In 1948, Dr. Douglas M. Kelley recommended that the U.S. needed formal medical procedures to screen malign people from reaching political office. Dr. Kelley would be the guy to know: a former army psychiatrist, he had conducted psychiatric evaluations of the top German political and military leaders held for trial at Nuremberg on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity after World War II. He gave two reasons the screenings would be beneficial to the American people:
- “There are at times grandiose characters in important governmental positions who have abnormal drives and their actions make life unbearable for other people and for society in general,” Kelley said. “If they get too much power, mental tests would uncover incipient Hitlers.”
- “Politicians are human and just as subject to mental diseases as anyone else.”
Kelley added that the psychiatrists who examine political aspirants should also undergo evaluation, “as psychiatrists have the same problems as the politicians.”
