Science, Secrecy, and the Smithsonian: The Strange History of the Pacific Ocean Biological Survey Program

The Smithsonian Institution participated in a secret biological warfare project in the 1960s by undertaking a large-scale biological survey of uninhabited tropical islands in the Pacific. The project was initiated, funded, and overseen by the U.S. Biological Laboratories at Fort Detrick, Maryland, which was the home of the American biological warfare program. Critics charged the Smithsonian with having entered into a Faustian bargain that made the institution complicit in the sordid business of biological warfare, which could cause mass disease, suffering, and death.

Format: Hardback
Length: 200 pages
Publication date: 13 April 2023
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc

During the 1960s, the Smithsonian Institution embarked on a vast and comprehensive biological survey of a group of uninhabited tropical islands in the Pacific. This six-year-long endeavor, known as the Pacific Ocean Biological Survey Program, involved the efforts of Smithsonian personnel who banded 1.8 million birds, captured live specimens, collected blood samples, and meticulously documented the avian, mammalian, reptile, and plant life of 48 Pacific islands. However, there was an intriguing twist to this project. The study had been initiated, funded, and overseen by the U.S. Biological Laboratories at Fort Detrick, Maryland, which was the epicenter of the American biological warfare program. By entering into a contract to conduct the survey, the Smithsonian became a literal subcontractor to a secret biological warfare project.

Critics argued that the Smithsonian had entered into a Faustian bargain, compromising its integrity and moral compass. They contended that the institution had no proper role in such activities and should never have undertaken the survey. These critics claimed that participating in the project made the Smithsonian complicit in the sordid business of biological warfare, a form of combat that, if ever put into practice and used against human populations, could result in widespread disease, suffering, and death.

The book Science, Secrecy, and the Smithsonian: The Strange History of the Pacific Ocean Biological Survey Program delves into the intricacies of the survey program, contextualizes it within its historical framework, outlines the subsequent military tests that followed, and evaluates the critical objections raised against the Smithsonian's involvement in the project. It sheds light on the complex web of scientific inquiry, military secrecy, and government oversight that characterized this extraordinary chapter in scientific history.

Weight: 416g
Dimension: 201 x 286 x 22 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780197520338