Combat Arms 2869 Grove Way Castro Valley, California 94546-6709 Telephone (415) 538-6544 BBS: (415) 537-1777 March 9, 1991 A HISTORY OF BIO-CHEMICAL WARFARE By Zoltan Grossman The following material appeared in a message in the ANEWS Echo. It provides a chronology of the use of chemical weapons. This material is interesting but should be researched further before believing all of it. Generally, though, the material appears mostly valid. Richard Bash -Your SysOp- -=-=-=-=-=-=- 400 BC Spartan Greeks use sulphur fumes against enemy soldiers. 1346 AD Tartars catapult plague-infected corpses into Italian trade settlement. 1800s Blankets infected with smallpox used against American Indians. 1907 Hague Convention outlaws chemical weapons; U.S. does not participate. 1914 World War I begins; poison gas produces 100,000 deaths, 900,000 injuries. 1920s Britain uses chemical weapons in Iraq "as an experiment" against Arab nationalists seeking independence; Winston Churchill "strongly" backs the use of "poisoned gas against uncivilized tribes." 1925 Geneva Protocol prohibits gas and bacteriological warfare; most countries that ratify it prohibit only the first use of such weapons. 1935 Italy begins conquest of Abyssinia (Ethiopia), uses mustard gas. 1937 Japan invades China, using chemical arms, infected fleas on small scale. 1939 World War II begins; no one uses bio-chemical arms, retaliation feared. 1941 U.S. enters World War II; President Roosevelt pledges U.S. won't be first to use bio-chemical weapons. 1945 Japanese military discovered to have conducted biological warfare experiments on POWs, with 3000 killed. U.S. shields officers in charge from war crimes trials, in return for data. 1947 U.S. possesses germ warfare weapons; President Truman withdraws Geneva Protocol from Senate consideration. 1949 U.S. dismisses Soviet trials of Japanese for germ warfare as "propaganda." Army begins secret tests of biological agents in cities. 1950 Korean War begins; North Korea and China accuse U.S. of germ warfare--charges still not proven. San Francisco disease outbreak matching Army bacteria used on city. 1951 African-Americans exposed to potentially fatal stimulant in Virginia test of race-specific fungal weapons. 1956 Army manual explicitly states that bio-chemical warfare is not banned. 1959 House resolution against first use of bio-chemical weapons is defeated. 1962 Chemical weapons loaded on U.S. planes in Cuban missile crisis. 1966 Army germ warfare experiment in New York City subway system. 1969 Utah chemical weapons accident kills thousands of sheep; President Nixon bans further production. UN General Assembly bans use of herbicides (plant killers) and tear-gasses in warfare. U.S. one of three votes against; U.S. has caused tear-gas fatalities in Vietnamese tunnels. 1971 U.S. ends direct use of herbicides such as Agent Orange; had spread over Indochina forests, and destroyed at least six percent of South Vietnamese cropland, enough to feed 600,000 people for a year. Swine fever virus kills half-million pigs in Cuba; virus tied to U.S. 1972 Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention. 1974 U.S. finally ratifies 1925 Geneva Protocol. 1975 Indonesia annexes East Timor; planes spread herbicides on croplands. 1980 U.S. intelligence officials allege Soviet chemical use in Afghanistan while admitting "no confirmation." 1981 U.S. accuses Vietnam and allies of using mycotoxins (fungal poisons) in Laos, Cambodia. Later analysis reveals "yellow rain" to be bee feces. Israel bombs Iraqi nuclear reactor, leading to Iraqi decision to make chemical weapons. 1984 UN confirms Iraq using mustard and nerve gasses against Iranian "human wave" attacks; State Department issues mild condemnation, yet restores diplomatic relations with Iraq, and opposes UN action against Iraq. Bhopal fertilizer plant accident in India kills 2000; shows risks of chemical plants being damaged in warfare. 1986 U.S. resumes open-air testing of biological agents. 1987 Senate ties in three votes on resuming production of chemical weapons; Vice President Bush breaks all three ties in favor of resumption. 1988 Iraq uses chemical weapons against Kurdish minority in Halabjah; U.S. continues to maintain agricultural credits with Iraq; President Reagan blocks congressional sanctions on Iraq. 1989 Paris conference of 149 nations condemns chemical weapons; urges quick ban to emerge from Geneva treaty negotiations; U.S. revealed to plan poison gas production even after treaty signed. 1990 U.S. and USSR pledge to reduce chemical weapons stockpiles to 20 percent of current U.S. supply by 2002; and to eliminate poison gas weapons when all nations have signed future Geneva treaty. Israel admits possession of chemical weapons; Iraq threatens to use chemical weapons on Israel if it is attacked. 1991 U.S. bombs at least 28 alleged bio-chemical production or storage sites in Iraq, including fertilizer and other civilian plants; CNN reports "green flames" from one chemical plant, and the deaths of 50 Iraqi troops from anthrax after air strike on another site; New York Times quotes Soviet chemical weapons commander as saying hits on Iraqi chemical weapons would have "little effect beyond neighboring villages," but that strikes on biological weapons could spread disease "to adjoining countries"; Egyptian doctor reports outbreak of strange disease in Iraq. Compiled from articles in Z magazine by Steven Shalom and Noam Chomsky (February, 1991)