Medical Aspects of Chemical Warfare (2008) - The Black Vault

Medical Aspects of Chemical Warfaremultipurpose drug, used in psychiatric hospitals eitherto treat schizophrenics or to produce “model psychoses”in normal volunteers. 16 The Central IntelligenceAgency also became involved with LSD beginningin 1951, 17 leading to serious damage to the agency’sreputation when the use was uncovered during several1977 Congressional investigations.The head of the US Army Chemical Corps, MajorGeneral William Creasy, recognized the military potentialof LSD. Creasy persuaded Congress 18 that LSDcould quickly disable an enemy force, yet not destroylives, describing a floating cloud of LSD that coulddisable everyone in the area for several hours withoutserious aftereffects. Creasy stated that the Soviet Unionwas spending 10 times as much as the United States onchemical weapons research and was no doubt alreadyusing LSD in covert operations. He recommendedtripling the funding of Chemical Corps research anddevelopment, especially for evaluation of the militarypotential of LSD as an NLW. This request was endorsedby an almost unanimous vote, leading to an elaborateincapacitating agent research program.LSD testing by both civilian contractors and atEdgewood Arsenal, Maryland (1955–1960), showedLSD’s effects to be disturbingly unpredictable. However,military testing continued from 1961 to 1966 tocomplete LSD’s characterization by various routes,evaluate treatment methods, and develop a sensitiveassay technique to aid in diagnosis. Just as LSD testingwas ending, the Edgewood program was reinvigoratedby Hoffmann-LaRoche, Inc, who gave the ChemicalCorps permission to study its patented compound,3-quinuclidinyl benzilate. 19 (A similar “incapacitatingagent” was deployed by the Soviet Union even before1960. In 1959, the Soviets attempted to poison 1,248 employeesof Radio Free Europe, covertly mixing atropinewith table salt in the cafeteria. A US agent foiled theplan. 20,21 ) The Edgewood program received additionalsupport under the “blue skies” policy, first announcedby President Eisenhower and later supported by PresidentKennedy, which brought many new personneland funding for facilities and equipment.Possible Methods of incapacitationNonchemical MethodsAfter considering virtually every possible chemicaltechnique for producing military incapacitation, andrejecting many as too toxic or unmanageable, investigatorsat the Edgewood Arsenal clinical laboratoriesexamined dozens of potentially disabling but reasonablysafe substances between 1953 and 1973. Althoughdrugs that predominantly affected the central nervoussystem soon became of primary interest and receivedthe most intensive study, development of nonchemicaldevices and techniques, protective garments, andantidotes to existing agents, as well as physician trainingfor medical management of agent effects, wereimportant objectives as well.Nonpharmacological materials and techniquespotentially capable of reducing an enemy’s militarycompetence were also developed in related programsthat continued after volunteer testing of chemicalagents was terminated in 1973. The most significantof these developments are listed below.Auditory MethodsSeveral devices that produce loud or unpleasantsounds have been designed, but most have not beentested in volunteers, and none have been deployed.Some critics consider incapacitation produced by directedsound energy devices to be inhumane because nonecan be guaranteed not to produce injury. 22,23 (Becausethey involve nonmedical systems, these devices willnot be further discussed in this chapter.)Microwave DevicesIn the late 1960s several animal studies of microwaveeffects produced reversible incapacitation. 24Use of LightAnother proposed incapacitation modality useshigh-intensity photostimulation adjusted to oscillateat certain frequencies calibrated to impair visualperception and concentration. 25 Laser light in the ultravioletspectrum gained brief interest, but was soonjudged impractical, and further light use has not beenpursued.Olfactory DevicesThe notion of producing incapacitation through“olfactory assault” was briefly explored in the 1960s.Various obnoxious odors, such as those produced byderivatives of skatole (an excretory chemical) were initiallythought aversive enough to impair military performance.Obnoxious odors have actually been tried as tacticalweapons, but their effectiveness remains in doubtbecause masks that attenuate such odors would reduce414