Postscript: Political Science
341
The incentive came from elsewhere. In 1982 a former chief of naval
research, with whom I'd made friends because of our common interest in
spinal cord regeneration, told me the Navy had protested the closing of
the lab. He said it had been a deliberate action coming from some level
higher than the VA, NIH, or NAS. Somewhere the decision was made
to "shut this guy up," he said, but he wanted me to know that he and
the Navy had had no part in it. At one point during the struggle, Andy
Marino got a call from a minor official in the VA. He said, "Listen,
we're under an awful lot of pressure here to shut you fellows off. Can't
you just back off a little bit, stop saying all these things, just sort of
downgrade that public hearing you're involved with?" This was the rea-
sonable approach—"We're only trying to help you"—so Andy spent
some time sympathizing with this guy's position. Then when he finally
asked him, "Where are you getting the pressure from?" Andy got an
answer: "Mostly from DOD."
At about the same time I received a clear message about what was
going on from one of the scientists from the "other side," one of those
who were doing a lot of well-funded work for the military but publish-
ing little. During a recess in a scientific meeting, I encountered him in
an empty lobby. Glancing over his shoulder, he drew me aside to the
windows and told me my only trouble was that I was going public. He
said he and all the rest of us knew there were nonthermal effects and
hazards, but we had to keep it quiet. I replied that if no one "went
public," the situation could never be corrected and a lot of people would
suffer needlessly. He told me that was no concern of mine and predicted
my attitude would ruin my career. Well, I could only agree with him on
the last point. I agreed that it probably already had, but at least I had a
clear conscience.
Rather than sit and wait for the executioner, I tried the back door. I
sent a detailed merit-review proposal, the kind filed by beginning re-
searchers, to a newly established section on rehabilitation research. In-
stead of applying through VACO, however, I routed it through the VA
regional office in Boston.
While I was waiting for a reply, I had to fend off another attack.
Before testifying at the PSC hearings, I'd notified my supervisor. With a
VA lawyer present, he'd told me in person that this was just the kind of
thing the VA wanted to fulfill its public obligations, and he even sent
me a letter to that effect. Then, just after I appeared on 60 Minutes and
talked about Sanguine, power lines, and the rigging of the NAS com-
mittee, I heard the va Personnel Office was investigating me for engag-
ing in nonapproved work - the testimony - on government
time.
I'd
gone to the hearings at my own expense to attack a public health prob-