Gerald Klee, 86
Gerald D. Klee, a retired psychiatrist and LSD expert who participated in experiments with the hallucinogenic drug on volunteer servicemen at U.S. military installations in the 1950s, has died. He was 86.
Klee said soldiers from military posts around the country were brought to the Edgewood Arsenal and Aberdeen Proving Ground installations in Maryland to participate in experiments involving various drugs and chemical warfare agents, of which the hallucinogens were a small part.
"They were mostly enlisted men — there were a few commissioned officers — but they were mostly unlettered and rather naive," Klee said. "Now the people knew they were volunteering, the bonus was leave time — seeing their girlfriends and mothers and that kind of thing. They had a lot of free time, and most of them enjoyed it."
Klee said he and his colleagues from the university tried to explain to the volunteers what to expect.
"They were told it was very important to national security," he said in the Evening Sun interview.
Before the experiments commenced, Klee experimented with LSD.
"I figured that if I was going to study this stuff, then I've got to experience it myself," he told the newspaper. "I felt obliged to take it for experimental reasons and also because I didn't think it would be fair to administer a drug to someone else that I hadn't taken myself."
The LSD was slipped into cocktails at a party in the soldiers' honor. While this approach garnered criticism, Klee said the Army and civilian researchers acted responsibly.
"I was there and I didn't like it, but thought I might be of help to the victims," Klee told the Washington Post in the 1975 interview.
The civilian team quickly learned about those who had experienced "bad trips." He said he did not know of any lasting ill effects on the soldiers but added that university researchers followed the cases only during their month stay at Edgewood.
His four marriages ended in divorce. Survivors include five children, Kenneth A. Klee, of South Orange, N.J., Brian D. Klee of Waterford, Conn., Susan E. Klee of Chevy Chase, Louise E. Klee of Takoma Park and Sheila G. Klee of New York City; a brother; and 11 grandchildren.