholars from the University of Pennsylvania’s
Department of History and Sociology of Science, especially Mark B. Adams,
Susan Lindee, and Ruth Schwartz Cowan, whose warm welcome was greatly
appreciated. Angela and Rolf Dessauer’s generous hospitality at their beau-
tiful home in Greenville, Delaware, made this trip especially memorable.
Towards the end of the project, two Visiting Fellowships from the Swiss-based
Brocher Foundation allowed me to write up the indings of the book in a
particularly supportive and collegiate atmosphere; Cécile Caldwell Vulliéty,
Anyck Gérard, Marie Grosclaude, and Elliot Guy made my stay a real suc-
cess. I am also grateful for all the constructive feedback I have received from
colleagues in response to papers given at the Universities of Cambridge,
Glasgow, Kent, Oxford, and Pennsylvania, University College London, the
Brocher Foundation, the Chemical Heritage Foundation, and the World
Health Organization, Geneva.
A study of this size and nature has beneited greatly from the profession-
alism and expertise of countless archivists around the world. I am particularly
indebted to the staf of the German Federal Archives in Berlin, Koblenz, and
Freiburg. At the Imperial War Museum, London, Stephen Walton and Kay
Gladstone helped me to identify and access important private papers and
