When the United States Experimented with Syphilis in Guatemala

The year was 1946. World War II had just come to a close, and U.S. soldiers were finally returning home from the Pacific and European theaters. But there was one problem. Many U.S. soldiers had contracted STDs while fighting overseas, and this represented a serious problem, not only for the military, but also the civilian population as a whole. In fact, by 1947, it was estimated that approximately 350,000 soldiers were infected with venereal disease, representing the neutralization of two entire armed divisions, and $34 million in losses. In today's money, that would be worth almost half a billion dollars. The United States urgently needed to find an effective treatment for venereal diseases like syphilis, and their solution was simple. Experiment on innocent Guatemalan citizens, purposefully infecting them with syphilis without their consent. But how could the United States possibly get away with such a crime? How was this even legal? Perhaps more importantly, why was taxpayer money used to carry out such an unethical experiment? The more you learn about this shocking aspect of military history, the more disturbing it gets. First, let's examine why the United States would choose a country like Guatemala as a base for syphilis experiments. Why not Mexico, Belize, or any other Central American nation? Throughout history, the United States has enjoyed a strong presence in Guatemala. The United Fruit Company had a track record of creating authoritative governments in this nation, effectively squeezing the locals for all they were worth in the name of corporate profit. By the 20th century, the United Fruit Company had established a monopoly over the banana trade in Guatemala, and was described as a state within a state. Of course, the Guatemalan people realized their nation was being taken over by this corporation, and in 1920, they overthrew the US-friendly government. Immediately, the American military sent in an armed force to ensure that the new president continued to play by their rules. After the Great Depression, Guatemala was ruled by a brutal dictator who admired fascist leaders like Hitler and Mussolini. In 1994, the dictator was overthrown, and Guatemala became a liberal democracy with a minimum wage. The United States immediately became suspicious of this new government, and it was at this moment that they decided to conduct their syphilis experiments in 1946. Five years after the end of the syphilis experiments, the CIA engaged in psychological warfare and political action against the new Guatemalan government of Operation PB Success. By 1954, the CIA had successfully toppled the Guatemalan government, installing a new military director who would remain friendly to the US, and perhaps more importantly, the United Fruit Company. It was the first in a series of US-installed dictators, and from that point on, Guatemala faced four decades of civil war, oppression, and genocide. So were the syphilis experiments part of a larger operation to weaken the Guatemalan people? Was this connected in any way to the psychological warfare operation conducted by the CIA prior to the coup? There is no direct evidence for that. However, the Guatemalan political situation in 1946 provides context for the syphilis experiments, and it shows that this nation was essentially an enemy of the United States at this point in time. This is probably why the United States chose Guatemala specifically. If the syphilis experiments damaged lives and weakened communities in Guatemala, it would only benefit their later plans to stage a coup and install their own dictator. 1,308 Guatemalan individuals were involved in this experiment. They were mostly sex workers, prisoners, soldiers, and mental hospital patients. Essentially, scientists simply inject people with syphilis, sit back, and observe the results. One of the most famous accounts is as follows. Berta was a female patient in the psychiatric hospital. In February of 1948, Berta was injected in her left arm with syphilis. A month later, she developed scabies, an itchy skin infection caused by a mite. Several weeks later, Dr. Cutler noted that she had also developed red bumps where he had injected her arm, lesions on her arms and legs, and her skin was beginning to waste away from her body. Berta was not treated for syphilis until three months after her injection. Soon after, on August 23rd, Dr. Cutler wrote that Berta appeared as if she was going to die, but he did not specify why. That same day, he put gonorrheal pus from another male subject in both of Berta's eyes, as well as in her urethra and rectum. He also infected her with syphilis. Several days later, Berta's eyes were filled with pus from the gonorrhea, and she was bleeding from her urethra. Three days later, on August 27th, Berta died. Some of the women were apparently suffering from epilepsy, and they were taken from their mental hospital and injected with syphilis. For some reason, the researchers thought it would be a good idea to inject the syphilis directly below the back of the skull. The logic was that these injections might somehow cure their epilepsy. The end result was severe bacterial meningitis for these unsterile injections. One victim says she was playing with a friend at her orphanage when she was summoned to the infirmary. She was only nine years old when the doctors injected her with the disease. She was then treated, but the penicillin failed to cure the disease. For years, Guatemalan doctors didn't know how to treat her. She eventually went on to have five children, 20 grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren. Another soldier was infected with the disease despite the fact that he was illiterate and clearly didn't know what was going on. He later developed infections, dementia, and headaches as a result. The official aim of the study was to see whether penicillin would cure syphilis, as this was a relatively new drug with unknown capabilities. However, penicillin was administered far too late in many cases, and approximately 83 people died over the course of the study. It is not clear whether these individuals died because of exposure to the disease or whether they died after being inoculated. The aim of this study may have been to test the capabilities of penicillin, but it was carried out in a highly unprofessional and unethical way. For example, researchers like John Charles Cutler actually paid prostitutes who carried the disease to have relations with prisoners in many cases. Not only did they infect people with syphilis, but they also intentionally exposed them to gonorrhea and cankeroid. The average age of the test subjects was about 20 years old. Many were not even aware they were being infected, and many never actually gave their consent. The study featured very little transparency. This was, of course, intentional, since it wouldn't have been legal if it had been conducted on U.S. soil. Although these experiments ended in 1948, seriology studies actually continued until 1953, the eve of the U.S.-led coup. These seriology studies continued to target vulnerable populations, such as children in state-run schools, orphanages, and rural villages. And of course, the United States continued to infect people with STDs for years after this study, perhaps most notably with the Tuskegee experiments, which continued all the way until 1972. Later, a commission revealed that only 700 people were actually treated after being intentionally injected. This means that almost half of these patients had no chance of recovering, and they were simply observed by scientists who made no attempt to cure them, even though they were fully capable of administering an effective treatment. Many of the survivors of this study are still alive. Unfortunately, the initial victims went on to infect many other individuals in Guatemala, and some believe that hundreds of children and grandchildren may have been infected with syphilis by the initial parents. Many of the victims are now attempting to sue the U.S. government, seeking compensation for their However, these lawsuits have encountered significant issues. In 2012, a class action lawsuit was dismissed without ever being heard, with the court writing, quote, have the ability to grant some modicum of relief to those affected by the Guatemala study. These political branches of the government have provided no relief to the victims. In 2015, a federal judge dismissed a $1 billion lawsuit filed against John Hopkins University for their complicitness in the experiments. The United States publicly apologized for the incident in 2010, and Guatemala considers it a crime against humanity. Many lawsuits have been filed, but none have been successful. Most recently, a U.S. district judge rejected an argument that the Supreme Court was shielding foreign corporations from lawsuits in the United States. The case was also dismissed by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2019. In truth, the Guatemalan syphilis experiments are just one example of unethical research in a long line of similar incidents throughout U.S. history. Today, human experimentation like this would be completely unacceptable. But who knows what's really going on behind the scenes? Perhaps unethical human experiments continue to this day, and they're simply kept out of public view. One thing is for sure, the syphilis experiments in Guatemala highlight the complete disregard the United States has shown for smaller nations throughout the world. Many other countries have suffered similar levels of humiliation and degradation for the sake of American interests. We would do well to remember that the next time we style ourselves as the defenders of democracy in the free world.