Top 10 Discoveries The Government Hid From the Public

The Space Race between the US and the Soviet Union resulted in the unfortunate deaths of several animals, but the most famous was Laika. The adorable dog was found on the streets of Moscow as a stray and recruited to the space program. Scientists knew she would perish on her voyage to space, and one even took her home before her tragic mission so she could experience a bit of peace. Laika became the first animal to orbit the Earth in 1957. The government hid Laika’s cause of death from the public, making it seem like she passed from oxygen depletion or was euthanized. However, in 2002, it was revealed that Laika passed due to overheating mere hours into the trip. Fly high, sweet pup.

As one of the most powerful people in the world, the President of the United States has special clearance and access to hidden documents. However, as “The New York Times” reported in 2012, the President can also keep a top-secret document of their own. Interviews with several former and current advisors uncovered President Obama’s process for approving top targets that were unknown to the general public. The list was filled with known and suspected terrorists of varying backgrounds, and the President took it upon himself to personally oversee counterterrorism efforts. While President Obama took a more direct approach than most other Presidents, the discovery does shine light on the power and secrecy of the Oval Office.

The mysterious cryptid colloquially called Nessie is the subject of much debate. Although it has been the subject of folklore for centuries, Loch Ness Monster Mania reached a fever pitch after the now-debunked Surgeon’s Photograph was released in 1934. In 2010, previously hidden documents revealed that Scottish police once made moves to find the creature and protect it from hunters. In the 1930s, police officers requested help from Britain’s Parliament to confirm the Loch Ness Monster’s existence. Local officials worried that if the creature was found by monster hunters, it would be destroyed or seriously injured. Although the documents were hidden for decades, they showed how far the officers were willing to go to protect Nessie and give new hope to cryptozoologists around the world.

Scientists studying radioactive elements carried out experiments to test their effects in controlled conditions on at least thirty human subjects between 1945 and 1947. The civilians were each injected with americium, plutonium, polonium and uranium at four different hospitals around the United States. Researchers studied various samples from the test subjects to determine how long radioactive material remained in the body and how much was needed to damage various organs. The experiments and their findings were kept under wraps for decades, but the Department of Energy finally released detailed reports in 1995. Although all of the subjects had sadly passed away, their families received compensation from the federal government.

As the US and the Soviet Union emerged as global superpowers after World War II and entered the Cold War, the US developed a top-secret intelligence program called Operation Paperclip. Between 1945 and 1959, the United States government took in more than 1,600 scientists formerly employed by Nazi Germany, including former leaders in the Nazi Party. These scientists made discoveries and developed technology for their former enemies, especially in the fields of aeronautics and rocketry. Additionally, the United States employed leaders of the nightmarish Unit 731 of Japan for biological warfare research in exchange for immunity. The scientists’ pasts were swept under the rug, even after their deaths, and many of them completely evaded any consequences tied to their crimes against humanity.

Chemical warfare is horrifying enough, but using damaging substances on your own soldiers is almost unthinkable. During World War II, 60,0000 United States soldiers were subjected to tests to discover the effects of mustard gas and lewisite. The soldiers were exposed to the chemical agents in a variety of ways, but they all resulted in significant damages, for which the soldiers did not receive medical care. To add an even more diabolical level to the experiments, the soldiers were divided into groups based on race to supposedly test the effects of mustard gas on different skin colors. The soldiers who underwent these terrible experiments were sworn to secrecy and could not reveal the effects of the tests for decades afterward.

#4: Project MKUltra 1953-73

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Mind Control: Project MK-Ultra Explained

Methods of extracting confessions can range from mild to mortifying, and this top-secret human experimentation project by the United States CIA definitely tipped the scales to the latter. Between 1953 and 1973, the CIA carried out a series of mind control experiments on thousands of people to discover the effects of hypnosis, torture, abuse and psychoactive drugs such as LSD. During one particular experiment called Operation Midnight Climax, the agency set up brothels in San Francisco and studied the combined effects of sex and drugs behind one-way mirrors. Despite the CIA’s attempts to destroy evidence in the wake of Watergate, Project MKUltra and many of its atrocities and findings eventually came to light.

From Area 51 to Soviet astronomers calling for investigations into UFOs in the 1960s, unidentified flying objects have a not-so-secret past with many of the world’s governments. According to documents released in 2010, Winston Churchill apparently ordered that reports of UFO sightings and encounters be covered up during World War II. During one incident, a Royal Air Force bomber crew encountered and photographed a hovering metallic UFO. Churchill allegedly even went a step further and had the documents covered up for at least fifty years to avoid creating mass panic. Unfortunately, many first-hand accounts were destroyed before they could be declassified, creating even more mystery.

During the 1950s and 1960s, the US government conducted several experiments on its own citizens to discover the impacts of biological warfare. In 1950, the US Navy carried out Operation Sea-Spray by spraying bacteria two miles off the coast of San Francisco to study how a city of its size would respond to bioweapon attacks. The Navy believed the particular bacteria they used could not harm humans. However, several Bay Area citizens suffered from serious urinary tract infections due to the experiment, with one patient even passing away after three weeks of suffering. Despite the deadly consequences of Operation Sea-Spray, the experiment and its impact were hidden until 1976.

As we’ve discussed, the US government has carried out quite a few unethical studies and experiments on its own citizens, but this is the most horrifying of them all. Between 1932 and 1972, the CDC and the US Public Health Service conducted a study on hundreds of African Americans who had syphilis under the guise of providing healthcare. The officials hid the patients’ syphilis diagnoses from them and withheld known effective treatments such as penicillin, causing massive devastation over the decades. News of the study finally broke in 1972, causing it to finally be terminated. By the time the study ended, more than 100 people died, dozens more had been infected and at least 19 children were born with congenital syphilis.