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The United States is known to have possessed three types of weapons of mass destruction: nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, and biological weapons. The U.S. is the only country to have used nuclear weapons on another country, when it detonated two atomic bombs over two Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. It had secretly developed the earliest form of the atomic weapon during the 1940s under the title "Manhattan Project". The United States pioneered the development of both the nuclear fission and hydrogen bombs. It was the world's first and only nuclear power for four years, from 1945 until 1949, when the Soviet Union produced its own nuclear weapon. The United States has the second-largest number of nuclear weapons in the world, after the Russian Federation.
Joseph Cirincione (, SIR-in-see-OWN-ee is a national security analyst and author. He served as the president of the Ploughshares Fund, a public grant-making foundation focused on nuclear nonproliferation and conflict resolution.
Argentina has a history with the development of weapons of mass destruction. Under the military dictatorship, Argentina began a nuclear weapons program in the early 1980s, but this was abolished when democracy was restored in 1983.
The United States biological weapons program officially began in spring 1943 on orders from U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt. Research continued following World War II as the U.S. built up a large stockpile of biological agents and weapons. Over the course of its 27-year history, the program weaponized and stockpiled the following seven bio-agents :
The M33 cluster bomb, also known as the (M33) Brucella cluster bomb, was a U.S. biological cluster bomb developed in the early 1950s and deployed in 1952. It was the first standardized biological weapon in the U.S. arsenal.
The M114 bomb was a four-pound U.S. anti-personnel bomb and biological cluster bomb sub-munition. The M114 was used in the M33 cluster bomb.
The M115 anti-crop bomb, also known as the feather bomb or the E73 bomb, was a U.S. biological cluster bomb designed to deliver wheat stem rust.
The Flettner rotor bomblet was a U.S. biological sub-munition that was never mass-produced. Based on the vertical Flettner rotor which takes advantage of the Magnus effect, a force acting on a spinning body in a moving airstream, it was developed toward the end of the U.S. biological weapons program in the 1960s.
The M34 cluster bomb was the first mass-produced United States Army weapon meant to deliver the chemical agent sarin (GB). A large stockpile of M34s was destroyed between 1973 and 1976.
The M43 BZ cluster bomb, or simply M43 cluster bomb, was a U.S. chemical cluster bomb intended to deliver the incapacitating agent known as BZ. The weapon was produced in the early 1960s and all stocks of U.S. BZ were destroyed by 1989.
The M138 bomblet was a sub-munition of the U.S. chemical weapon, the M43 BZ cluster bomb. The bomblet contained BZ, an incapacitating agent and was developed with the M43 in 1962. The M138s, along with all other U.S. BZ weapons were destroyed during the 1980s.
The M44 generator cluster was an American chemical cluster bomb designed to deliver the incapacitating agent BZ. It was first mass-produced in 1962 and all stocks of the weapons were destroyed by 1989.
The "Statement on Chemical and Biological Defense Policies and Programs" was a speech delivered on November 25, 1969, by U.S. President Richard Nixon. In the speech, Nixon announced the end of the U.S. offensive biological weapons program and reaffirmed a no-first-use policy for chemical weapons. The statement excluded toxins, herbicides and riot-control agents as they were not chemical and biological weapons, though herbicides and toxins were both later banned. The decision to ban biological weapons was influenced by a number of domestic and international issues.
The E86 cluster bomb was an American biological cluster bomb first developed in 1951. Though the U.S. military intended to procure 6,000 E86s, the program was halted in the first half of the 1950s.
The E61 anthrax bomblet was an American biological sub-munition for the E133 cluster bomb. This anti-personnel weapon was developed in the early 1950s and carried 35 milliliters of anthrax spores or another pathogen.
The M125 bomblet was a U.S. chemical sub-munition designed to deliver the nerve agent sarin. It was brought into service in 1954 with the M34 cluster bomb as part of the first U.S. air-delivered nerve agent weapon.
The MC-1 bomb was the first U.S. non-clustered air-dropped chemical munition. The 750-pound (340 kg) MC-1 was first produced in 1959 and carried the nerve agent sarin.
The E96 cluster bomb was an American anti-personnel biological cluster bomb developed in 1950.
The E48 particulate bomb was a U.S. biological sub-munition designed during the 1950s for use with the E96 cluster bomb.
References
- 1 2 3 Cirincione, Joseph, et al. Deadly Arsenals: Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Threats, (Google Books), Carnegie Endowment, 2005, p. 60, ( ISBN 087003216X).
- 1 2 Chauhan, Sharad S. Biological Weapons, (Google Books), APH Publishing Corporation, 2004, p. 197, ( ISBN 8176487325).
- 1 2 Cirincione, Joseph. "Defending America", Georgetown Journal of International Affairs , Winter/Spring 2002, via Commonwealth Institute , accessed January 4, 2009.