United States Use of Biological Warfare*

Abstract

The ability to engage in biological warfare is, today, a reality. Hand-to-hand fighting is the oldest surviving means of combat. As guns using black powder were not invented until early in the 14th Century, biological warfare may be the second oldest means. Primitive forms of biological warfare are recorded as facts of that century. Biological warfare is not a stranger to the American continent. European traders reportedly gave the blankets of smallpox victims to the Indians in North America during the colonial days in an effort to reduce their fighting strength. More than a century later, during World War I, German agents in the United States sent disease to Europe by infecting animals shipped there. The United States’ alliances with other states that are adherents to the Geneva Gas Protocol add another problematical element. The untested nature of biological warfare adds a third problematical element.

Topics & Concepts