Chemical Warfare
& Weaponry - Page 3
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Chemical warfare during The Cold War
After
World War II, the Allies recovered
German artillery shells
containing the three German nerve agents of the day (tabun, sarin, and
soman) prompting further research into nerve agents by all of the
former Allies. Although although the threat of global thermonuclear
annihilation was formost in the minds of most during the Cold War, both
the Soviet and Western governments put enormous resources into
developing chemical and biological
weapons.
A UN working
group began work on chemical disarmament in 1980. On April
4, 1984 U.S. President Ronald Reagan called for an international ban on
chemical weapons. U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Soviet Union
leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed a bilateral treaty on June 1, 1990 to
end chemical weapon production and start destroying each of their
nation's stockpiles. The multilateral Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC)
was signed in 1993 and came into effect in 1997.
Developments by
the Western governments
In 1952,
researchers in Porton Down, England
invented the VX nerve
agent, but soon abandoned the project. In 1958 the British government
traded their VX technology with the United States of America in
exchange for information on thermonuclear weapons; by 1961 the US was
producing large amounts of VX, and performing its own nerve agent
research. This research produced at least three more agents; the four
agents (VE, VG, VM, VX) are collectively known as the "V-Series" class
of nerve agents.
Between 1967 and
1968, the U.S. decided to dispose of obsolete chemical
weapons in an operation called Operation CHASE, which stood for "cut
holes and sink 'em." CHASE disposal operations also included several
shiploads of conventional munitions. As the name implies, the weapons
were put aboard old Liberty ships that were sunk at sea.
During the 1960s,
the U.S. explored the use of psychedelic
incapacitating agents. One of these agents, assigned the weapon
designation BZ, was allegedly used in the Vietnam War.
In 1969, 23 U.S.
servicemen and one U.S. civilian stationed in Okinawa,
Japan were exposed to low levels of nerve agent sarin while repainting
the depots' buildings. The weapons had been kept secret from Japan,
sparking a furor in Japan and an international incident. These
munitions were moved in 1971 to Johnston Atoll under Operation Red Hat.
Developments by
the Soviet government
Due to the
secrecy of the former Communist
regime of the Soviet Union,
very little information was available about the direction and progress
of the Soviet chemical weapons until relatively recently. After the
fall of the Soviet Empire, a Russian chemist named Vil Mirzayanov
publishing articles that revealed illegal chemical weapons
experimentation in Russia. In 1993, Mirzayanov was imprisoned and fired
from his job at the State Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and
Technology, where he had worked for 26 years. In March of 1994, after a
major campaign by U.S. scientists on his behalf, Mirzayanov was
released.
Among the
information related by Vil Mirzayanov was the direction of
the Soviet research into nerve agents toward the development of even
more toxic agents, which saw most of its success during the mid-1980s.
Several highly toxic agents were developed during this period; the only
unclassified information regarding these agents is that they are known
in the open literature only as "Foliant" agents (named after the
program under which they were developed) and by various code
designations, such as A-230 and A-232.
According to
Mirzayanov, the Soviets also developed agents that were
safer to handle, leading to the development of the so-called binary
weapons, in which precursors for the nerve agents are mixed in a
munition to produce the agent just prior to its use. Because the
precursors are generally significantly less hazardous than the agents
themselves, this technique makes handling and transporting the
munitions a great deal simpler. Additionally, precursors to the agents
are usually much easier to stabilize than the agents themselves, so
this technique also made it possible to increase the shelf life of the
agents a great deal. During the 1980s and 1990s, binary versions of
several Soviet agents were developed, and are designated as "Novichok"
agents (after the Russian word for "newcomer").
Chemical warfare
in the Iran-Iraq War
The
Iran-Iraq War began in 1980 when Iraq
attack Iran. Early in the
conflict Iraq began to employ mustard gas and tabun delivered by bombs
drop from airplanes. Approximately 5% of all Iranian casualties are
attributable directly to the use of these agents. Iraq and the United
States government alleged that Iran was also using chemical weapons,
but independent sources were unable to confirm these allegations.
Shortly after war
ended in 1988, the Iraqi Kurdish village of Halabja
was exposed to multiple chemical agents, killing about 5,000 of the
town's 50,000 residents. After the incident, traces of mustard gas, and
the nerve agents sarin, tabun and VX were discovered. While it appears
that Iraqi government forces are to blame, some debate continues over
the question of whether Iraq was really the responsible party, and
whether this was a deliberate or accidental act. (see Halabja poison
gas attack).
During the
Persian Gulf War in 1991, Coalition forces began a ground
war in Iraq. Despite the fact that they did possess chemical weapons,
Iraq did not use any chemical agents against coalition forces. The
commander of the Allied Forces, Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, suggested
this may have been due to Iraqi fear of retaliation with nuclear
weapons.
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