I was surprised that Ann Finkbeiner did not mention the JASONs' involvement in the war in Vietnam in the 1960s, in which they were far from independent (Nature 477, 397–399; 2011).

The JASONs, a secretive group of US defence science advisers, bought the Pentagon line that the problem was infiltration from North Vietnam. They proposed laying a carpet of anti-personnel weapons across the entire demilitarized zone, including gravel and spider mines, button bomblets, and nail and cluster bombs. The US military replaced the 2.5-centimetre metal flechettes in the nail bombs with sharp slivers of plastic that Vietnamese physicians could not locate with X-rays.

As one critic said shortly before the war ended (D. Shapley Science 179, 459–505; 1973), the JASONs were “totally unaware that they're just being used by some little, puddin'-headed guy in the Pentagon”.