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Chronology of State Use and Biological and Chemical Weapons Control

• 429 B.C. [CW] - Spartans ignite pitch and sulphur to create toxic fumes in the Peloponnesian War.[1]

• 424 B.C. [CW] - Toxic fumes used in siege of Delium during the Peloponnesian War.[2]

• 960-1279 A.D. [CW] - Arsenical smoke used in battle during China's Sung Dynasty.[3]

• 1346-1347 [BW] - Mongols catapult corpses contaminated with plague over the walls into Kaffa (in Crimea), forcing besieged Genoans to flee.[4]

• 1456 [BW] - City of Belgrade defeats invading Turks by igniting rags dipped in poison to create a toxic cloud.[5]

• 1710 [BW] - Russian troops allegedly use plague-infected corpses against Swedes.[6]

• 1767 [BW] - During the French and Indian Wars, the British give blankets used to wrap British smallpox victims to hostile Indian tribes.[7]

• April 24, 1863 [LF] - The US War Department issues General Order 100, proclaiming "The use of poison in any manner, be it to poison wells, or foods, or arms, is wholly excluded from modern warfare."[8]

• July 29, 1899 [LF] - "Hague Convention (II) with Respect to the Laws and Customs of War on Land" is signed. The Convention declares "it is especially prohibited... To employ poison or poisoned arms."[9]

• 1914 [CW] - French begin using tear gas in grenades and Germans retaliate with tear gas in artillery shells.[10]

• April 22, 1915 [CW] - Germans attack the French with chlorine gas at Ypres, France. This was the first significant use of chemical warfare in WWI.[11]

• September 25, 1915 [CW] - First British chemical weapons attack; chlorine gas is used against Germans at the Battle of Loos.[12]

• 1916-1918 [BW] - German agents use anthrax and the equine disease glanders to infect livestock and feed for export to Allied forces. Incidents include the infection of Romanian sheep with anthrax and glanders for export to Russia, Argentinian mules with anthrax for export to Allied troops, and American horses and feed with glanders for export to France.[13]

• February 26, 1918 [CW] - Germans launch the first projectile attack against U.S. troops with phosgene and chloropicrin shells. The first major use of gas against American forces.[14]

• June 1918 [CW] - First U.S. use of gas in warfare.[15]

• June 28, 1918 [CW] - The United States begins its formal chemical weapons program with the establishment of the Chemical Warfare Service.[16]

• 1919 [CW] - British use Adamsite against the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War.[17]

• 1922-1927 [CW] - The Spanish use chemical weapons against the Rif rebels in Spanish Morocco.[18]

• June 17, 1925 [LF] - "Geneva Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare" is signed - not ratified by U.S. and not signed by Japan.[19]

• 1936 [CW] - Italy uses mustard gas against Ethiopians during its invasion of Abyssinia.[20]

• 1937 [BW] - Japan begins its offensive biological weapons program. Unit 731, the BW research and development unit, is located in Harbin, Manchuria. Over the course of the program, at least 10,000 prisoners are killed in Japanese experiments.[21]

• 1939 [BW] - Nomonhan Incident - Japanese poison Soviet water supply with intestinal typhoid bacteria at former Mongolian border. First use of biological weapons by Japanese.[22]

• 1940 [BW] - The Japanese drop rice and wheat mixed with plague-carrying fleas over China and Manchuria.[23]

• 1942 [BW] - U.S. begins its offensive biological weapons program and chooses Camp Detrick, Frederick, Maryland as its research and development site.[24]

• 1942 [CW] - Nazis begin using Zyklon B (hydrocyanic acid) in gas chambers for the mass murder of concentration camp prisoners.[25]

• December 1943 [CW] - A U.S. ship loaded with mustard bombs is attacked in the port of Bari, Italy by Germans; 83 U.S. troops die in poisoned waters.[26]

• April 1945 [CW] - Germans manufacture and stockpile large amounts of tabun and sarin nerve gases but do not use them.[27]

• May, 1945 [BW] - Only known tactical use of BW by Germany. A large reservoir in Bohemia is poisoned with sewage.[28]

• September, 1950-February, 1951 [BW] - In a test of BW dispersal methods, biological simulants are sprayed over San Francisco.[29]

• 1962-1970 [CW] - U.S. uses tear gas and four types of defoliant, including Agent Orange, in Vietnam.[30]

• 1963-1967 [CW] - Egypt uses chemical weapons (phosgene, mustard) against Yemen.[31]

• June, 1966 [BW] - The United States conducts a test of vulnerability to covert BW attack by releasing a harmless biological simulant into the New York City subway system.[32]

• November 25, 1969 [BW] - President Nixon announces unilateral dismantlement of the U.S. offensive BW program.[33]

• February 14, 1970 [BW] - President Nixon extends the dismantlement efforts to toxins, closing a loophole which might have allowed for their production.[34]

• April 10, 1972 [LF] - "Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction" (BWC) is opened for signature.[35]

• 1975 [LF] - U.S. ratifies Geneva Protocol (1925) and BWC.[36]

• 1975-1983 [CW] - Alleged use of Yellow Rain (trichothecene mycotoxins) by Soviet-backed forces in Laos and Kampuchea. There is evidence to suggest use of T-2 toxin, but an alternative hypothesis suggests that the yellow spots labeled Yellow Rain were caused by swarms of defecating bees.[37]

• 1978 [BW] - In a case of Soviet state-sponsored assassination, Bulgarian exile Georgi Markov, living in London, is stabbed with an umbrella that injects him with a tiny pellet containing ricin.[38]

• 1979 [CW] - The U.S. government alleges Soviets use of chemical weapons in Afghanistan, including Yellow Rain.[39]

• April 2, 1979 [BW] - Outbreak of pulmonary anthrax in Sverdlovsk, Soviet Union. In 1992, Russian president Boris Yeltsin acknowledges that the outbreak was caused by an accidental relase of anthrax spores from a Soviet military microbiological facility.[40]

• August, 1983 [CW] - Iraq begins using chemical weapons (mustard gas), in Iran-Iraq War.[41]

• 1984 [CW] - First ever use of nerve agent tabun on the battlefield, by Iraq during Iran-Iraq War.[42]

• 1987-1988 [CW] - Iraq uses chemical weapons (hydrogen cyanide, mustard gas) in its Anfal Campaign against the Kurds, most notably in the Halabja Massacre of 1988.[43]

• 1985-1991 [BW] - Iraq develops an offensive biological weapons capability including anthrax, botulium toxin, and aflatoxin.[44]

• September 3, 1992 [LF] - "Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction" (CWC) approved by U.N..[45]

• April 29, 1997 [LF] - Entry into force of CWC.[46]

• 1998 [CW/BW] - Iraq is suspected of maintaining an active CBW program in violation of the ceasefire agreement it signed with the UN Security Council. Baghdad refuses to allow UNSCOM inspectors to visit undeclared sites.[47]

2. Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War 4, ch. 100; Hersh, Chemical and Biological Warfare, 4.

3. Hersh, Chemical and Biological Warfare, 3; Paul Halsall, Course Reading on Chinese Dynastic History for Brooklyn College (http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/core9/phalsall/texts/chinhist.html).

4. United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), "Medical Defense Against Biological Warfare Agents Course: History of Biological Warfare" Encyclopedia of Bioethics, 2545.

5. Hersh, Chemical and Biological Warfare, 4.

6. USAMRIID, "History of Biological Warfare."

7. Encyclopedia of Bioethics, 2545; USAMRIID, "History of Biological Warfare."

8. War Department, General Order 100, 1863.

9. League of Nations, "Hague Convention (II) with Respect to the Laws and Customs of War on Land," July 29, 1899 (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/lawofwar/hague02.htm); Encyclopedia of Bioethics, 2544.

10. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), The Problem of Chemical and Biological Warfare, vol. 1, The Rise of CB Weapons (Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell, 1971), 131-2; Hersh, Chemical and Biological Warfare, 6.

11. This should more correctly be termed the first use of lethal gases in World War I. Hersh, Chemical and Biological Warfare, 5-6; Donald Richter, Chemical Soldiers: British Gas Warfare in World War I (Lawrenceville, University Press of Kansas, 1992), 16.

12. Richter, Chemical Soldiers, 61.

13. LTC George W. Christopher, USAF, MC; LTC Theodore J. Cieslak, MC, USA; MAJ Julie A. Pavlin, MC, USA; COL Edward M. Eitzen, Jr, MC, USA; "Biological Warfare: A Historical Perspective," Journal of the American Medical Association 278, no. 5 (August 6, 1997): 413; USAMRIID, "History of Biological Warfare."

14. Though American troops were exposed to gas during earlier attacks, this offensive was important because it was the first use of projected shells targeted directly at U.S. forces. MAJ(P) Charles E.Heller, "Chemical Warfare in World War I: The American Experience, 1917-1918," Leavenworth Papers no. 10 (Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, September, 1984), 76; Hersh, Chemical and Biological Warfare, 5.

15. MAJ(P) Heller, "Chemical Warfare: The American Experience," 87; Hersh, Chemical and Biological Warfare, 5.

16. United States Army, Soldier and Biological Chemical Command Web Site, "History" (http://www.sbccom.army.mil/sbccom/au_history.html). Though the U.S. chemical weapons program began prior to the end of WWI, very little of the stockpiles produced in the United States arrived in Europe in time to be used in battle. Most of the chemicals that the United States used in combat were produced by other Allied nations. SIPRI, The Rise of CB Weapons, 47, n. 3, 51, n. 2.

17. Thomas, A. No. 1: Effects of Chemical Warfare: A selective review and bibliography of British state papers (Taylor & Francis: London, 1985); SIPRI, The Rise of CB Weapons, 141.

18. Kunz, Rudibert and Muller, Rolf-Dieter, "Giftgas gegen Abd el Krim. Deutschland, Spanien und der Gaskrieg in Spanisch-Marokko 1922-1927," (Rombach: Freiburg im Breisgau: 1990); Groehler, Olaf, "Der Lautose Tod. Einsatz und Entwicklung deutscher Giftgase von 1914 bis 1945," (Rowohlt: Reinbek bei Hamburg: 1978, re-issued 1989).

19. Encyclopedia of Bioethics, 2544; U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, "States Parties To The Protocol For The Prohibition of the Use In War Of Asphyxiating, Poisonous Or Other Gases, And Of Bacteriological Methods Of Warfare, Done At Geneva June 17, 1925" (hhttp://www.state.gov/www/global/arms/treaties/geneva1.html).

20. Encyclopedia of Bioethics, 2544; Hersh, Chemical and Biological Warfare, 7; SIPRI, The Rise of CB Weapons, 142-5.

21. LTC Christopher et al, "Biological Warfare," 413; USAMRIID, "History of Biological Warfare."

22. Hal Gold, Unit 731 Testimony (Tokyo: Yenbooks), 64.

23. Encyclopedia of Bioethics, 2545; USAMRIID, "History of Biological Warfare."

24. Hersh, Chemical and Biological Warfare, 11; USAMRIID, "History of Biological Warfare."

25. SIPRI, The Rise of CB Weapons, 155-6; The History Place, "Holocaust Timeline" (http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/timeline.html#1942); Eugen Kogon, The Theory and Practice of Hell: The German Concentration Camps and the System Behind Them, trans. Heinz Norden (New York: Berkley Books, 1980) 139; quoted in Richard J. Green, "The Chemistry of Auschwitz" in The Holocaust History Project Web Site (May 10, 1998), (http://www.holocaust-history.org/).

26. Hersh, Chemical and Biological Warfare, 7 see footnote.

27. Hersh, Chemical and Biological Warfare, 8-9; Encyclopedia of Bioethics, 2544.

28. LTC Christopher et al, "Biological Warfare," 413.

29. LTC Christopher et al, "Biological Warfare," 413.

30. National Institute for Science Education, The Why Files, "Agent Orange Revisited" (http://whyfiles.news.wisc.edu/025chem_weap/dioxin.html).

31. Encyclopedia of Bioethics, 2544; Hersh, Chemical and Biological Warfare, 282-287; SIPRI, The Rise of CB Weapons, 159-161, 336-341. This incident is sometimes referred to as the first use of nerve gases, but according to SIPRI p. 159-161, these reports are unsubstantiated.

32. Leonard A. Cole, Clouds of Secrecy: The Army's Germ Warfare Tests over Populated Areas (Savage, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1990), 65-69; USAMRIID, "History of Biological Warfare."

33. USAMRIID, "History of Biological Warfare."

34. USAMRIID, "History of Biological Warfare."

35. U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, "Fact Sheet: Biological Weapons Convention" (November 12, 1996) (http://www.state.gov/www/global/arms/treaties/bwc1.html).

36. Encyclopedia of Bioethics, 2546.

37. Testimony of Kenneth Adelman before Congress, Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations and Committee on Governmental Affairs, Subcommittee on Energy, Nuclear Proliferation, and Government Processes, Chemical Warfare: Arms Control and Nonproliferation, 98th Cong., 2nd sess., June 28, 1984, 8; Cole, Clouds of Secrecy, 107-19; Julian Robinson, Jeanne Guillemin, Matthew Meselson, "Yellow Rain: The Story Collapses," Foreign Policy 68 (Fall, 1987): 100-17; USAMRIID, "History of Biological Warfare."

38. USAMRIID, "History of Biological Warfare." Though ricin is prohibited under the BWC as a toxin, it is also a chemical compound as classified under the Schedule 1 list of prohibited chemicals of the CWC, see Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Web Site, "A List of Schedule 1 Chemicals" (http://www.opcw.nl/cwc/schedul1.htm).

39. Testimony of Kenneth Adelman, Chemical Warfare: Arms Control and Nonproliferation, 8; USAMRIID, "History of Biological Warfare."

40. Encyclopedia of Bioethics, 2546; Al J. Venter, "Sverdlovsk Outbreak: a Portent of Disaster," Jane's Intelligence Review 10, no. 5 (May 1998): 36-39; Ian Hoffman, "Piece Found In Anthrax Mystery: Lab Sheds Light on Russian Leak," Albuquerque Journal, February 3, 1998 ; USAMRIID, "History of Biological Warfare."

41. Encyclopedia of Bioethics, 2544; Federation of American Scientists Web Page, GulfLink Collection, CIA Document, "CW Use in Iran-Iraq War" (July 2, 1996) (http://www.fas.org/irp/gulf/cia/960702/72566_01.htm).

42. Federation of American Scientists Web Page, "CW Use in Iran-Iraq War" (http://www.fas.org/irp/gulf/cia/960702/72566_01.htm).

43. Encyclopedia of Bioethics, 2544; Physicians for Human Rights Web Site, "Research and Investigations: Chemical Weapons" (http:/http://www.phrusa.org/research/chemical_weapons/index.html); U.S. Department of State, Office of the Spokesman, Press Statement by James P. Rubin, Spokesman, "Anniversary of the Halabja Massacre" (March 16, 1998) (http://secretary.state.gov/www/briefings/statements/1998/ps980316a.html); Peter Sawchyn, "Scientist Details Effects of Chemical Attack on Iraqi Kurds (Evidence shows long-term genetic damage to Halabja residents)," USIS Washington File, April 27, 1998 (.

44. Raymond A. Zilinskas, "Iraq's Biological Weapons: The Past as Future?," Journal of the American Medical Association 278, no. 5 (August 6, 1997): 418; USAMRIID, "History of Biological Warfare."

45. Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Web Site, "Introduction to the Chemical Weapons Convention" (http://www.opcw.nl/guide.htm#introduction).

46. Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Web Site, "Introduction to the Chemical Weapons Convention" (http://www.opcw.nl/guide.htm#introduction).

47. United Nations, United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM), "Latest Six-Monthly Report" (April 16, 1998) (http://www.un.org/Depts/unscom/sres98-332.htm).

Last updated: 10/2001

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