1

The History of

Chemical Weapons: Uses and Efforts to

ContainGuy Valente, Programme Officer, Assistance and Protection Branch

Technical Secretariat

24 April, 2019

Oslo, Norway

22

Objective

Build familiarity with the genesis

of chemical weapons (CW) and

of the international efforts to

contain the threat posed by CW.

33

Ancient CW

China

• 1000 B.C.

• ‘Poison bombs’

• Noxious substances mixed with explosives.

• Contained: excrement, insects, poisonous plant resins, arsenic.

44

Ancient CW

Dura-Europos

(modern Syria)

• 256 B.C.

• Greek, Parthinian, Roman border area.

• Siege defense/Tunnel denial

• Combustion of tar and sulfur

55

Ancient CW

Mithradates VI of Pontus

• 73-63 B.C.

• ‘Poisoner King’

• Arrows dipped in snake venom.

• Hallucinogen contaminated honey.

Ottoman viperRhododendron

66

Ancient CW

Siege of Kirrha

(Greece)

• First Sacred

War

• 6th Century B.C.

• Hellebore root Amphictyonic League of

Delphi vs. city of Kirrha.

Diarrhea left city

inhabitants incapacited

and unable to fight.

77

Ancient CW

China (cont.)

• 4th Century B.C.

• Siege defense.

• Pumping arsenical

smoke into tunnels

dug by invaders

88

Ancient CW

Scorpion Bombs of

Hatra

(Modern Iraq)

• 198 A.D. and

today

• Imperial Roman

Legion and ISIL

• Likely false, but

so what?

99

Ancient CW (Naval)

China (cont.)

• 1141

• Tear gas in naval combat.

• Large firecrackers (paper explosives) filled with lime and sulfur.

• Irritant smoke affecting the eyes

1010

Ancient CW (Naval)

Battle of Sandwich

• 1217

• Quick-lime (Calcium

oxide) in fine powder.

• English ships moved

upwind and

released.

• French crews

blinded.

1111

Pre-modern CW

Siege of Groningen

(Netherlands)

• 1672

• Christoph Bernhard van Galen, the Bishop of Munster

• Belladonna alkyloidspacked within explosives

• Led to the first international agreement on CW

121212

First International Agreement

Banning the Use of CW(Two Parties: France + Holy Roman Empire)

Strasbourg Agreement

(August 27 1675)

Banned the use of “perfidious and odius” toxic devices

131313

(15 Parties: All European)

Brussels Conference of 1874

(July 27-August 27)International agreement concerning the laws and

customs of war submitted to the conference by the

Russian Government. Prohibited “employment of poison

or poisoned weapons, and the use of arms, projectiles or

material to cause unnecessary suffering.”

Accepted by the Conference, but not

ratified by all parties . . . Non-binding

141414

Hague Conventions

(1899-1907)

Contracting parties to the 1899 Hague Conventions

declared their agreement to abstain from the 'use of

projectiles, the sole object of which is the diffusion of

asphyxiating or deleterious gases'.

Additional series of conventions was

planned for 1914 but did not occur.

Why?

1515

World War I

• 1914 Small scale

attacks with tear gas

• First large scale CW

attack with chlorine on

22 April 1915 at Ieper

(Belgium) – 5000

dead, 15000

casualties.

1

5

World War I, 1915Gas attack, Western Front (World War I)

1616

World War I• Choking agents

chlorine and phosgene

gases initially released

from cylinders on the

battlefield and

dispersed by the wind

– many friendly fire

casualties.

• Later in the war

chemical shells and

mortars introduced

• .

1

6

1717

CW in World War I: Not enough bats

1

7

Professor Fritz

Haber (Germany)

1868 – 1934

• Natural source of nitrate

• Imported from Brazil

• Naval blockade forced

research of new options

• Cl2

• CG

1818

World War I

1

8

Soldiers on 10 April 1918 in France,

blinded from exposure to mustard gas

July 1917

blister agent

Mustard gas

first used

By end of war

90000 fatalities

and 1.3 million

casualties due

to CW

Over 100 000

tones of CW

used

191919

Geneva Protocol

(1925)

…Prohibition of the Use of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or

Other Gases, and Bacteriological Methods of Warfare.

Member States could still use CW

against non-Member States.

Only covers use.

2020

Post WWI – Nerve Agents

Dr. Gerhard Shrader (1903-1990)

• Developing pesticides for Bayer.

• Discovered workers suffering blindness and weakness over time.

• Developed first ‘G’ agent (Tabun, GA) and reported it to MoD.

• MoD puts Shrader and colleagues on full time CW development.

Insecticide research. Germany, 1930s

2121

Post WWI – Nerve Agents

Dr. Gerhard Shrader (1903-

1990) cont.

• Sarin (GB) is developed by

1938

• Shrader, Ambros, Ridiger, van

der LINde

2222

WWII – Nerve Agents

Drs. Kuhn and Henkel

• 1944 Soman (GD) developed

• ‘GC’ was not used as a designation to avoid confusing with CG (phosgene)

• 1945 Red Army captured almost all German labs

2323

2

3

World War II

• Why no CW were used on the

battlefield?

Geneva Protocol prohibition

Public opinion

Risk of retaliation in kind

Lack of effective protection

Unpredictable behaviour of agents

Misleading intelligence

2424

Post WWII – Nerve Agents

Preamble to Cold War

• 1947 – USA, UK and Canada form ‘Tripartite Treaty’ to combat USSR CW development.

• Drs. Ghosh and Newman (UK), working in pharmaceuticals, discover ‘Amitom’, later refined as VX

2525

Cold War1947 – 1989 (or ???)

• The United States and the Soviet Union both maintained

enormous stockpiles of chemical weapons, primarily nerve

agents, amounting to tens of thousands of tons

• The amount of chemical weapons held by these two

countries was enough to destroy much of the human and

animal life on Earth

2626

Cold WarUSA USSR/RF

2727

Iran – Iraq War (1980-1988)

• Iraq used chemical

weapons in Iran during

the war in the 1980s

• Around 100,000

Iranian soldiers and

civilians were affected

by Iraqi chemical

weapons during the

1980-88 war with Iraq

2828

Post Iran – Iraq War (1988)

• Iraq used

mustard and

nerve agents

against Kurdish

residents of

Halabja, in

Northern Iraq, in

1988 resulting

in ~5000

deaths

2929

Chemical Terrorism - Japan (1994-1995)

• GB used by Aum

Shinrikyo Cult

Matsumoto : 27 June 1994•carried out the world's first use of

chemical weapons in a terrorist attack

against civilians

•released sarin in this central Japanese city

•killed 8 and injured >200

Tokyo : 20 March 1995 attack on subway in 1995

12 dead ~5000 injured

3030

CWC Enters into force

29 April 1997

(next presentation)

3131

3

1

CW use in the Syrian Arab Republic

• “The OPCW- United Nations joint mission collected convincing evidence that chemical weapons were used in the Ghouta area of Damascus on 21 August 2013”

• The report did not specify whether the government or opposition groups were responsible for the alleged attacks, which happened between March and August 2013.

• Repeat of allegations in May 2014 – followed by establishment of the OPCW Fact Finding Mission.

• Ongoing allegations and counter-allegations (Government and Armed Opposition Groups (AOGs) since then. Work of the FFM continues to this day.

3232

Conclusion• Chemicals have long been viewed as a counter to kinetic

defense methods

• Throughout history, agents and delivery methods have

adapted to meet needs (Siege, siege-defense, ships, lack of

nitrate, psychological effect, etc.)

• CW has always been problematic (indiscriminate, weather

dependent, messy, denies area to advance)

• Efforts to ban CW use are many, but have traditionally

lacked universality and left open the possibility of residual

threat.

• Into late 20th century, near global consensus for a treaty

banning not only ‘use’, but development, stockpiling etc.

3333

Acknowledgements

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War, Trans. Crawley, Richard (Hertfordshire, 1997)

James, Peter and Thorpe, Nick Ancient Inventions (London, 1994)

Volkman, E. Science Goes to War (New York, 2002)

Mayor, A. Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs: Biological & Chemical Warfare in the Ancient

World (Overlook, 2008)

Lockwood, J. Six-legged Soldiers: Using Insects as Weapons of War (Oxford 2009)

Clarke, Robin (1968), We all Fall Down: The Prospect of Biological and Chemical Warfare (London: Allen

Lane; The Penguin Press).

Hersh, Seymour M. (1968), Chemical and Biological Weapons: America's Hidden Arsenal (Indianapolis:

The Bobbs-Merrill Company).

International Encyclopaedia of Law: Intergovernmental Organisations