Hamblin 2

problems with using human/animal/plant diseases as a weapon?

• how to control the spread of the disease to not affect your own people
• how destructive is it going to be in your future interests to be
• total war: not just the battlefield but also industrial productivity,
  
• it is going to take a lot of expensive research to develop and produce
• what is the best use of the military budget
• how important is military capacity--in cold war very important so Congress was willing to fund it
• chemical, biological or nuclear--which do you prioritize?
• goal of biological weapons against crops was to harm the economy--the target is civilians
• most specifically targeted--this was an advantage to military planners
  

• also trying to figure out how to integrate biological weapons into war plans
• the policy of "retaliation only" (no first use) was debated but kept
• but biological weapons were seen as necessary for a future total war

research into how to spread plant diseases, for example using birds or bird feathers

leaflet bomb that could be used for bird feathers
it takes scientific study to figure out how to spread disease effectively

evaluating agents of human disease

• how rapidly would they incapacitate people--for soldiers you want an effect within 24 hours
  
• how many people would be incapacitated per pound of material
  
• how expensive would it be to produce
• how long would people be incapacitated
• would the epidemic spread beyond the target area

specific context of the Korean war

• racist attitudes
• limited war within the cold war context

idea to spread radioactive waste between North and South Korea

• but disease would not be immediate
• commanders might not care that their soldiers were being exposed to disease-causing levels of radiation

Was biological warfare used in the Korean War?

• the diseases and the conditions for their spread were already present
• the US was accused of dropping insects to spread disease, which didn't make much sense in winter
• many different diseases were spreading, while a military effort would be more focused
• a few prominent European scientists were convinced by Chinese and Korean evidence
• clearly the Soviets and Chinese mounted a major propaganda campaign to accuse the US of using biological weapons
• Hamblin concludes the evidence of US use was very weak
• the controversy got a lot of attention because it could be done (even though it wasn't in this case)

How could people think these things?

• the cold war really did feel like a clash of civilizations
• and that total war was close