Anthropology Goes to War ─ Professional Ethics & Counterinsurgency in Thailand

In April 1970 a major controversy over anthropological ethics erupted at the annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies. Activists from the Student Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam circulated the corridors of the San Francisco Hilton handing out copies of confidential documents taken from the office files of Professor Michael Moerman, a UCLA anthropologist specializing in Thailand. Detailing the involvement of prominent social scientists in U.S. counterinsurgency operations, the documents sparked outrage within an academic community already polarized by the Vietnam War. In this first comprehensive study of the controversy, Eric Wakin provides its key documents and dramatic moments. Although the controversy has, after 20 years, subsided, the ethical issues raised in this debate remain relevant for all those who do field research in the social sciences.