Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) - History Of Usage And Proliferation

The use of gases, poisons, and toxins by states at war can be traced back centuries. As Table 3.1 shows, chemical and biological weapons have a long history dating back to the fifth century B.C.

One of the first people to contemplate the use of biological weapons in North America was Lord Jeffrey Amherst. Amherst was the commanding general of British forces in North America during the final battles of the French and Indian War (1754–63). Carl Waldman's Atlas of the North American Indian (New York: Facts on File, 1985) describes a siege at Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh) by the forces of Native American leader Chief Pontiac during the summer of 1763. Amherst sent a letter to another British officer, encouraging him to send smallpox-infected blankets and handkerchiefs to the Indians surrounding the fort in an effort to start an epidemic. Although there were epidemics of smallpox among some of the Indian tribes in the area, it is uncertain if such a plan was executed or if the smallpox was related to this early proposal of "germ warfare."

Still, the transformation of biological, chemical, and nuclear agents into weapons of mass destruction (WMD) is a relatively recent phenomenon in the history of warfare. What exactly is a weapon of mass destruction? Several definitions exist. Some analysts include only nonconventional chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) weapons in this category. According to the U.S. Code, Title 5, "War and National Defense," a WMD is "any weapon or device that is intended, or has the capability, to cause death or serious bodily injury to a significant number of people through the release, dissemination, or impact of (A) toxic or poisonous chemicals or their precursors; (B) a disease organism; or (C) radiation or radioactivity."

However, several other policy analysts and experts look at WMDs more broadly. Conventional weapons capable of creating widespread casualties or "mass destruction" are also classified as WMD. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, for instance, in "The FBI and Weapons of Mass Destruction," August 1999, stated that a "weapon of mass destruction (WMD), though typically associated with nuclear/radiological, chemical, or biological agents, may also take the form of explosives, such as in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in 1995. A weapon crosses the WMD threshold when the consequences of its release overwhelm local responders." For the purpose of this text, WMD shall hereafter solely refer to CBRN weapons and their delivery systems.

It was not until World War I (1914–18) that WMD were first used strategically in a battlefield environment to inflict massive casualties. On April 22, 1915, the German army released chlorine gas from cylinders in Ypres, Belgium, causing at least 2,800 casualties. The British retaliated later that year, using the same gas against German troops. In total, about 124,000 tons of chemical weapons were used by all sides during World War I.

Japan made use of chemical and biological weapons while fighting in China and Manchuria before and during World War II (1939–45). World War II also saw the introduction of nuclear weapons, when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. After World War II, the use and stockpiling of WMD continued. The ensuing cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union witnessed an alarming buildup of WMD arsenals and the spread of WMD capabilities to such nations as the United Kingdom (1952) and France (1960).

Though the timeline in Table 3.1 ends in 1998, several additional deployments of WMD have occurred since. In 1998 the United States bombed sites in Iraq that allegedly contained WMD. Between 1998 and 2001 several anthrax hoaxes and actual attacks were launched by various individuals

TABLE 3.1

Chronology of biological and chemical weapons use and control, 429 B.C.–1998
CW: Chemical Weapons Use
BW: Biological Weapons Use
SOURCE: Adapted from "Chronology of State Use and Biological and Chemical Weapons Control," in Chemical and Biological Weapons Resource Page, Center for Nonproliferation Studies, October 24, 2001, http://cns.miis.edu/research/cbw/pastuse.htm, (accessed September 23, 2004)
429 B.C. - Spartans ignite pitch and sulphur to create toxic fumes in the Peloponnesian War (CW) 424 B.C. - Toxic fumes used in siege of Delium during the Peloponnesian War (CW) 960-1279 A.D. - Arsenical smoke used in battle during China's Sung Dynasty (CW) 1346-1347 - Mongols catapult corpses contaminated with plague over the walls into Kaffa (in Crimea), forcing besieged Genoans to flee (BW) 1456 - City of Belgrade defeats invading Turks by igniting rags dipped in poison to create a toxic cloud (CW) 1710 - Russian troops allegedly use plague-infected corpses against Swedes (BW) 1767 - During the French and Indian Wars, the British give blankets used to wrap British smallpox victims to hostile Indian tribes (BW) April 24, 1863 - The U.S. War Department issues General Order 100, proclaiming "The use of poison in any manner, be it to poison wells, or foods, or arms, is wholly excluded from modern warfare" July 29, 1899 - "Hague Convention (II) with Respect to the Laws and Customs of War on Land" is signed. The Convention declares "it is especially prohibited… To employ poison or poisoned arms" 1914 - French begin using tear gas in grenades and Germans retaliate with tear gas in artillery shells (CW) April 22, 1915 - Germans attack the French with chlorine gas at Ypres, France. This was the first significant use of chemical warfare in WWI (CW) September 25, 1915 - First British chemical weapons attack; chlorine gas is used against Germans at the Battle of Loos (CW) 1916-1918 - German agents use anthrax and the equine disease glanders to infect livestock and feed for export to Allied forces. Incidents include the infection of Romanian sheep with anthrax and glanders for export to Russia, Argentinian mules with anthrax for export to Allied troops, and American horses and feed with glanders for export to France (BW) February 26, 1918 - Germans launch the first projectile attack against U.S. troops with phosgene and chloropicrin shells. The first major use of gas against American forces (CW) June 1918 - First U.S. use of gas in warfare (CW) June 28, 1918 - The United States begins its formal chemical weapons program with the establishment of the Chemical Warfare Service (CW) 1919 - British use Adamsite against the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War (CW) 1922-1927 - The Spanish use chemical weapons against the Rif rebels in Spanish Morocco (CW) June 17, 1925 - "Geneva Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare" is signed - not ratified by U.S. and not signed by Japan 1936 - Italy uses mustard gas against Ethiopians during its invasion of Abyssinia (CW) 1937 - Japan begins its offensive biological weapons program. Unit 731, the biological weapons research and development unit, is located in Harbin, Manchuria. Over the course of the program, at least 10,000 prisoners are killed in Japanese experiments (BW) 1939 - Nomonhan Incident - Japanese poison Soviet water supply with intestinal typhoid bacteria at former Mongolian border. First use of biological weapons by Japanese (BW) 1940 - The Japanese drop rice and wheat mixed with plague-carrying fleas over China and Manchuria (BW) 1942 - U.S. begins its offensive biological weapons program and chooses Camp Detrick, Frederick, Maryland as its research and development site (BW) 1942 - Nazis begin using Zyklon B (hydrocyanic acid) in gas chambers for the mass murder of concentration camp prisoners (CW) December 1943 - A U.S. ship loaded with mustard bombs is attacked in the port of Bari, Italy by Germans; 83 U.S. troops die in poisoned waters (CW) April 1945 - Germans manufacture and stockpile large amounts of tabun and sarin nerve gases but do not use them (CW) May, 1945 - Only known tactical use of biological weapons by Germany. A large reservoir in Bohemia is poisoned with sewage (BW) September, 1950-February, 1951 - In a test of biological weapons dispersal methods, biological simulants are sprayed over San Francisco (BW) 1962-1970 - U.S. uses tear gas and four types of defoliant, including Agent Orange, in Vietnam (CW) 1963-1967 - Egypt uses chemical weapons (phosgene, mustard) against Yemen (CW) June, 1966 - The United States conducts a test of vulnerability to covert biological weapons attack by releasing a harmless biological simulant into the New York City subway system (BW) November 25, 1969 - President Nixon announces unilateral dismantlement of the U.S. offensive biological weapons program (BW) February 14, 1970 - President Nixon extends the dismantlement efforts to toxins, closing a loophole which might have allowed for their production (BW) April 10, 1972 - "Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction" (BWC) is opened for signature 1975 - U.S. ratifies Geneva Protocol (1925) and BWC 1975-1983 - Alleged use of Yellow Rain (trichothecene mycotoxins) by Soviet-backed forces in Laos and Kampuchea. There is evidence to suggest use of T-2 toxin, but an alternative hypothesis suggests that the yellow spots labeled Yellow Rain were caused by swarms of defecating bees (CW) 1978 - In a case of Soviet state-sponsored assassination, Bulgarian exile Georgi Markov, living in London, is stabbed with an umbrella that injects him with a tiny pellet containing ricin (BW) 1979 - The U.S. government alleges Soviets use of chemical weapons in Afghanistan, including Yellow Rain (CW) April 2, 1979 - Outbreak of pulmonary anthrax in Sverdlovsk, Soviet Union. In 1992, Russian president Boris Yeltsin acknowledges that the outbreak was caused by an accidental release of anthrax spores from a Soviet military microbiological facility (BW) August, 1983 - Iraq begins using chemical weapons (mustard gas), in Iran-Iraq War (CW) 1984 - First ever use of nerve agent tabun on the battlefield, by Iraq during Iran-Iraq War (CW) 1985-1991 - Iraq develops an offensive biological weapons capability including anthrax, botulium toxin, and aflatoxin (BW) 1987-1988 - Iraq uses chemical weapons (hydrogen cyanide, mustard gas) in its Anfal Campaign against the Kurds, most notably in the Halabja Massacre of 1988 (CW) September 3, 1992 - "Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction" (CWC) approved by United Nations April 29, 1997 - Entry into force of CWC 1998 - Iraq is suspected of maintaining an active CBW program in violation of the ceasefire agreement it signed with the UN Security Council. Baghdad refuses to allow UNSCOM inspectors to visit undeclared sites (CW/BW)

and organizations. Media organizations including NBC and the Washington Post, government offices in the U.S. State Department, the White House, congressional offices, U.S. post offices, and abortion clinics across the country were targeted. Anthrax exposure, infection, and even deaths resulted from some of the attacks on media organizations and in post offices where anthrax-laced mail was handled. Intelligence and homeland security planners must assume that this type of weapon will continue to be used intermittently in the future.