Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 5
The French Biological
Weapons Program
OLIVIER LEPICK
Numerous monographs have been written on arms policy
in France since World War II, particularly on its nuclear weapons pro-
gram, yet the issue of biological weapons (BW) in France is completely
absent from the nation's historiography. Indeed, it is impossible to find a
reference work that devotes more than a few lines to the subject. 1 It
seems that the secrecy surrounding the study of these matters, in France
and elsewhere, is a result of the sensitivity of the subject at a time when
the risk of BW proliferation continues to threaten international security.
This secrecy largely explains why historians have found it impossible to
obtain access to sources and archives that, despite the time elapsed, con-
tain scientific information which is still valid and which could contribute,
if it were not supplied with extreme caution, to the proliferation of these
armaments. Owing to the largely technical nature of the source materials
and archives on which this chapter is based, what follows is essentially a
description of the principal phases, technical parameters, and structural
organization of the French BW program (and more specifically its offen-
sive program) since the end of World War II. As it was not possible to gain
access to political sources (the Secrétariat Général de la Défense Nationale
and the Conseil de Défense), this study lacks the political dimension that
would have placed the biological military program in France within the
wider perspective of French defense policy since 1945. For this reason,
the following pages are limited to a factual history of the BW program in
France.
It is possible to identify two distinct periods in the history of the French
BW program between 1947, the date of its inception, and 1972, when
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