The French Biological Weapons Program - Deadly Cultures: Biological Weapons Since 1945 - page 127

• Protection: detection of abnormal levels of microbial agents; identifica-
tion of specific agents; studies on protection against attack with viral
agents; experimental diagnosis of certain ailments in laboratory animals
irradiated by X rays; experiments on laboratory animals with a view to
using mass vaccination by aerosol; studies of the effectiveness of CF51/
33 mask cartridges.
• Detection: immunofluorescent detection of biological agents; studies on
the effectiveness of vaccination by aerosol.
The commitment to creating an operational BW arsenal lasted only a
few months. In a letter dated 21 August 1964, General Lavaud, ministe-
rial delegate for armaments, informed the chief of the Army General Staff
that
the Conseil de Défense, at the recommendation of the chiefs of staff of
the three armed forces, has made the establishment of operational bacte-
riological and chemical systems a secondary priority behind other pro-
grams judged to be more essential but which have not been pursued
until now because of a lack of resources. The Conseil de Défense has de-
cided, therefore, that in the field of biological and chemical weapons,
priority should be given to researching scientific advances and new tech-
nology prior to considering the doctrine for the use of such armaments
and the creation of materials accordingly. The only operational activities
planned in the long term in the field of biological warfare are those con-
cerning means of protection. This includes limited-scope offensive oper-
ations integral to the work. 58
These decisions were based essentially on financial considerations 59 and
marked the end of a fleeting commitment by France to furnish itself with
a BW arsenal. This brief period is nevertheless of special interest in that it
constituted a clear breach of biological arms policy as it had existed in
France since 1922, the date of the first French military activities in this
field. The break with policy probably had its origins in the advances in
BW being made by the US as perceived by French officials. The increasing
international tension that marked the start of the 1960s, following the
second Berlin crisis of 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, proba-
bly played an equal part.