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It is not fair to assume that the allies used amphetamine just because an American pharmaceutical company was the first to market it commercially. It was not d

It is not fair to assume that the allies used amphetamine just because an American pharmaceutical company was the first to market it commercially. It was not developed by "the allies". Amphetamine was first synthesized in 1887 in Germany by Romanian chemist Lazăr Edeleanu who named it phenylisopropylamine.

AstralStorm 10y ago
Except it was a standard piece in a long range pilot package for a long, long time. (replaced only very recently) Ground troops were not issued due to cost. Allies did not have the chemical factories to make it cheap. They would be using the drugs on large scale if it was possible. Hitler's doctor-driven abuse is well documented. The side effects of long term use were not yet that well known.
- jacob019 10y ago
  America would have had no problem mass producing amphetamine, it's much easier to make amphetamine than to enrich Uranium-235. It's quite a leap to assume that the allied troops would have all been on drugs if they could have been.
- Someone 10y ago
  "Ground troops were not issued due to cost" "Medical Science and the Military: The Allies' Use of Amphetamine during World War II" (http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/JINH_a_00212 http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/JINH_a_00212): "Although amphetamine was thoroughly tested by leading scientists for its effects in boosting or maintaining physical and mental performance in fatigued subjects, the results never provided solid grounds for approving the drug's use, and, in any case, came too late to be decisive. The grounds on which amphetamine was actually adopted by both British and American militaries had less to do with the science of fatigue than with the drug's mood-altering effects, as judged by military men. It increased confidence and aggression, and elevated “morale.”" I'm not sure whether that agrees or disagrees with what you say, and the article proper is paywalled. With that caveat, I read it as if they knew about it and were willing to use it, but didn't find the right mix (?yet?) to warrant large scale use. My guess is that the fact that they were winning the war also made them a bit more scrupulous in deploying it than the nazis were.
- dogma1138 10y ago
  Allies won the war because of manufacturing, the US simply out produced Germany at 10 to 1 and even higher ratios. I don't see any evidence that the US pharmaceutical industry wasn't unable to produce performance enhancing drugs at scale if they wanted too. Nazi ideology fits pretty well with performance enhancing drugs, they wanted to create the ubermench.

AstralStorm 10y ago

Except it was a standard piece in a long range pilot package for a long, long time. (replaced only very recently) Ground troops were not issued due to cost. Allies did not have the chemical factories to make it cheap. They would be using the drugs on large scale if it was possible. Hitler's doctor-driven abuse is well documented. The side effects of long term use were not yet that well known.

jacob019 10y ago
America would have had no problem mass producing amphetamine, it's much easier to make amphetamine than to enrich Uranium-235. It's quite a leap to assume that the allied troops would have all been on drugs if they could have been.
Someone 10y ago
"Ground troops were not issued due to cost" "Medical Science and the Military: The Allies' Use of Amphetamine during World War II" (http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/JINH_a_00212 http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/JINH_a_00212): "Although amphetamine was thoroughly tested by leading scientists for its effects in boosting or maintaining physical and mental performance in fatigued subjects, the results never provided solid grounds for approving the drug's use, and, in any case, came too late to be decisive. The grounds on which amphetamine was actually adopted by both British and American militaries had less to do with the science of fatigue than with the drug's mood-altering effects, as judged by military men. It increased confidence and aggression, and elevated “morale.”" I'm not sure whether that agrees or disagrees with what you say, and the article proper is paywalled. With that caveat, I read it as if they knew about it and were willing to use it, but didn't find the right mix (?yet?) to warrant large scale use. My guess is that the fact that they were winning the war also made them a bit more scrupulous in deploying it than the nazis were.
dogma1138 10y ago
Allies won the war because of manufacturing, the US simply out produced Germany at 10 to 1 and even higher ratios. I don't see any evidence that the US pharmaceutical industry wasn't unable to produce performance enhancing drugs at scale if they wanted too. Nazi ideology fits pretty well with performance enhancing drugs, they wanted to create the ubermench.