Sex Bombs

Declassified documents reveal that the Pentagon spent six years and $11 million to develop an aphrodisiac chemical weapon in 1994. This "sex bomb" would make enemy soldiers irresistible to each other. The weapon's developers said that widespread homosexual behavior among troops would deal a "distasteful but completely non-lethal" blow to morale.

In 1967, in order to build up public interest in an upcoming antiwar demonstration at the Pentagon, Abbie Hoffman invented an imaginary new drug, a sexual equivalent to the police tear gas, Mace. It was christened "Lace," supposedly a combination of LSD and DMSO that, when applied to the skin, would be absorbed into the bloodstream and act as an instantaneous aphrodisiac. Lace was actually Shapiro's Disapper-O from Taiwan. When sprayed, it left a purple stain, then vanished.

A press conference was called at Hoffman's apartment, where Lace could be observed in action. I was supposed to be a reporter accidentally sprayed with Lace. To my surprise, I would put down my notepad, take off my clothes and start making love with a beautiful redhead who had also gotten accidentally sprayed, along with another deliberately sprayed couple, right there on a mattress on the living-room floor, while the journalists took notes.

I was really looking forward to this combination of media event and blind date. Even though the sexual revolution was at its height, there was something exciting about knowing in advance I was guaranteed to get laid-although I felt somewhat guilty about attempting to trick fellow reporters. But there was a scheduling conflict. I was already committed to speak at a literary conference at the University of Iowa on that same day. So instead Abbie asked me to buy some cornmeal there, to be used in encircling the Pentagon as a pre-levitation rite.

In Iowa, novelist Robert Stone drove me to a farm.

"I'd like to buy some cornmeal to go."

"Coarse or fine?" the farmer asked. I glanced at Stone for advice.

"Since it's for a magic ritual," he said, "I would definitely recommend coarse."

I flew back to New York with a 13-pound sack of coarse cornmeal properly stored in the overhead rack. Meanwhile, the Lace story was reported in the New York Post, the New York Daily News and Time magazine, perpetuating the promise that three gallons of Lace would be brought to Washington, along with a large supply of plastic water pistols, so that Lace could be sprayed on police and the National Guard at the Pentagon demonstration, causing them to make love, not war.

The guy who substituted for me in that accidental sexual encounter with the beautiful redhead at the press conference ended up living with her.