Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War

Military Review, Sept-Oct, 2003 by S. Walker

Judith Millet, Stephen Engelberg, William Broad, Simon & Schuster, New York, 2001, 382 pages, $27.00.

Three investigative reporters from The New York Times, Judith Miller, Stephen Engelberg, and William Broad, initially began writing Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War to explore what had motivated the Pentagon to vaccinate its soldiers against anthrax.

Germs begins with an attention-grabbing account of an actual bioterrorism event that occurred in an Oregon town in the 1980s. The incident, the work of the Sannyasins cult, is said to have been the largest case of a bioterrorism attack occurring in the United States. The ease with which germs were obtained and spread among the population is most disturbing.

The authors give a historical account about the use and development of bioterrorism weapons. Beginning more than two millennia ago Scythian archers dipped their arrowheads into manure and rotting corpses to increase the deadliness of their weapons. In the 14th century, Tartars hurled plague-infected bodies at their enemies. However, the book focuses on the 1950s and 1960s when the United States began bioweapon research. The U.S. program ended in 1972 as was agreed on under the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. A Soviet program, which started in the 1920s, also ceased its development but secretly continued to do research.

The accounts describing the Soviet program are incredible. At the program's peak the Soviet's employed thousands of scientists who annually developed bioengineered pathogens and produced hundreds of tons of plague, anthrax, and smallpox. The Soviets became extremely advanced in their development and capabilities, well beyond anything the United States had realized. The Soviet programs and facilities are now being dismantled in breakaway countries such as Kazakhstan.

The Times journalists present details about the possibility of biological warfare today, writing about Iraq's ability to deliver anthrax against forces engaged in Operation Desert Storm. (Iraq earlier purchased the anthrax agent from a U.S. company.) The journalists also report on the U.S. Government's attempts to prepare for and prevent an attack on the United States. The authors conclude that while a biological attack against the United States is not necessarily inevitable, the danger of bioweaponry is too real to be ignored. They believe that the same efforts that will advance U.S. health and emergency systems will also help overcome the threat. Thus, to prevail, the United States should promote research, increase vaccine supplies, educate medical workers to recognize symptoms, and develop better interagency communication and coordination.

Germs is easy to read, although it contains a bit of journalistic sensationalism and many "revelations" that are not new or surprising. Still, the book is worth reading, if only to remind us of the bioterrorism threat and that the United States needs to take more action to prevent and prepare for the real possibility of an attack.

MAJ S. Walker, USA, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas