In 1994, the National Air and Space Museum completed an exhibition script titled “The Crossroads: The End of World War II, the Atomic Bomb, and the Origins of the Cold War.” Over the next year, this script, and the versions following it, would generate one of the greatest controversies the Smithsonian ever experienced.
The United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and another on Nagasaki three days later.
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The Sting Me/Attack Me Bomb
The gay bomb wasn’t the only strange idea that the military considered. While these ideas were never realized, they still raise important questions about the ethical boundaries of military research. In the years leading up to the 50th anniversary of these attacks, National Air and Space Museum director Martin Harwit and curators Tom Crouch and Michael Neufeld imagined an exhibition that would provide a balanced look at the bombings.
Initially, it was believed that this addition would be more sympathetic to the Americans, but there were significant disagreements about the anticipated number of American casualties if the war had continued without the use of the atomic bombs.
By the end of January 1995, the Air Force Association and the American Legion had both called for the cancellation of the exhibit.
Media outlets and the public were both baffled and amused by the concept.
Other weapons that never saw the light of day include one to make soldiers obvious by their bad breath.
At the time, it was one of the key players in developing innovative weapons.
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“The Ohio Air Force lab proposed that a bomb be developed that contained a chemical that would cause enemy soldiers to become gay, and to have their units break down because all their soldiers became irresistibly attractive to one another,” reported Edward Hammond of bioweapon activist group the Sunshine Project.
However, researchers concluded that the premise for such a device was fatally flawed because "people in many areas of the world do not find faecal odour offensive, since they smell it on a regular basis". This is where the concept of the gay bomb comes in.
Wright Laboratory, located in Ohio, was responsible for drafting this peculiar proposal.
Concerns in the United States Congress were expressed as early as September 1994 and only grew with threats of hearings, budget reductions, and calls for Harwit's resignation. Known as the “gay bomb,” this proposal was investigated with the intention of disrupting enemy forces in a non-lethal way. Let’s have a closer look at the details.
“The department of defence is committed to identifying, researching and developing non-lethal weapons that will support our men and women in uniform.”
The Fallout and Public Reaction
Naturally, this idea faced a lot of skepticism from experts.
In a variation on that idea, researchers pondered a "Who?
Another idea was to develop a chemical causing "severe and lasting halitosis", so that enemy forces would be obvious even when they tried to blend in with civilians. Me?”, aimed to make soldiers simulate flatulence, hoping the foul smells would distract and demoralize enemy forces.
Believe it or not, the U.S. military actually explored this concept as a legitimate plan. Many scientists agree that sexual orientation and behavior cannot be influenced by chemicals in such a simple way.
“The idea that you could submit someone to some aerosol spray and change their sexual behavior is ludicrous.”
Aaron Belkin, director of the Michael Palm Center at the University of California.
Once these documents were released, they caused quite a stir.