Truman’s Guatemalan Mistake
October 5, 2010
You've probably heard the news that from 1946 to 1948, American public health doctors deliberately infected nearly 700 Guatemalans - mostly prison inmates, mental patients and soldiers - with venereal diseases. The experiment was meant to test the effectiveness of penicillin.
American tax dollars paid for much of this through the national institutes of health. The program included pay for prostitutes infected with syphilis to sleep with prisoners.
The American government has apologized to Guatemala, but do you know what's missing from this story? What's missing is who was president and what party he represented at the time. The president was Harry Truman, a Democrat.
You can safely bet that if a Republican had been president, that fact would have been in the lead. But it is absent from the press coverage I read.
One other thing, just to bring some perspective. Which is the greater evil: infecting 700 Guatemalans with a venereal disease, or refusing to stop the mass murder through abortion of 50 million American babies? Just asking.
Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C.
Originally published October 05, 2010.
