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RE: BW Controversy
I
spoke too soon. Here is my answer.
Danz
John 2
I'm coming into this a bit late,
but perhaps I can add a bit of perspective on the allegations that the US used
BW during the Korean War.
During
my research for Apollo's Warriors (see below my sig block) I was
on a government contract, cleared to research Korean War subjects in both DOD
and CIA databases, up to the Top Secret level. Which I did. I
mention this only because it is extremely rare for any author to have access
to classified data for the purpose of having such data declassified for
subsequent publication. Which I also did.
While I
would never claim to have read a fraction of the billions of classified
documents relating to that war, I can tell you that my research focused on
intelligence and special operations subjects, and never once did I come across
so much as a hint that the US even considered the use of BW. Nukes, yes
(as we know); BW, no.
What I did come across was a
never-ending, predictably shrill, and crude communist propaganda campaign to
persuade the world that the US was in fact using BW. In March 51,
MacArthur sent BrigGen/Dr. Crawford Sams behind enemy lines to check out these
propaganda claims, as the communists for once were being specific about a
locale. Escorted by CIA guerrillas, the Dr. examined many sick North
Koreans (this was near Wonsan), learning that they were suffering from
hemorrhagic smallpox; the kind of epidemic one would expect to see following
the breakdown of North Korea's already primitive public health system.
Sams presented his finding to the UN, which put a temporary--and only
temporary--halt to the communist bullshit re: BW.
There must
still be some juicy secrets left to tell about that war, but US-use of BW
isn't going to be one of them. Regards.
Col. Mike Haas, USAF,
ret., author
Apollo's Warriors: US Air Force Special
Operations during the Cold War
In the Devil's Shadow: UN Special
Operations during the Korean War