“It is desired that no document be released which refers to experiments with humans and might have adverse effect on public opinion or result in legal suits. Documents covering such work should be classified `secret’.”
April 17, 1947 Atomic Energy Commission memo from Colonel O.G. Haywood, Jr. to Dr. Fidler at the Oak Ridge Laboratory in Tennessee
In the early days of Nuclear Energy, the US government (and by extension, the US Military), had a monopoly on man-made radioactive materials. There was a great deal of curiousity about these new materials, and what their effect on the human body might be.
