Chemical and Biological Warfare: America's Hidden Arsenal

by Seymour M. Hersh

"This comprehensive and thoroughly documented investigation of chemical and biological warfare (CBW) and America's prominence in the field is one of those rare books that will make news as well as report it. For the author has lifted the lid of secrecy from this controversy-charged, closely guarded subject to allow public scrutiny for the first time..."

—inside cover, 1968

Genres: History, Politics, The United States Of America, Nonfiction

354 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Seymour (Sy) Myron Hersh is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and author based in Washington, D.C. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine on military and security matters. He has also won two National Magazine Awards and is a "five-time Polk winner and recipient of the 2004 George Orwell Award."

He first gained worldwide recognition in 1969 for exposing the My Lai Massacre and its cover-up during the Vietnam War, for which he received the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. His 2004 reports on the US military's mistreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison gained much attention.

Reviews

[David Steece, Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrifying. Hersh's thoroughly researched and cited examination of the "Weapon Nobody Dares Talk About" (as one of CBW's staunchest advocates describes chemical & biological warfare) is utterly damning in its indictment of America's leading role in the development and exploitation of a weapon that is literally the stuff of nightmares.

The basic outlines of that story, once it quickly reaches the 20th century, are that the Germans used gas first in WWI, but that a few months later the US struck back and proceeded to gas thousands of Huns during the rest of the conflict. FDR promised only to use CBW if someone else used it first, altho there was much R&D during the second WW, with the Nazis being the first to discover the holy grail of gas warfare—the nerve gases. The Japanese also developed extensive biological warfare facilities, with some rumors (later denied or downplayed by the US) of their use. After the war America confiscated the Nazi gas, recruited German and Japanese scientists, and busily set about developing the world's largest, most lethal CBW arsenal, in the process kickstarting a highly rushed, secretive arms race that incentivized shoddy work and laboratory techniques, that one former top CBW researcher described as "pure crap." Secret bases popped up across the country, testing deadly germs and gases on military volunteers, occasionally poisoning a field or accidentally sterilizing a forest, always with a few mysterious cases of pneumonic plague or anthrax reported here-and-there. These secret bases & labs then hooked up with the mulitiversity into a behemoth Corporate-CBW-Research Complex, with boards of directors and college boards incestuously competing for fat government contracts to research CBW...for defense...defense. Always for defense. Of course the best defense is a good offense, so America has had to perfect delivery systems and munitions in order to rain their deadly concoctions down upon unsuspecting communists with the utmost devastation. Lest we lose our "credibility."

There's much more to this important book. Its well written and interesting and macabrely beautiful, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in war, US history, or international relations.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you see this book, grab it! There are a few places online where it can be found, but for the most part it seems to be suppressed or just went through a very small printing run.

This book covers everything from the essential details of actual biological and chemical agents, to where in the US they are made and tested, and also the biological attacks the UN found the US guilty of (many) during hte Korean war, what colleges had secret research contracts with the DOD in the 60's, and more (bats with bombs!)

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

A terrifying glimpse into what has happened in this field and ultimately, what is still happening regardless if we are told it is or not. This book needs to be more widespread.