American suicide bombers. How America tested atomic bombs on its military
Liberals and representatives of many Western NGOs and various types of funds for many years with enviable consistency reminded us of the "nuclear" exercises at the Totskoy testing ground in the Orenburg region and at the Semipalatinsk training ground, where ground and airborne troops (the last in Semipalatinsk), as well as pilots The USSR Air Force was exposed to the damaging factors of the nuclear weapons.
US marines rise in training attack towards the epicenter of the atomic explosion
The usual epithets applied to these teachings were “criminal”, “monstrous” and so on.
True, in recent years, the gentlemen mentioned have died down. And the reason is simple: there are more and more information about similar experiments in the USA in the press, and at the moment there are so many of them, and they are such that to any person at least somehow connected with the USA (and for the “liberals” the USA is central the symbol of their religious cult, through which they compensate for their psychosexual pathologies - it is worth knowing that there are no normal people among Russian liberals) it is better to be silent about it.
But we are not liberals and we will not be silent. Today - a story about how the United States experimented on its military, and how it ended.
After receiving data on the consequences of strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the US command and command of the US armed forces became keenly interested in the accumulation of statistics on the real effects of the damaging factors of a nuclear explosion. The easiest way to get such information was to expose your own soldiers to the action of these very factors. Then there was another epoch, and the value of human life was incommensurable with today's. But the Americans did everything in such a way that even by that strict standard of being it was a bust.
1 July 1946, on the Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, as part of the Eble Test (ABLE), the atomic bomb “Gilda” dropped from the B-29 bomber was exploded. Thus began the operation "Crossroads" ("Crossroads").
Much has been written about this event, but the main thing has been “behind the scenes” for many years. After the explosions, specially designated crews in tugboats entered the zone of infection and stole ships. Also, specially selected servicemen took experimental animals and their bodies from irradiated ships (there were quite a few of them). But the first time the American cannon fodder was lucky - the bomb fell past the designated epicenter, and the infection was not very strong.
The second explosion, Baker (BAKER), was performed on July 25. This time the bomb was strengthened on the landing ship. And again, the crews of the auxiliary vessels moved into the zone of contamination, extinguished the burning aircraft carriers (they placed aircraft with fuel on board the aircraft carriers), the divers descended into the radioactive mud left at the site of the explosion ...
This time there was a complete "order" with radiation.
The sailors were not given any protective equipment, not even glasses, they simply were told in words to shut their eyes with their hands on command. A flash flashed through the palms and people saw their bones through closed eyelids.
It is necessary to say nevertheless that the “Crossroads” did not set as its task to bring people under the blow - it was simply impossible to pull out the necessary samples in another way. But people came under this blow. And, apparently, then the American "helmsmen" and realized what resource they have in the form of young patriots. People who are not afraid of anything and believe in America.
It took some time to make all the necessary decisions, and on November 1 of 1951, IT began.
In theory, then it was already known that nuclear explosions, to put it mildly, are not useful to humans. But details were needed, and the soldiers were to obtain these details.
Before the tests, the troops underwent psychological treatment. Young soldiers were told how cool it was - an atomic explosion, they explained that they would get impressions that they would not get anywhere else, they said that they would have a chance to participate in historical photo against the background of an atomic mushroom, such that few people can then boast. They were told that the fear of radiation is irrational. And the soldiers believed.
Marines pose against a nuclear explosion.
Some particularly brave people were motivated to “take on a special responsibility” and take positions as close as possible to the epicenter of a future explosion. They, unlike all others, were given glasses to protect their eyes. Sometimes.
Here's what these events looked like.
[media = https: //www.youtube.com/watch? v = GAr9Ef9Aiz0]
Those units of participants who lived to the time when it was possible to tell about everything, said that there were politicians, congressmen, generals in the ordeals, but they were several times farther from the explosions than the soldiers.
In elite circles, the first trials gave rise to a discussion about how widely American soldiers can be used for experiments, and how “deeply” they can be motivated to participate in such experiments. And if the facts of these human trials are known today, very little is still known about the debate in the highest echelons of power.
"Teachings" in the meantime were in full.
A pair of marines looking at an atomic explosion.
In the course of the aforementioned exercises of Desert Rock I (“Desert Rock 1”) from 1 in November 1951, 11 thousands of military men watched an atomic explosion of more than 18 kilotons, then some forces made a walking march towards the epicenter with a stop and departure at one kilometer away from him.
Nuclear explosion surveillance
Eighteen days later, in the course of the Desert Rock II experiment, the troops were already eight kilometers away, and they were making throws right through the epicenter. True, the bomb here was much weaker - just 1,2 kilotons.
Ten days later - Desert Rock III. Ten thousand military, 6,4 kilometers from the epicenter, foot marches through the epicenter two hours after the explosion, personal protective equipment was not used even in the epicenter.
But that was only the beginning. Five months later, in April, 1952-th, the conveyor of death really earned.
Desert Rock IV. From April 22 to June 1 there are four tests (32, 19, 15, 11 kilotons), compounds up to 8500 people, various “tests”. In principle, it was already necessary to dwell on this, in the USSR all the necessary information was collected for practically one test (the second time, at the Semipalatinsk training ground, only the possibility of landing an airborne landing was checked, while several hundred people were involved, no more). But the Americans did not stop.
It is impossible to get rid of the feeling that at a certain moment these tests turned into human sacrifices.
Desert Rock V began even before the “fourths”, 17 in March, 1952, ended in 4 in June of the same year. 18000 people were subjected to 11 atomic explosions, with an equivalent of 0,2 to 61 kilotons. Thirty-nine minutes after the last, most powerful explosion, with the equivalent of 61 kiloton, an air force of 1334 man was landed in its epicenter.
From 18 February to 15 in May 1955-th - Desert rock VI. Eight thousand people were exposed to fifteen explosions from 1 to 15 kilotons.
The last for the army and marines was a series of explosions in 1957, which was held under the general title "Operation Plumbbob". From 28 May to 7 in October 1957, 16000 people were subjected to 29 explosions with TNT equivalent from 0,3 to 74 kilotons.
Attack!
At this point, the Pentagon decided that there was nothing more to take from the infantry. Now, with statistics, there should have been a full order, at least many tens of thousands of people were irradiated from different distances by explosions of different strength, they ran through the epicenter with their feet, landed in them from helicopters and parachutes, including the still hot before the burns from the outbreak the ground, breathing radioactive dust, including on the forced march, caught the “bunnies” in the open space, in the trenches, and all this was mostly even without glasses for the eyes, not to mention gas masks that never fell into one frame in all these years. It was impossible to do something else with the soldiers, only to fry them for real, but the American commanders didn’t go for it, it wouldn’t be possible later, to maintain loyalty among the troops.
The fact that all the explosions were airborne, apparently, is not worth it.
However, America still had people from whom it was possible to take tribute for living in the greatest country in the world — sailors.
By that time, the statistics on “Crossroads” had already been processed, and, in principle, it was clear that radiation was doing to a man on a ship at sea.
But, unfortunately for the American sailors, their command needed more detailed statistics, needed details about the people under the ship's lining. It’s not enough just to know that the radiation kills, and after what time it kills. It’s advisable to get the details - how much radiation, for example, can a crew of a destroyer endure? And the aircraft carrier? The ships are different, and it is worth irradiating everyone, otherwise the statistics will be incorrect. And who would die earlier, a sailor from a small ship or a big one? Does everyone have different health? So more people are needed, then individual differences statistics will not spoil.
At the end of April 1958, Operation Hardtrack was launched. The participants were given a really difficult course. From April 28 to August 18, 1958, on the atolls of Bikini, Evenetok, and Johnston Island, the US Navy exposed its personnel to 35 atomic explosions, of which one was classified as “weak”, and the rest were in the range of TNT equivalent 18 kilotons, up to 8,9 megatons. Of all these explosions, two charges were underwater, two were launched on a rocket and exploded at a high altitude above ships with people, three floated on the surface of the water, one was suspended above ships with experimental crews in a balloon, and the rest simply exploded on a barge put out to sea.
US military watching the atomic explosion, 1958
As with ground tests, no one was equipped with personal protective equipment. The servicemen who were near the portholes and on the shore were told to close their eyes with their hands.
Dozens of ships of various classes, including the Boxer aircraft carrier, were exposed to radiation.
Wayne brooks He was an artilleryman from the destroyer "De Haven", who was exposed to twenty-seven atomic explosions and one radioactive rain. He suffered from numerous severe lung and larynx diseases, skin diseases and prostate cancer. Despite this, he was still alive in 2016 in his 75 years. For many years, the US government has consistently denied him and all the other participants in the “experiments” any kind of help.
The third major category in which the US experimented with radiation was military pilots. However, everything was very simple here: the pilot or the crew of the aircraft, on which the experiment was set, simply received an order to fly through the explosion clouds. There were no special separate exercises for the Air Force — no explosions in Nevada, in the fifties, were enough for everyone.
In addition, there were scuba divers who needed to go down into the water immediately after the explosion, while it was still hot, the crews of the submarines participated in the experiments, and of course, the service personnel, those who then buried the corpses of animals killed by the explosions, covered the funnels. None of them had ever been provided with any personal protective equipment, only a small number of military personnel sometimes received glasses to protect their eyes from a flash. No more.
Even China under Mao Zedong treated his soldiers more humanely. Factor of. About the USSR and not talking.
By the end of the fifties the harvest was gathered. Almost 400 000 thousands of troops were exposed to radiation in conditions close to combat. All of them were taken into account, and in the future they were constantly monitored. For each participant, statistics were carried out - what kind of bomb and when it was subjected, what hurts, how much is above average in its age group among people who have not been subjected to experiments.
These statistics were kept on virtually every member of the military who participated in the experiments until their death, which, for obvious reasons, often did not keep them waiting.
Each participant in the tests was warned that the combat task they were carrying out was secret, that this secrecy was indefinite and that disclosure of information about what was happening would qualify as a state crime.
Simply put, the soldiers and sailors should have been silent about everything. At the same time, none of these hundreds of thousands of military were told what they were involved in and what it is potentially fraught with. These people, after discovering a tumor or leukemia, came to the whole people themselves, understanding the causal relationships between the fungoid clouds in their youth and a pair of different cancers at the same time in maturity.
However, the US government refused to help them and did not recognize the victims during military service. This continued until the vast majority of participants in the experiments did not die.
Only in the late eighties, veterans carefully began to gather and communicate with each other. By the year 1990, semi-legal associations and societies began to form from those who could live to that time. At the same time, they still nothing and nobody could tell. In 1995, US President Bill Clinton carefully began to mention these soldiers in public speeches, and in 1996, information about human trials was declassified and Clinton apologized on behalf of the United States.
But it is still not known exactly how many were there. Four hundred thousand is an estimate of 2016 of the year, but, for example, in 2009, researchers carefully called the figure of thirty-six thousand people. So perhaps there were even more. Today, after everything became clear and secrecy has been removed, these people are called “atomic veterans” (atomic veterans). There are only a few of them left, most likely, a few hundred people.
This story is indicative not only of the absolutely transcendent, inhuman cruelty with which American politicians and generals are able to deal with their fellow citizens, but also how much the average American citizen is able to maintain loyalty to his government.
Before 1988, all “atomic veterans” were excluded from any benefit programs, the US Government basically refused to help the former military who suffered from radiation, demanding from them evidence that their illness was caused by radioactive contamination.
However, in 1988, Congress agreed that the 13 of different forms of cancer in the former military is a consequence of their exposure to radioactive contamination in military service, and the government must pay for the treatment of these forms of cancer. In all other cases, the disease continued to remain a private affair of the patient. In 2016, the number of cancers that are covered by government support reached 21. At the same time, evidence is needed that the patient took part in atomic tests as an experimental subject, otherwise there will be no preferential treatment, only for money. Other diseases are still not considered the consequences of radiation and the patient should treat them himself in any case.
Also, only “experimental” ones fall into the preferential groups; those who, for example, were engaged in cleaning up radioactive contamination, decontamination, and the like, have no rights or privileges. Officially.
The latest “broad gesture” from the American authorities to the “atomic veterans” was the assignment of disability pensions to them - from 130 to 2900 dollars per month, depending on the severity of the condition of the disabled person. Naturally, the status of a disabled person must be justified and proved. On the other hand, after his death, the spouse may receive this pension on himself.
And most importantly, having allowed some benefits, the American government did nothing to inform anyone about it. Most of the "atomic veterans" simply did not know that they were owed something and simply died of illness, never knowing that it was possible to receive treatment at the expense of the state or a pension. And, the cherry on top - the Pentagon lost a huge number of personal files of "experimental", or pretended to have lost, and now, in order to receive benefits, the veteran must prove that he participated in the tests as a test subject.
All these things, however, in a very weak degree, undermined the loyalty of both ex-test subjects and their families to the American state. Firstly, it is very significant how persistently the participants in the events were silent about everything. They were told to remain silent, and they were silent for at least forty years. We beat thresholds in veteran affairs organizations, trying to get help in treatment, but getting rejected, died of cancer, leukemia, heart disease - and didn’t tell anyone. They did not say when sick children were born to them.
Secondly, basically, they are still patriots. With all the horror of how they managed their state (and in fact in those years there was a conscript army in America), they are still proud of their service.
However, there is nothing left for them anymore, the Americans cannot doubt America as such, it is practically Orwellian thought-crime that can cause the collapse of identity. Even the journalists who describe this forty-year-old oblivion of people, from which they made guinea pigs, do not allow even unfriendly intonation to the US authorities, and, apparently, sincerely.
We, in Russia, still need to start trying to probe the limits of their loyalty. To search for the line beyond which the American will begin to view the government as an enemy, so that later it will be possible to sow hostility in their homes, to undermine faith in America’s goodness and good intentions. The example of "nuclear veterans" shows that it is not so simple, but the farther away, the more reasons the US government will give, and we must try.
US marines rise in training attack towards the epicenter of the atomic explosion
The usual epithets applied to these teachings were “criminal”, “monstrous” and so on.
True, in recent years, the gentlemen mentioned have died down. And the reason is simple: there are more and more information about similar experiments in the USA in the press, and at the moment there are so many of them, and they are such that to any person at least somehow connected with the USA (and for the “liberals” the USA is central the symbol of their religious cult, through which they compensate for their psychosexual pathologies - it is worth knowing that there are no normal people among Russian liberals) it is better to be silent about it.
But we are not liberals and we will not be silent. Today - a story about how the United States experimented on its military, and how it ended.
After receiving data on the consequences of strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the US command and command of the US armed forces became keenly interested in the accumulation of statistics on the real effects of the damaging factors of a nuclear explosion. The easiest way to get such information was to expose your own soldiers to the action of these very factors. Then there was another epoch, and the value of human life was incommensurable with today's. But the Americans did everything in such a way that even by that strict standard of being it was a bust.
1 July 1946, on the Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, as part of the Eble Test (ABLE), the atomic bomb “Gilda” dropped from the B-29 bomber was exploded. Thus began the operation "Crossroads" ("Crossroads").
Much has been written about this event, but the main thing has been “behind the scenes” for many years. After the explosions, specially designated crews in tugboats entered the zone of infection and stole ships. Also, specially selected servicemen took experimental animals and their bodies from irradiated ships (there were quite a few of them). But the first time the American cannon fodder was lucky - the bomb fell past the designated epicenter, and the infection was not very strong.
The second explosion, Baker (BAKER), was performed on July 25. This time the bomb was strengthened on the landing ship. And again, the crews of the auxiliary vessels moved into the zone of contamination, extinguished the burning aircraft carriers (they placed aircraft with fuel on board the aircraft carriers), the divers descended into the radioactive mud left at the site of the explosion ...
This time there was a complete "order" with radiation.
The sailors were not given any protective equipment, not even glasses, they simply were told in words to shut their eyes with their hands on command. A flash flashed through the palms and people saw their bones through closed eyelids.
It is necessary to say nevertheless that the “Crossroads” did not set as its task to bring people under the blow - it was simply impossible to pull out the necessary samples in another way. But people came under this blow. And, apparently, then the American "helmsmen" and realized what resource they have in the form of young patriots. People who are not afraid of anything and believe in America.
It took some time to make all the necessary decisions, and on November 1 of 1951, IT began.
In theory, then it was already known that nuclear explosions, to put it mildly, are not useful to humans. But details were needed, and the soldiers were to obtain these details.
Before the tests, the troops underwent psychological treatment. Young soldiers were told how cool it was - an atomic explosion, they explained that they would get impressions that they would not get anywhere else, they said that they would have a chance to participate in historical photo against the background of an atomic mushroom, such that few people can then boast. They were told that the fear of radiation is irrational. And the soldiers believed.
Marines pose against a nuclear explosion.
Some particularly brave people were motivated to “take on a special responsibility” and take positions as close as possible to the epicenter of a future explosion. They, unlike all others, were given glasses to protect their eyes. Sometimes.
Here's what these events looked like.
[media = https: //www.youtube.com/watch? v = GAr9Ef9Aiz0]
Those units of participants who lived to the time when it was possible to tell about everything, said that there were politicians, congressmen, generals in the ordeals, but they were several times farther from the explosions than the soldiers.
In elite circles, the first trials gave rise to a discussion about how widely American soldiers can be used for experiments, and how “deeply” they can be motivated to participate in such experiments. And if the facts of these human trials are known today, very little is still known about the debate in the highest echelons of power.
"Teachings" in the meantime were in full.
A pair of marines looking at an atomic explosion.
In the course of the aforementioned exercises of Desert Rock I (“Desert Rock 1”) from 1 in November 1951, 11 thousands of military men watched an atomic explosion of more than 18 kilotons, then some forces made a walking march towards the epicenter with a stop and departure at one kilometer away from him.
Nuclear explosion surveillance
Eighteen days later, in the course of the Desert Rock II experiment, the troops were already eight kilometers away, and they were making throws right through the epicenter. True, the bomb here was much weaker - just 1,2 kilotons.
Ten days later - Desert Rock III. Ten thousand military, 6,4 kilometers from the epicenter, foot marches through the epicenter two hours after the explosion, personal protective equipment was not used even in the epicenter.
But that was only the beginning. Five months later, in April, 1952-th, the conveyor of death really earned.
Desert Rock IV. From April 22 to June 1 there are four tests (32, 19, 15, 11 kilotons), compounds up to 8500 people, various “tests”. In principle, it was already necessary to dwell on this, in the USSR all the necessary information was collected for practically one test (the second time, at the Semipalatinsk training ground, only the possibility of landing an airborne landing was checked, while several hundred people were involved, no more). But the Americans did not stop.
It is impossible to get rid of the feeling that at a certain moment these tests turned into human sacrifices.
Desert Rock V began even before the “fourths”, 17 in March, 1952, ended in 4 in June of the same year. 18000 people were subjected to 11 atomic explosions, with an equivalent of 0,2 to 61 kilotons. Thirty-nine minutes after the last, most powerful explosion, with the equivalent of 61 kiloton, an air force of 1334 man was landed in its epicenter.
From 18 February to 15 in May 1955-th - Desert rock VI. Eight thousand people were exposed to fifteen explosions from 1 to 15 kilotons.
The last for the army and marines was a series of explosions in 1957, which was held under the general title "Operation Plumbbob". From 28 May to 7 in October 1957, 16000 people were subjected to 29 explosions with TNT equivalent from 0,3 to 74 kilotons.
Attack!
At this point, the Pentagon decided that there was nothing more to take from the infantry. Now, with statistics, there should have been a full order, at least many tens of thousands of people were irradiated from different distances by explosions of different strength, they ran through the epicenter with their feet, landed in them from helicopters and parachutes, including the still hot before the burns from the outbreak the ground, breathing radioactive dust, including on the forced march, caught the “bunnies” in the open space, in the trenches, and all this was mostly even without glasses for the eyes, not to mention gas masks that never fell into one frame in all these years. It was impossible to do something else with the soldiers, only to fry them for real, but the American commanders didn’t go for it, it wouldn’t be possible later, to maintain loyalty among the troops.
The fact that all the explosions were airborne, apparently, is not worth it.
However, America still had people from whom it was possible to take tribute for living in the greatest country in the world — sailors.
By that time, the statistics on “Crossroads” had already been processed, and, in principle, it was clear that radiation was doing to a man on a ship at sea.
But, unfortunately for the American sailors, their command needed more detailed statistics, needed details about the people under the ship's lining. It’s not enough just to know that the radiation kills, and after what time it kills. It’s advisable to get the details - how much radiation, for example, can a crew of a destroyer endure? And the aircraft carrier? The ships are different, and it is worth irradiating everyone, otherwise the statistics will be incorrect. And who would die earlier, a sailor from a small ship or a big one? Does everyone have different health? So more people are needed, then individual differences statistics will not spoil.
At the end of April 1958, Operation Hardtrack was launched. The participants were given a really difficult course. From April 28 to August 18, 1958, on the atolls of Bikini, Evenetok, and Johnston Island, the US Navy exposed its personnel to 35 atomic explosions, of which one was classified as “weak”, and the rest were in the range of TNT equivalent 18 kilotons, up to 8,9 megatons. Of all these explosions, two charges were underwater, two were launched on a rocket and exploded at a high altitude above ships with people, three floated on the surface of the water, one was suspended above ships with experimental crews in a balloon, and the rest simply exploded on a barge put out to sea.
US military watching the atomic explosion, 1958
As with ground tests, no one was equipped with personal protective equipment. The servicemen who were near the portholes and on the shore were told to close their eyes with their hands.
Dozens of ships of various classes, including the Boxer aircraft carrier, were exposed to radiation.
Wayne brooks He was an artilleryman from the destroyer "De Haven", who was exposed to twenty-seven atomic explosions and one radioactive rain. He suffered from numerous severe lung and larynx diseases, skin diseases and prostate cancer. Despite this, he was still alive in 2016 in his 75 years. For many years, the US government has consistently denied him and all the other participants in the “experiments” any kind of help.
The third major category in which the US experimented with radiation was military pilots. However, everything was very simple here: the pilot or the crew of the aircraft, on which the experiment was set, simply received an order to fly through the explosion clouds. There were no special separate exercises for the Air Force — no explosions in Nevada, in the fifties, were enough for everyone.
In addition, there were scuba divers who needed to go down into the water immediately after the explosion, while it was still hot, the crews of the submarines participated in the experiments, and of course, the service personnel, those who then buried the corpses of animals killed by the explosions, covered the funnels. None of them had ever been provided with any personal protective equipment, only a small number of military personnel sometimes received glasses to protect their eyes from a flash. No more.
Even China under Mao Zedong treated his soldiers more humanely. Factor of. About the USSR and not talking.
By the end of the fifties the harvest was gathered. Almost 400 000 thousands of troops were exposed to radiation in conditions close to combat. All of them were taken into account, and in the future they were constantly monitored. For each participant, statistics were carried out - what kind of bomb and when it was subjected, what hurts, how much is above average in its age group among people who have not been subjected to experiments.
These statistics were kept on virtually every member of the military who participated in the experiments until their death, which, for obvious reasons, often did not keep them waiting.
Each participant in the tests was warned that the combat task they were carrying out was secret, that this secrecy was indefinite and that disclosure of information about what was happening would qualify as a state crime.
Simply put, the soldiers and sailors should have been silent about everything. At the same time, none of these hundreds of thousands of military were told what they were involved in and what it is potentially fraught with. These people, after discovering a tumor or leukemia, came to the whole people themselves, understanding the causal relationships between the fungoid clouds in their youth and a pair of different cancers at the same time in maturity.
However, the US government refused to help them and did not recognize the victims during military service. This continued until the vast majority of participants in the experiments did not die.
Only in the late eighties, veterans carefully began to gather and communicate with each other. By the year 1990, semi-legal associations and societies began to form from those who could live to that time. At the same time, they still nothing and nobody could tell. In 1995, US President Bill Clinton carefully began to mention these soldiers in public speeches, and in 1996, information about human trials was declassified and Clinton apologized on behalf of the United States.
But it is still not known exactly how many were there. Four hundred thousand is an estimate of 2016 of the year, but, for example, in 2009, researchers carefully called the figure of thirty-six thousand people. So perhaps there were even more. Today, after everything became clear and secrecy has been removed, these people are called “atomic veterans” (atomic veterans). There are only a few of them left, most likely, a few hundred people.
This story is indicative not only of the absolutely transcendent, inhuman cruelty with which American politicians and generals are able to deal with their fellow citizens, but also how much the average American citizen is able to maintain loyalty to his government.
Before 1988, all “atomic veterans” were excluded from any benefit programs, the US Government basically refused to help the former military who suffered from radiation, demanding from them evidence that their illness was caused by radioactive contamination.
However, in 1988, Congress agreed that the 13 of different forms of cancer in the former military is a consequence of their exposure to radioactive contamination in military service, and the government must pay for the treatment of these forms of cancer. In all other cases, the disease continued to remain a private affair of the patient. In 2016, the number of cancers that are covered by government support reached 21. At the same time, evidence is needed that the patient took part in atomic tests as an experimental subject, otherwise there will be no preferential treatment, only for money. Other diseases are still not considered the consequences of radiation and the patient should treat them himself in any case.
Also, only “experimental” ones fall into the preferential groups; those who, for example, were engaged in cleaning up radioactive contamination, decontamination, and the like, have no rights or privileges. Officially.
The latest “broad gesture” from the American authorities to the “atomic veterans” was the assignment of disability pensions to them - from 130 to 2900 dollars per month, depending on the severity of the condition of the disabled person. Naturally, the status of a disabled person must be justified and proved. On the other hand, after his death, the spouse may receive this pension on himself.
And most importantly, having allowed some benefits, the American government did nothing to inform anyone about it. Most of the "atomic veterans" simply did not know that they were owed something and simply died of illness, never knowing that it was possible to receive treatment at the expense of the state or a pension. And, the cherry on top - the Pentagon lost a huge number of personal files of "experimental", or pretended to have lost, and now, in order to receive benefits, the veteran must prove that he participated in the tests as a test subject.
All these things, however, in a very weak degree, undermined the loyalty of both ex-test subjects and their families to the American state. Firstly, it is very significant how persistently the participants in the events were silent about everything. They were told to remain silent, and they were silent for at least forty years. We beat thresholds in veteran affairs organizations, trying to get help in treatment, but getting rejected, died of cancer, leukemia, heart disease - and didn’t tell anyone. They did not say when sick children were born to them.
Secondly, basically, they are still patriots. With all the horror of how they managed their state (and in fact in those years there was a conscript army in America), they are still proud of their service.
However, there is nothing left for them anymore, the Americans cannot doubt America as such, it is practically Orwellian thought-crime that can cause the collapse of identity. Even the journalists who describe this forty-year-old oblivion of people, from which they made guinea pigs, do not allow even unfriendly intonation to the US authorities, and, apparently, sincerely.
We, in Russia, still need to start trying to probe the limits of their loyalty. To search for the line beyond which the American will begin to view the government as an enemy, so that later it will be possible to sow hostility in their homes, to undermine faith in America’s goodness and good intentions. The example of "nuclear veterans" shows that it is not so simple, but the farther away, the more reasons the US government will give, and we must try.
- Alexander Timokhin
- Nevada Field Office, Assosiated Press, US Department of Defense, Courtesy Of Wayne Brooks, Courtesy Of National Nuclear Security Administration
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