PREFACE 
in Guatemala through a National Institute of Health grant funded by the 
PHS Venereal Disease Division and its VDRL, which later became part of 
the CDC. 13 The Commission sought documents from several government 
agencies, including the U.S. Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. 
Documents were requested from the government of Guatemala as well, 
though none were received. 14 
In total, the Commission reviewed more than 125,000 pages of original 
records. It collected tens of thousands of pages of relevant archival records 
and examined more than 550 published sources. The Commission focused 
its review on the period between 1935 and 1956, starting 10 years before the 
first known planning for the Guatemala experiments began and continuing 
through the year after Dr. Cutler finalized his last retrospective report on 
the experiments. Collected documents and publications are maintained in 
the Commission’s archives. These records will be provided to the National 
Archives for future researchers. 
With the passage of over six decades, the evidence available to document 
the events is limited. Moreover, much of the available information was 
written retrospectively by Dr. Cutler years after the experiments were actually 
conducted. Some of these retrospective accounts include inaccurate data or 
incomplete descriptions of experiments. The documentary evidence is in some 
cases scattered and incomplete. This Commission report was prepared, and 
should be read, with an awareness of the inherent limitations of fact finding 
based in large part on one person’s recollections, particularly those of one who 
played a primary role in the research. 15 
At the outset of the Commission’s investigation, Commission Chair Amy 
Gutmann and Commission Executive Director Valerie Bonham met with 
Vice President Rafael Espada of Guatemala, and they shared their respec- 
tive plans to lose no time in undertaking thorough investigations to be made 
public. 16 Several Commission staff members later traveled to Guatemala in 
May 2011 to meet with the separate commission charged by the government 
of Guatemala to investigate the experiments and to visit the Central American 
Archives in Guatemala City and relevant historical sites. 17 
When the Commission began its inquiry, all agreed that — judging from what 
they had learned to date — the intentional exposure research conducted in 
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