used to deliver them, such as bombs, shells, aerosol sprays, etc. (Introduction 4).
Since ancient times, men have made crude uses of pathogens and toxins, such as poisoned arrows and diseased animal and human cadavers, to disable or kill their enemies. Advances in bacteriology and scientific instruments enabled scientists in the late 19th century to isolate in the laboratory and to produce stocks of deadly bacteria, such as anthrax which was cultured by bacteriologist Robert Koch in 1877 and viruses, such as smallpox against some of which vaccines were developed in the 20th century.
Bernstein said that "until World War II no modern state had employed or even developed a significant capacity for offensive biological warfare" (9). Not until then were sophisticated means developed for producing biological weapons which could be safely handled and delivered onto military and civilian targets. Because of these scientific constraints, the only WMD which were commonly used by the belligerent powers in World War I were chemical weapons (poison gases). Hersh said that "both sides made steady use of phosgene, chlorine, and mustard gas, along with many less toxic agents," which caused 1.3 million casualties, including 91,000 deaths (2). Harris cited the only rumored uses of biological weapons, the alleged injection by German agents of glanders viruses into Rumanian cavalry horses (217-218).
Biological Weapons in the Interwar Decades
Public revulsion against the use of poison gas led to the banning of its use in war by the parties to the 1925 Geneva Protocol which was not, however, ratified by Japan nor the United States (which ultimately ratified it in 1975). After 1918 embryonic biological weapons research programs were either eliminated or substantially reduced in Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Poland and the Soviet Union (Christopher et al. 19). However, in the mid to late 1930s several of th...