- 400s BC.: Spartan Greeks use sulfur fumes
against enemy soldiers.
-
- 1346: Crimean Tatars catapult plague-infected
corpses into Italian trade
- settlement.
-
- 1500s: Spanish conquistadors use biological
warfare used against Native peoples.
-
- 1763: British Gen. Jeffrey Amherst orders
use of smallpox blankets against Native peoples during Pontiac's Rebellion.
-
- 1800s: Blankets infected with smallpox
deliberately given to Native Americans, causing widespread epidemics.
-
- 1907: Hague Convention outlaws chemical
weapons; U.S. does not participate.
-
- 1914: World War I begins; poison gas
produces 100,000 deaths, 900,000 injuries.
-
- 1920s: Britain uses chemical weapons
in Iraq "as an experiment" against Kurdish rebels seeking independence;
Winston Churchill "strongly" backs the use of poisoned gas "against
uncivilised tribes."
-
- 1928: Geneva Protocol prohibits gas and
bacteriological warfare; most countries that ratify it prohibit only the
first use of such weapons.
-
- 1935: Italy begins conquest of Abyssinia
(Ethiopia), using mustard gas.
-
- 1936: Japan invades China, uses chemical
weapons in war.
-
- 1939: World War II begins; neither side
uses bio-chemical arms, due to fears of retaliation in kind.
-
- 1941: U.S. enters World War II; President
Roosevelt pledges U.S. will not be first to use bio-chemical weapons.
-
- 1943: U.S. ship damaged by German bombing
raid on Bari, Italy, leaks mustard gas, killing 1000.
-
- 1945: Japanese military discovered to
have conducted biological warfare experiments on POWs, killing 3000. U.S.
shields officers in charge from war crimes trials, in return for data.
-
- 1947: U.S. possesses germ warfare weapons;
President Truman withdraws Geneva Protocol from Senate consideration.
-
- 1949: U.S. dismisses Soviet trials of
Japanese for germ warfare as "propaganda." Army begins secret
tests of biological agents in U.S. cities.
-
- 1950: Korean War begins; North Korea
and China accuse U.S. of germ warfare-- charges still not proven. San Francisco
disease outbreak matching Army bacteria used on city.
-
- 1951: African-Americans exposed to potentially
fatal simulant in Virginia test of race-specific fungal weapons.
-
- 1956: Army manual explicitly states that
bio-chemical warfare is not banned.
-
- 1959: House resolution against first
use of bio-chemical weapons is defeated.
-
- 1962: Chemical weapons loaded on U.S.
planes during Cuban missile crisis.
-
- 1966: Army germ warfare experiment in
New York subway system.
-
- 1969: Utah chemical weapons accident
kills thousands of sheep; President Nixon declares U.S. moratorium on chemical
weapons production and biological weapons possession. U.N. General Assembly
bans use of herbicides (plant killers) and tear gasses in warfare; U.S.
one of three opposing votes. U.S. has caused tear gas fatalities in Vietnamese
guerrilla tunn els.
-
- 1971: U.S. ends direct use of herbicides
such as Agent Orange; had spread over Indochinese forests, and destroyed
at least six percent of South Vietnamese cropland, enough to feed 600,000
people for a year.
-
- 1972: Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention.
Cuba accuses CIA of instilling swine fever virus that leads to death of
500,000 hogs.
-
- 1974: U.S. finally ratifies 1928 Geneva
Protocol.
-
- 1975: Indonesia annexes East Timor; planes
spread herbicides on croplands.
-
- 1979: Washington Post reports on U.S.
program against Cuban agriculture since 1962, including CIA biological
warfare component.
-
- 1980: U.S. intelligence officials allege
Soviet chemical use in Afghanistan, while admitting "no confirmation."
Congress approves nerve gas facility in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
-
- 1981: U.S. accuses Vietnam and allies
of using mycotoxins (fungal poisons) in Laos and Cambodia. Some refugees
report casualties; one analysis reveals "yellow rain" as bee
feces. Israel bombs Iraqi nuclear reactor, leading to Iraqi decision to
build chemical weapons.
-
- 1984: U.N. confirms Iraq using mustard
and nerve gasses against Iranian "human wave" attacks in border
war; State Department issues mild condemnation, yet restores diplomatic
relations with Iraq, and opposes U.N. action against Iraq. Bhopal fertilizer
plant accident in India kills 2000; shows risks of chemical plants being
damaged in warfare.
-
- 1985: U.S. resumes open-air testing of
biological agents.
-
- 1986: U.S. resumes open-air testing of
biological agents.
-
- 1987: Senate ties in three votes on resuming
production of chemical weapons; Vice President Bush breaks all three ties
in favor of resumption.
-
- 1988: Iraq uses chemical weapons against
Kurdish minority in Halabjah; U.S. continues to maintain agricultural credits
with Iraq; President Reagan blocks congressional sanctions against Iraq.
-
- 1989: Paris conference of 149 nations
condemns chemical weapons, urges quick ban to emerge from Geneva treaty
negotiations; U.S. revealed to plan poison gas production even after treaty
signed.
-
- 1990: U.S., Soviets pledge to reduce
chemical weapons stockpiles to 20 percent of current U.S. supply by 2002,
and to eliminate poison gas weapons when all nations have signed future
Geneva treaty. Israel admits possession of chemical weapons; Iraq threatens
to use chemical weapons on Israel if it is attacked.
-
- 1991: U.S. and Coalition forces bomb
at least 28 alleged bio- chemical production or storage sites in Iraq during
Gulf War, including fertilizer and other civilian plants. CNN reports "green
flames" from one chemical plant, and the deaths of 50 Iraqi troops
from anthrax after air strike on another site. New York Times quotes Soviet
chemical weapons commander that air strikes on Iraqi chemical weapons would
have "little effect beyond neighboring villages," but that strikes
on biological weapons could spread disease "to adjoining countries."
Czechoslovak chemical warfare unit detects sarin nerve gas during air war.
Egyptian doctor reports outbreak of "strange disease" inside
Iraq. U.S. troops use explosives to destroy Iraqi chemical weapons storage
bunkers after the war.
-
- 1992: Reports intensify of U.S. and Allied
veterans of Gulf War developing health problems, involving a variety of
symptoms, collectively called Gulf War Syndrome. U.N. sanctions intensify
civilian health crisis inside Iraq, making identification of similar symptoms
potentially difficult.
-
- 1993: President Clinton continues intermittent
bombing and missile raids against Iraqi facilities; U.N. inspectors step
up program to dismantle Iraqi weapons. U.S. signs U.N. Chemical Weapons
Convention, but approval later blocked in Senate.
-
- 1995: Japanese cult launches deadly sarin
nerve gas attack on Tokyo subway system.
-
- 1996: Congressional hearings on Gulf
War Syndrome focuses on Iraqi storage bunker destruction, rather than other
possible causes, and does not call for international investigation of symptoms
among Iraqis.
-
- 1997: Cuba accuses U.S. of spraying crops
with biological agents . Iraq expels U.S. citizens in U.N. inspection teams,
which are allowed to continue work without Americans, but choose to evacuate
all inspectors. U.S. mobilizes for military action.
-
- 1998: U.S. again mobilizes for bombing
campaign against alleged Iraqi bio-chemical weapons sites, after Iraq questions
role of Gulf War veteran as U.N. inspector.
-
- Compiled from articles in "Z"
magazine by Stephen Shalom and Noam Chomsky (February 1991) and Zoltan
Grossman (March 1991) and from information at the website of the Council
for a Livable World.
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