The Nation: No One Told Them

If there is a family in the U.S. with a just grievance against the CIA, it is the Olsons of Frederick, Md. The widowed mother, her married daughter and two grown sons felt compelled last week to call a press conference in the backyard of the mother's rural home to talk about what they had endured. They wanted everyone to know how an agency of their Government had driven Frank R. Olson —the man they knew as husband and father—to commit suicide, and then left them for 22 years to wonder why.

In 1953 Olson was a civilian biochemist employed by the...