An Analysis of Factors Leading to U.S. Renunciation of Biological Weapons

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy at George Mason University

By

Steven J. Allen

Bachelor of Arts,

Jacksonville State University, 1973

Master of Arts,

Jacksonville State University, 1976

Juris Doctor,

Cumberland School of Law, Samford University, 1980

Director: Dr. Peter M. Leitner

Department of Biodefense

Summer Semester 2007

George Mason University

Fairfax, VA

Copyright 2007 Steven J. Allen

All Rights Reserved

DEDICATION

This is for those who fought and won the Cold War, and saved us all.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank Dr. Ken Alibek and Dr. Peter Leitner, for creating the world’s best Biodefense program and for dedicating themselves to the students in the program.

I would like to thank the other members of the Biodefense program. There is probably no other academic program in the world in which students rely on one another for help in understanding the diverse fields that comprise Biodefense.

I would like to thank those who helped guide me in the investigatory process, including Joseph Douglass, Neil Livingstone, Gary Crocker, Herb Meyer, Doug Feith, Clifton Spendwell, Al Mauroni, Forrest Russel Frank, Joseph DeSutter, Robert F. Turner, Doug Brown, Zafer Boybeyi, Howard Phillips, Rockne Roll, and the staff of the Nixon presidential materials collection at the National Archives.

Most of all, I would like to thank my wife Deb, for her patience and support and for our wonderful children, who will read this someday and understand why Daddy spent so much time working in the basement.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Abstract................................................................................................................………. vii

Introduction............................................................................................................…….….1

1. Background: biological weapons.......................................................................... …11

2. Theodor Rosebury and the beginning of the biological Cold War.......................... .22

3. Pugwash and the quest for peace with the Soviets.................................................. 50

4. Arms control and the race with a single runner........................................................ 82

5. Vietnam, CS, DM, Agent Orange, and the anti-CBW campaign......................... .116

6. A mighty wind: Dugway and the six thousand dead sheep.................................. .135

7. The interlude after Dugway.................................................................................... 198

8. Completely new mistakes: Kissinger, Nixon, and the NSC.................................. .206

9. The NSC review (part one).................................................................................... .229

10. The NSC review and the lack of good intelligence................................................ 286

11. The NSC review and the scientific stacking of the deck...................................... .331

12. Technological surprise and the feasibility of biological weapons.......................... .358

13. The NSC review (part two).................................................................................... 387

14. The NSC review, as a game.................................................................................... 443

15. The toxins ‘slip up,’ the BWC, and the creation of the Soviet BW monopoly .464

16. Summary and conclusion....................................................................................... .497

Methodology……………………………………...............................................……….502

Suggestions for further research..........................................................................……….506

List of References................................................................................................……….507

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Page

Figure 1: Map of the Dugway area.............................................................................. .134

ABSTRACT

AN ANALYSIS OF FACTORS LEADING TO U.S. RENUNCIATION OF BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS

Steven J. Allen, PhD

George Mason University, 2007 

Dissertation Director: Dr. Peter M. Leitner 

Shortly after taking office, President Richard M. Nixon ordered a review of U.S. policy on chemical and biological warfare. At the conclusion of that review, Nixon, on November 25, 1969, declared that the United States unilaterally renounced the first use of lethal and incapacitating chemical weapons, and he ended the U.S. biological weapons program with the exception of defensive research. Thus, with regard to biological weapons, Nixon stopped all offensive research, development, production, and stockpiling.

This dissertation examines the factors – including those related to the diplomatic community, the intelligence community, scientist-activist organizations, and national and international politics – that led to Nixon’s decision to renounce biological weapons, and shows the flaws in the presidential decision-making process that caused President Nixon to make a decision based, at least in part, on questionable information.