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In the case of arms control, as in several secretly completed the new re-entry vehicle other aspects of policy, Dr Simpson's Chevaline and reacted to a rising tide of Binary weapons: the detailed account of British policy makes American anti-proliferationism, especially monster is loose clear how often things were not what they under President Carter, by establishing a seemed, how often apparent virtue masked national source of tritium and reopening John Erickson more selfish motives, and how good causes stages of the British enrichment plant. produced unanticipated effects. This was Once President Reagan changed the No Fire No Thunder: The Threat of particularly clear in the 1950s with in­ rhetoric, it was the subsequent Thatcher Chemical and Biological Weapons. itiatives for" Atoms for Peace" , for a test Government that slowed down this process By Sean Murphy, Alastair Hay and ban, and for a cut-off of fissile material and purchased yet another American Steven Rose. production. As keen as the Eisenhower Ad­ missile. Pluto Press: 1984. Pp.145. Pbk £3.95. ministration was on 'impeding the Soviet In the last and inevitably most specula­ erosion of American nuclear superiority tive part of his book, Dr Simpson considers and on discouraging the French and the future of this trans-Atlantic nuclear re­ MANY years ago we bravely faced the Chinese nuclear programmes, the British lationship and of the British force within it. "bomber gap". Latterly we have been were still on the wrong side ofthe line so far Reluctantly he comes to the conclusion that strenuously persuaded of the "missile as actual achievement of their own stock­ Britain could not readily become a non­ gap" in its various configurations, not to pile was concerned, particularly of thermo­ nuclear power even if it wanted to do so; it mention the attendant "window of vul­ nuclear weapons. They were able to use is too impregnated with knowledge and nerability" - the metaphors tend to their obstructive potential to win help in capability. This observation constitutes yet become a little mixed - but we are back accelerating their programme through the another recognition of how elusive the again with what is currently advertised as 1958 amendments to the MacMahon Act. distinction between nuclear and non­ the "gas gap". The deterrent, or one com­ As a precaution Britain had also ac­ nuclear powers becomes as understanding ponent of it, is again threatened, or so celerated its plutonium output, however, of nuclear engineering proliferates. Richard L. Wagner, assistant to the US and once American assistance led to more Nuclear weapons play their part chiefly as Secretary of Defence, asserts. "The United economical warhead designs, was able to latent factors in political relations. Hence States currently lacks a deterrent to a Soviet barter plutonium for further assistance. the importance attached to the status of chemical weapons attack in Europe", since All quite useful, perhaps, but not what was Israel and India as virtual nuclear powers there is no counterpart to match Soviet originally intended and rather remote from or to Argentina and Pakistan as nearly­ capability to lay down a persistent gas the issues with which political debate in nuclear powers. Somewhat the same screen beyond the 10 kilometre artillery either country was ostensibly concerned. relativism is appropriate in contemplating range. A better known paradox of the British the pervading question raised by Dr Simp­ Soviet forces, equipped with binary nuclear relationship with the United States son's book: just how independent is the weapons and "14 or 15 chemical weapons is illuminated by Dr Simpson's characteri­ British deterrent? The brief reply is that capable of being delivered at long ranges" , zation of the roles played by Britain's two there is no simple answer to such a ques­ can deliver persistent agents deep within leading political parties. As Ernest Bevin's tion; most of the time derivative weapons, NATO's rear, well beyond artillery range, remark quoted earlier reminds us, the like potential weapons and suspected engulfing logistics, supply centres, air­ Labour Party, presumably because of a la­ weapons, can all play some part in the poli­ fields, and command and control links. At tent suspicion of the United States, was not tical balances. such ranges NATO forces must fight "but­ only the founder ofthe independent British Nevertheless the state of Anglo-Ameri­ toned up", encumbered with protective nuclear programme, but the more insistent can nuclear relations is a major influence gear, while Soviet rear areas would be vir­ that it should be independent. The first on the tone of the alliance, and one reason tually immune: air delivery of chemical British tests were conducted in Australia Dr Simpson's book is timely is that several agents by NATO at present involves pilots rather than, as might have been possible current trends could radically alter that re­ flying what amounts to suicide missions, and cheaper, in the United States, chiefly lationship in the next few years. In Britain, coming in low and on a predictable course, because Clement Attlee was unwilling to the chief source of instability lies in the only to deliver antiquated munitions as a become dependent on the Americans. Labour Party's move outside the biparti­ spray which disperses all too quickly. Churchill, by contrast, was much more san consensus that has prevailed since the Hence the "gas gap", and weapons such as inclined to see the nuclear programme 1940s. In the United States, if the mood BIGEYE (a spray bomb for F-ll1 aircraft) as a tool in strengthening Anglo-American represented by Dr Henry Kissinger's recent as well as plans to develop some 15 types of relations, even at the price of some loss of demand that the Europeans should show munitions in the binary role. independence. It was Macmillan who bas­ greater self-reliance in defence gains much The subject of chemical and biological ed British nuclear power on an American ground, it must inevitably become entang­ warfare (CBW), while having its own missile but Labour Governments under led with Mr Robert McNamara's parallel arcane vocabulary, also exudes singular Harold Wilson and James Callaghan which insistence that the United States offer less repUlsiveness. "Binary weapons" sound by way of nuclear guarantees to Europe. almost clinically clean, shut away from this Journal reviews 1984 The relatively relaxed British attitude to the house of horrors, but the monster is loose, question of dependency or independence striking most recently in the Iran-Iraq war The next review supplement to appear in Nature has flourished under the shade of a sturdy where mustard and nerve gases have been will be the New Journals Review, on 27 Septem· American nuclear umbrella. It is too early used. This alone would give No Fire No ber. Criteria for journals to be considered for to say what the outcome would be if the Thunder not only great timeliness but also review are: (i) the first number appeared, or the journal web of mutual Anglo-American under­ added value as a guide to this particular was re-titled, between June 1982 and May 1983 standing in nuclear matters began to un­ type of warfare, BIGEYE included as well (these time limits allow for the publication of ravel. The story told by Dr Simpson does as those reports from South-east Asia and several issues of a journal, on which a reason­ suggest one firm prediction, however, and Afghanistan. In the latter context, opera­ able judgement may be based); that is that the result is highly unlikely to be tions in Afghanistan, the reader can use­ (ii) the journal appears at least three times a exactly what anyone intended. 0 fully turn to an article by Dr E. M. Spiers, year; "Gas and the North-West Frontier", pub­ (iii) the main language used is English. lished in The Journal oj Strategic Studies During May publishers will be requested to Laurence Martin, Vice-Chancellor of the Uni­ (December 1983), a review of British atti­ submit four issues of appropriate publications versity of Newcastle upon Tyne, was Professor for review. of War Studies at the University of London tudes to gas and "frontier difficulties". from 1968 to 1977. Whatever the wrangling over the use of © 1984 Nature Publishing Group _NA_ru-,--RE_' _V(.....:)l.....:.n.....:.....:26.:...... :.AP.....:R.....:ll:.....I.....:984'--______SPRlNGBOOKS ______10_7 particular agents in Afghanistan and already indicated willingness to open scenarios. Chemical weapons were used South-east Asia, chemical agents as such "declared" sites to inspection but refuse "strategically" in both the Sino-Japanese together with toxic trichothecenes - a any comprehensive "right to look". war and in Vietnam: Japanese interest in form of "biochemical warfare" -, there Earlier talks in 1976-1979 between the bacteriological warfare was quite purpose­ can be no dispute about the onset of superpowers founded on verification, a ful, if one looks at a lecture delivered by Dr "chemical warfare" in the Iran-Iraq war. factor which may well prevent any global Enryo Hojo, Ober den Bakterienkrieg, Both T ABUN(GA), ethyl-NN-dimethyl­ agreement in the future. Not all is lost, delivered at the Military Medical Academy phosphoramide cyanidate and mustard gas however, if we pursue Professor G.K. in Berlin in 1941 (see US National Archives (dichloroethyl sulphide) have been used on Vachon's suggestion, made in Survival, Microcopy T -82 Roll 901246588-629) and the battlefield, all in a pattern strongly that regional arrangements might be made subsequent evidence from the experiments reminiscent of the use of chemical weapons for curbing CW, much on the lines of the in the Manchurian prison camps. No Fire by Italy in Ethiopia in 1935-1936, using Treaty of Tlatelolco banning possession No Thunder examines in some detail the this type of weapon against forces poorly and use of nuclear weapons in Latin operational scenarios involving quick­ equipped to neutralize their effects. That America. In a sense, the industrialized acting anti-personnel chemical weapons, background, and indeed one much wider, nations have tended to regard the 1925 the "mix" of conventional and chemical bringing the story into the 1970s, is amply Protocol as a "no first use" undertaking, weapons, persistent agents and nerve gases delineated by Chapter 2 of No Fire No even though it is tacit; but the authors of - both rapidly clearing and long lasting. It Thunder: this account is especially useful No Fire No Thunder, in a chilling chapter, is certainly an apt description to label these for its careful classification of the various point out the utility of CBW in military "search and denial weapons": they are agents and their possible use. In short, the situations. It is almost as if two escalatory area weapons, they are undeniably "search book is an excellent updating of the major arms races are fusing, one technologically weapons" (engaging both hard targets and six-volume work from the Stockholm highly advanced, the other in basic CW dispersed forces), they afford considerable International Peace Research Institute, capabilities. degrees of flexibility for a commander and The Problem 0/ Chemical and Biological Though CB weapons are sometimes they can inflict high casualty rates, particu­ War/are, first published in 1971. labelled as agents of "mass destruction", larly when used in surprise attack. To say that the whole subject is an emo­ this may be something of a misnomer, a There is, however, the factor of unpre­ tive one is to make a massive understate­ point made with great precision in Chapter dictability, whatever the precision of the ment. The folk memories of the First 5 of the book, on CBW and military planning. A recent computer study has World War, and of the release of 168 tons of chlorine by the Germans at Ypres in April 1915, have not faded. And during the Vietnam War, American public opinion was outraged at the use of emetic gas which caused enemy soldiers to vomit on the bat­ tlefield, part of public revulsion at weapons which kill "slowly". The authors of No Fire No Thunder made excellent use of such historical examples to emphasize the "cynicism" of the wording of CW agree­ ments - the Germans did not use projec­ tiles to disseminate liquid chlorine - and the implications of a new arms race almost hidden under such euphemisms as "binary weapons", not to mention a propaganda war of words designed to justify chemical weapons rearmament. Though cynicism may be admitted in the drafting of agreements, deftly designed to provide loopholes, Dr Nicholas Sims has also underlined the significance of these niceties in his paper "Mycotoxins and Arms Control" (ADIU Report, December 1981) on the applicability of the Geneva Protocol of 1925 and the 1972 Convention on Biological and Toxin Weapons. This is not mere legerdemain but an issue of the greatest importance, one somewhat gloss­ ed over by the authors in their discussion of "yellow rain" in Chapter 4: it is perhaps a most unfortunate turn of phrase to insist on "healthy scepticism" about "yellow rain" when the whole context is decidedly unhealthy. Meanwhile, the entire question of CW arms control has been raised anew with President Reagan's latest proposals for banning the production, possession and use of chemical weapons, coupled as it is with a call for American investment in its LUP/THP031601-03/16/84-AHVAZ, IRAN: A United Nations fact-finding delegation member kneels 3/14 to make photos of an Iraqi chemical own "limited retaliatory capability" in bomb that failed to explode during an air raid in the southern chemical weapons. With respect to that key Iran-Iraq border. The delegation arrived 3/13 and went to the issue, verification, Soviet officials have contaminated fronts 3/14. UPI cs/irna

© 1984 Nature Publishing Group -~_8------SPRINGBOOKS------_NA_ru--~_V_o-L_.n__ ~_~ __ RI_L_I~_ demonstrated that in any European con­ 100,000 per year) for various occupations flict, with 1,000 tons of nerve gas used each Radiating sense and for workers exposed to cancer-causing day by both sides, civilian casualties would agents, and also gives the general number be counted in millions and the ratio of civil­ K.V. Ettinger and of fatalities due to accidents. This ian to military casualties would be 20: 1. J .E. Rimmington comparison indicates that it is a valuable While biological weapons are generally dis­ exercise to analyse avoidable risks in many counted for use on the battlefield - nerve Nuclear Radiation: Risks and Benefits. industries and, as a corollary, to get rid of gases act much more quickly - the authors By Edward Pochin. those technologies and agents which need­ of No Fire No Thunder do not ignore the Clarendon: 1983. Pp.197. £17.50, $32.50. lessly contribute to the misery, high death "social repercussions" of CBW warfare, rate and sickness of people exposed to including the overwhelming of medical ser­ them. Again, however, it is extraordinarily vices and the breakdown of public order, . .. The B vocabulary consisted of words which difficult to weigh the risks against the not to mention the appalling consequences had been deliberately constructed for political benefits of these factors in precise terms of the use of biological weapons in sabo­ purposes, that is to say, which not only had in since we are often dealing with a situation every case a political implication, but were in which industry benefits financially from tage actions. I do not regard this as scare intended to impose a desirable mental talk: consider the death, havoc and tribula­ attitude . . .. (George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty­ the technologies it uses - the risks are tions brought about with the deliberate Four). borne by the employees personally and by random poisoning of a patent medicine in the state fiscally, but how do we compare the United States, a small instance of what THE complete edition of Newspeak B individual risks with community benefits might come to pass. Vocabulary is not available through the or vice versa? If this were not enough, Chapter 8 out­ book trade and we are not certain whether Be this as it may, and despite the fact that lines further developments in CB weapons, the expression "radiation protection" is a Pochin's tables indicate that radiation with discussion of the military exploitation part of it. But whatever the gestation of this hazards are not the top priority if resources of genetic engineering, bringing with it the term, it served perfectly well to calm the are limited, for many the conclusion to be possibility of "rampant pathogens and minds of Project Manhattan workers, drawn from the book is that positive action large-scale production of both known and who, as we know nowadays, were on many is needed: a determined effort to reduce new toxins". According to the authors, the occasions exposed to doses of radiation and even eliminate the use of ionizing search is on for "undercover tactical which would be unacceptable today. radiation in all circumstances in which it agents" specifically designed to debilitate Edward Pochin's Nuclear Radiation: can be replaced by other agents. Recently the opposition. Nor does the work on Risks and Benefits serves as a reminder that developed analytical techniques, both chemical agents stop, with US binary a large part of radiation protection is just chemical and physical, offer the possibility munitions including a new agent crossed monitoring doses of radiation received by of replacing radioactive tracers by stable between Sarin and VX, "modified soman" individual radiation workers, and that compounds. Many of the gauges used in (EA5774), and growing interest in civilian "protection" is afforded by the legislative industry for measurement of thickness, control agents. process which itself is in part a function of moisture content and so on can be replaced The authors conclude, not implausibly, public sensitivity on the matter. So that the by instruments based on other techniques, that both the United States and Soviet reader may arrive at an informed and it is worthwhile examining alternatives Union envisage operations in Europe comparison between risks and benefits of to industrial radiography. A similar which will be chemical as well as nuclear, ionizing radiations (not only nuclear, as the approach has already been taken in the though rational argument would suggest title implies), the author gives a detailed field of medical applications of radiation that no appreciable strategic or tactical exposition of the techniques of radiation and radioisotopes. The use of nuclear gain can accrue from increasing CW measurement as well as an account of the magnetic resonance for tissue imaging is arsenals. Yet the burden of Chapter 5 - on amounts of radiation which we receive making fast progress and the population­ military scenarios - is that there is appre­ from natural and man-made sources. And averaged radiation doses from medical ciable operational advantage to be gained so that the deleterious effects of radiation radiology, which according to Pochin from CW and serious potential in BW for are understood, there is a good review of exceed those from radiotherapy, should be sabotage and disruption. The last chapter the relevant parts of radiobiology. The gradually reduced to the unavoidable takes the form of an impassioned appeal counterbalancing of risks and benefits is minimum. Obviously, the nuclear for chemical disarmament, for a "CW-free not discussed in quantifiable terms, industry, and particularly the nuclear Europe" propounded by a pan-European however, simply because such analysis is power industry, are the cynosure of the movement: with Britain "a nuclear and not available as yet; after all "the quality of public eye in this respect, and the subjects chemically disarmed country" , the authors life" is not easily reduced to numbers. of a broader debate. go on to admit a need to consider the Instead, in his final chapter Pochin The book is well and smoothly written, defence of the population against any provides a careful comparison between with a sense of wry humour, though it sadly chemical attack. I should have thought that risks (expressed in number of deaths per lacks extra drawings, photographs and might be considered even now, though graphs which could have made the going so politically it is ruled out if only because it much easier. Those illustrations which are raises the whole question of population Nuclear power included seem to be the end result of some protection, as opposed to shelter for select Oxford University Press have issued a major random selection. Nonetheless the book elites. reference work in three volumes, Nuclear Power can be certainly recommended to those Meanwhile this timely, coherent and Technology: The State of the Industry, which who are concerned with the effects of ion­ highly informative book should receive (according to the publisher) "will provide the izing radiation, whether professionals or very wide attention: it is not comfortable scientist and layman alike with a comprehensive laymen. They will acquire an excellent reading but it is highly urgent reading, even and up-to-date reference on all aspects of source of information, impartially for those who might think themselves nuclear power". presented. But it will not serve everybody Editor of the work is Walter Marshall, informed on the subject. 0 equally well. After all, it was Chairman of the Central Electricity Generating Board, and the contributors are all specialists Winston Smith who said: "Ignorance is drawn from the industry itself. Titles of the strength" . 0 John Erickson is Professor Of Defence Studies individual volumes are: Reactor Technology, at the University of Edinburgh. The Road to Berlin, Vol. 2 of his work The Russo-German Fuel Cycle and Nuclear Radiation. Price is £35, K. V. Ettinger and J.E. Rimmington work in the War, was published last year by Weidenfeld & $65 per volume. Department of Biomedical Physics and Bio­ Nicolson. engineering at the University of Aberdeen. © 1984 Nature Publishing Group