Project

Chemical and Biological Warfare

Overview

At a time when national and international leaders were involved in a debate over restraints on chemical and biological weapons, the Academy, with the Salk Institute, organized a conference to illuminate the most important public policy issues raised by the existence of chemical and biological weapons. The resulting report analyzed America’s policy on these weapons, including the military’s needs for a chemical and biological capability. Read into the Congressional Record, the report was influential in leading Congress and the administration to ratify the Geneva Protocol in 1975.

Resulting Publication

  • Proceedings of the Conference on Chemical and Biological Warfare, ed. Matthew S. Meselson. Unpublished report, American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Salk Institute, 1969. (out of print)
People

People

Principal Investigators