The modern history of biological warfare started in 1918 when the Japanese formed a special section of their army dedicated to biological warfare. The thought at the time was that "Science and technology were the keys to winning the war and biological warfare was the most cost effective." In 1941, Japanese planes sprayed bubonic plague over parts of China, and at least 5 separate instances of this occurring were documented. In 1942 the Japanese deployed "bacterial bombs" on mainland China, and released thousands of plague infested rats with unknows consequences. In this same year, the United States became aware of the Japanese efforts and decided to start it's own biological warfare program. Great Britain developed a program that introduced anthrax spores which were used with conventional bombs only on test sites, which had a devestating effect.
The U.S. were accused in 1956, during the cold war, of using biological weapons in Korea, which caused the former Soviet Union to threaten future use of chemical and biological weapons. This threat caused the U.S. to back off their offensive approach and focus more on their defensive strategy in case the Soviet Union were serious. Aside from a few allegations, the U.S.S.R. have kept relatively quiet in their use of biological weapons, however in 1979 there was an explosion in a plant in Sverdlosk and an outbreak of anthrax followed. In 1992, president Boris Yeltsin confirmed that anthrax was being researched, and vowed to stop all Soviet research. This reamains a debateable issue based on the word of Soviet defectors.
The most recent concern has come from developing countries. During the Persian Gulf War to liberate Kuwait, U.S. troops were immunized against anthrax because Saddam Hussein was known to have a biological warfare program. |
