Allegations of Biological Weapons Use - Deadly Cultures: Biological Weapons Since 1945 - page 268

tributed them to natural causes. 93 A year later, however, he alleged that
the same outbreaks were instances of biological warfare by the US. In
support, he detailed the US BW program as described in topics by US
journalists, mentioned the Korean allegations, and quoted several con-
gressional hearings. 94 Later in 1981 he added the 1971 outbreak of ASF as
a US attack, again quoting US sources. 95 It thus appears that the Cubans'
belief that they were targets of biological warfare was largely suggested
by, and based on, US publications, especially congressional reports. If so,
the idea is likely to have had great credibility.
Although we believe that the US is highly unlikely to have counte-
nanced covert biological attack after the mid-1970s, this conclusion
would not have been obvious to the Cuban government. The US still
maintains very tight secrecy over the activities of the CIA, and rogue ele-
ments within the US government are known to have conducted illegal
activities. The US has on several occasions publicly named Cuba as hav-
ing an illegal BW program, and such claims may look to the Cuban gov-
ernment like an indirect justification for continuing biological attack.
Certainly, these allegations may also serve domestic and international
political purposes. But the considerations above suggest to us that the
suspicions themselves are understandable, and may still be believed
within the Cuban government.
Yellow Rain
Beginning in September 1978, the US embassy in Bangkok, Thailand,
sent a series of telegrams to Washington relating accounts from Hmong
refugees that suggested possible use of chemical weapons. The Hmong, of
the highlands of northern Laos, had contributed heavily to a CIA-orga-
nized and -financed army countering the Communist Pathet Lao and
their allies the North Vietnamese Army, and had been resisting pacificat-
ion since the Pathet Lao had taken power. Although the reports suggested
CW use, the alleged agents came to include toxins that are BW as well. 96
At nearly the same time (beginning October 1978), representatives of
the Democratic Kampuchea (DK) insurgents (supporters of Pol Pot's de-
posed Khmer Rouge regime) began to charge that Vietnamese troops,
fighting DK forces in support of the Hanoi-backed People's Republic of