Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
adopt a more aggressive stance toward the perceived Soviet CBW threat.
On 22 September 1967 it issued the controversial “Overall Strategic Con-
cept for the Defence of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Area”: “It
is not evident to what extent BW or CW capabilities might affect deter-
rence. However, there is a danger that Soviet leaders might come to be-
lieve that their capabilities in these fields would give them a significant
military advantage. NATO should rely principally upon its conventional
and nuclear forces for deterrence, but should also possess the capability
to employ effectively lethal CW agents in retaliation, on a limited scale;
passive defensive measures against CW; and passive defensive measures
against BW.
48
Significantly, this new NATO policy emerged at a time when Canada's
Department of Defence was reconsidering its own CBW priorities. Nor-
mally this was a frustrating process for the DRB, since the Chiefs of the
General Staff usually downgraded CBW requirements in favor of nu-
clear-weapons-related programs—despite the fact that Canada was not
part of the nuclear-bomb club. All this changed during the July 1968
CBW review, when DRB officials were finally able to convince their supe-
riors that BW represented a serious threat to Canadian national security.
In building its case, the DRB first pointed out that advances in the biologi-
cal sciences not only increased the threat of the traditional bacterial, viral
and toxin agents, but also facilitated the emergence of frightening new
pathogens. Reference was also made to ongoing DRB projects of special
military importance, notably “warning detection systems...develop-
ment of test agents (use in urban area, use in troop trials), evaluation of
defensive systems...andevaluation of microorganisms, suitable for use
as incapacitating agents.”
49
Other arguments focused on the magnitude
of the Soviet threat, NATO's new policy of CBW deterrence, and Canada's
obligations to its now Quadripartite partners (Australia joined in 1964).
50
In keeping with this latter commitment the Defence Department an-
nounced that Operation Vacuum, a full-scale field trial designed to test
the effectiveness of CBW defensive equipment and operational tactics,
would take place at Suffield during the fall of 1968. The actual exercise
lasted three weeks and involved more than 2,000 military personnel,
most seconded from the Canadian forces, although there was a small
British and US military and scientific component. While most of the em-
phasis was on troop performance within a CW environment, there were
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