The military has long exposed soldiers to toxic fumes and carcinogens. The most recent case, of massive open-air "burn pits" in Iraq and Afghanistan—where human waste was burned along with medicine, batteries, and car parts—was treated by the government much in the same way as previous cases: Denial via obfuscation of data and faulty science.

During World War II, anticipating another "chemical war" like WWI, the military tested substances such as mustard gas and lewisite on tens of thousands of soldiers.

This was first revealed in the early '90s, after afflicted veterans made enough noise to begin an inquiry. But it wasn't until last year, revealed by an NPR investigation, that the military tested out a theory that black and Puerto Rican people might be more "resilient" to chemical agents, and therefore better-suited to the front lines of a chemical war. So it tested American troops by race, and often by coercion. 

Naturally, though promises were made in the '90s that the VA would find and treat the soldiers who'd been tested, NPR discovered that it had reached out to just 610 of the victims, and treated even fewer.

This line is perhaps the most damning in the whole report: "Yet in just two months, an NPR research librarian located more than 1,200 of them, using the VA's own list of test subjects and public records."