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

History of Chemical Warfarethe Army recommended reducing the Chemical Corpsin size and eventually merging it with the OrdnanceCorps. As the first step, the Army disestablished thechemical school at Fort McClellan and combinedit with the ordnance school at Aberdeen ProvingGround. Congress, however, blocked the completedisestablishment of the corps. 168–171 Still, one observernoted: “As an additional ordnance career field, thechemical specialty almost withered and died atAberdeen.” 171(p15)Yom Kippur WarThe Arab-Israeli Yom Kippur War lasted only fromOctober 6 to October 24, 1973, but it brought chemicalwarfare preparedness back to public attention andits ramifications for the US chemical program lastedmuch longer. Egypt had several years to stockpile andincrease its arsenal to plan an attack on Israel involvingchemical weapons. Syria, Egypt’s ally in the war,began stockpiling a chemical arsenal, receiving sarinfrom Egypt in 1972. The Egyptian and Syrian attackagainst Israel on Yom Kippur and the successful Israelicounterattacks ended with a ceasefire. Both sidestook enormous losses in personnel and equipment.However, chemical weapons were not employed byeither side.Following the war, the Israelis analyzed the Sovietmadeequipment they captured from the Egyptiansand Syrians. They discovered portable chemical-proofshelters, decontamination equipment for planes andtanks, and air-filtration systems that removed toxicchemicals on most Soviet vehicles. They also found aSoviet PKhR-MV chemical agent detector kit for medicaland veterinary services. The kit, which consisted ofa hand pump, detector tubes, reagents in ampules, dryreagents, test tubes, and accessories, was designed todetect nerve, blister, and blood agents. US specialistsdetermined that it could detect low concentrations ofnerve agents, mustard agent, cyanide, lewisite, andheavy metals in aqueous solutions. It could also detectthe same agents, plus cyanogen chloride and phosgene,in the atmosphere. However, procedures for using thekit were extremely difficult to carry out while wearinga protective suit. In addition, the glass ampules werefragile and broke easily. 172Overall, the experts reported finding sophisticatedchemical defense materiel and a “superior quantitativecapability for waging a chemical war.” 173(p3-4) The indicationswere that the Soviets were ready for, and mightactually be planning to instigate, extensive chemicalwarfare in a future war. Soviet division commanderswere thought to already have the authority to initiatechemical warfare. 173–176Restoring the Chemical CorpsThe decline of the US Army Chemical Corps,combined with the discovery of sophisticated Sovietchemical defense materiel and the Soviet’s capabilityfor waging chemical war, made corrective action necessary.The Army concluded the following:To offset this, U.S. chemical/biological (CB) defensemateriel must not only provide a protective systemequivalent to or better than that of any potentialenemy but the physiological and logistics burdensmust be such as to permit long-term use. To copewith the hazards of any potential CB-threat environmentrequires the development of an integrated CBdefense system. This system must contain items forindividual protection, collective protection, decontamination,warning and detection, and safe devicesand concepts to achieve realistic training. An effectivetechnological base is needed from which suchmateriel, responsive to user needs, can be quicklydeveloped. 173(p3–4)In 1976 the secretary of the Army reversed thedecision to abolish the Chemical Corps, citing theheightened awareness of the Soviet Union’s capabilityto wage chemical warfare as the primary reason.In 1977 the United States started a new effort to reachan agreement with the Soviets on a verifiable ban onchemical weapons, but the effort was unsuccessful. Thechemical school was reestablished at Fort McClellan in1979 partly as a result of this failure. 167,177–181Growing Danger of Chemical WarfareStarting in about 1975, reports of the use of chemicalsand toxin agents in various skirmishes and warsin Southeast Asia and Afghanistan began to attractUS attention. Interviews with villagers in Laossuggested that Vietnamese and Soviet forces mighthave used chemical and possibly toxic weaponsagainst the Hmong. Starting in 1978, similar reportsfrom Kampuchea claimed that the Vietnamese andtheir allies had killed over 980 villagers using chemicalweapons. Reports began circulating that Soviet troopswere using chemical weapons against Afghan soldierseven before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan beganin December 1979.Although they had signed the Geneva Protocolin 1928, the Soviets argued that their use of chemicalweapons was legitimate because Laos, Kampuchea, andAfghanistan were not signatories. The Soviet Union,Laos, and Afghanistan signed the Biological WeaponsConvention in 1975, but the allegations of toxin use werenever acknowledged by the Soviets or their allies. When61