Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
The Korean “germ warfare” controversy erupted in January 1952,
when Soviet officials accused the US military of using BW against Chi-
nese and Korean soldiers and civilians (see Chapter 13). The charge was
followed by a series of North Korean reports about specific American BW
crimes, which were endorsed by various western procommunist orga-
nizations, including the Canadian Peace Congress. This public relations
campaign sought to portray the US as a barbarous, warmongering nation.
Much of the propaganda was directed at the nonaligned Asian members
of the United Nations, who were bombarded with “irrefutable” evidence
of American guilt. 24
To assist its beleaguered ally, the Canadian government used its influ-
ence at the UN to try to convince Commonwealth countries such as India,
Pakistan, and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) that the Communist charges were
nothing more than malicious propaganda, with no scientific validity. 25
This “educational” program profited greatly from a special June 1952 re-
port, “Statement Concerning Charges of the Practice of Bacteriological
Warfare by United States Forces in Korea and North-East China,” pre-
pared by three eminent Canadian entomologists. After examining avail-
able evidence, these experts dismissed the Chinese and Korean charges as
nothing more than “biological absurdities,” pointing out that if the US
military had really wanted to use BW for strategic purposes, they would
not “have adopted such inept, infantile and altogether stupid methods in
a field in which they are supposed to be masters.” 26 Throughout the next
six months Canadian diplomats made good use of this report at the delib-
erations of the UN General Assembly and at the meetings of the Confer-
ence on Disarmament in Geneva. In 1953 the germ warfare controversy
abruptly ended following the death of Josef Stalin, and the Korean armi-
stice. 27
Significantly, the Korean War experience increased rather than de-
creased Canadian support for US military containment policies. This
trend was evident in the 1958 creation of the North American Air De-
fense (NORAD) Treaty and the Defense Production Sharing Agreement of
the following year. Even Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, who would
later oppose Canada's having tactical nuclear weapons, was at this stage
in his political career prepared to support the Eisenhower/Dulles doctrine
of nuclear containment. 28
On the other hand, there is no evidence that
Search WWH ::




Custom Search