The American government is not lacking in controversial decisions, from starting a war in Iraq based on faulty intelligence, to using drone strikes to kill American citizens overseas. Then there's your occasional conspiracy theory that attempts to pin something absurd on the government, like 9/11 being orchestrated by the Bush Administration. As crazy as that seems, every once in awhile, the truth is crazier than fiction. The U.S. government has done its share of things that test the concept of liberty, and a lot of them—while seemingly impossible today—only happened a few decades ago. For some families, the effects of what the government has done may still ripple into 2015.
While this is by no means a comprehensive list of all the government has done wrong (let's leave what they've done to foreign countries for another day), here are some of the craziest true things that the American government actually has done to Americans. Leave the conspiracy theories at the door.
Letting African Americans Die of Syphilis When Treatment Was Available
Using Drug Experiments to Try to Control Behavior
Experimenting With Electroconvulsive Therapy
Allowing Known Criminals to Buy Guns
Injecting People With Plutonium
Exposing Poor Cancer Patients to Large Doses of Radiation
Completing Chemical Experiments With Mustard Gas on Sailors
Recruiting Nazis to Live in America After WWII
Right after World War II, the U.S. government brought over nearly 1,500 Germans—many who had experimented on Jews and supported the Holocaust—to American soil, giving them new identities, and letting them live freely among citizens in secret.
Those brought over during Operation Paperclip, as it was called, were scientists, doctor, chemists, technicians, and engineers, for the purpose of having them work for America rather than the Soviet Union. While President Harry Truman barred those who were active members of the Nazi Party from being recruited, the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency, which was in charge of the program, made false biographies for Nazi members and wiped them clean of their pasts. Rocket scientist Wernher von Braun was one of the recruits, though he was a known member of the SS, and picked out groups in concentration camps to work for him as slaves.
Dr. Eugen Haagen, once wrote this letter on Nov. 15, 1943: “Of the 100 prisoners you sent me, 18 died in transport... Only 12 are in a condition suitable for my experiments. I therefore request that you send me another 100 prisoners, between 20 and 40 years of age, who are healthy and in a physical condition comparable to soldiers. Heil Hitler.”
Many of those former Nazis helped America in the coming years, have been honored as upstanding American citizens, with their pasts long forgotten.