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The release today of documents showing federal
officials knew the harmful effects of radiation tests during the Cold
War casts the issue of government accountability from that era in a
new light.
For many Americans this disclosure may erase the trust they have in
their own government.
Utahns should pay close attention. Seventy-four known or suspected
radiological tests occurred at Dugway Proving Ground alone, and the
many tests in Nevada were carried out only when the wind was blowing
away from Las Vegas and toward Utah.
That isn't news. For years, the Deseret News has been uncovering
evidence of these tests. However, the latest documents, unearthed by
President Clinton's Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments,
show that the people conducting these tests knew they likely were
hurting people. The government willfully placed the health and safety
of Americans at risk.
That is news indeed. It also is justifiable cause for anger. No longer
can apologists defend or overlook what happened at Dugway or in Nevada
with the thought that scientists hadn't yet learned the impact of what
they were doing.
The documents show government officials as early as 1947 classified
records as top secret not because of concerns over national security,
as has often been claimed, but because of the fear of lawsuits and bad
publicity. In some cases, government workers were exposed to dangerous
levels of radiation but were never told because, among other things,
labor unions might have demanded extra-hazardous pay and victims may
have filed insurance claims.
In another instance, government workers tested people downwind from
atomic tests, telling the public they were conducting nutritional
studies. In fact, documents show they were studying the level of
fallout in proximity to the tests.
The documents paint a cold-blooded picture of certain high-level
government officials at the time -particularly disturbing considering
the nation had just won a war over a Nazi regime that had carried out
ghastly experiments on humans.
This page has consistently urged Utahns not to apply the standards of
today when judging the actions of government officials during those
years of Soviet-bred anxiety, mistrust and fear. However, it is
difficult to formulate a reasonable historical context under which the
government could ethically and morally cause deliberate and
clandestine harm to its own citizens.
The nearly 50 years that have passed since the dates on the documents
in question make it useless to search for people to punish. The proper
course of action is for the government to continue opening all
relevant records from the era and to come clean on the extent of all
tests involving radiation, chemical and germ-warfare tests.
Although many years have passed, such candor can have a cathartic
effect on the public as well as the government. The mere release of
these documents could begin restoring trust in the government and its
military.
Then, steps must be taken to ensure the government never again uses
its own citizens as guinea pigs.
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