From Human Faeces To LSD

One of the most insidious types of weapons of mass destruction are biological weapons. Following deployment, they act within a few minutes or even as long as 14 days, while besiegers can invade the area of deployment immediately. Moreover, this weapon can be used in a hidden form with the most possibilities. It is difficult, time-consuming and complicated to detect them, and in case of certain illnesses, the required stock of medicine is not available. Biological weapons are indeed various viruses and bacteria, and recently there have been experiments with drugs as well.

Resourceful Tatars, Exterminated Indians

But when did biological warfare begin? While there are anecdotes about withdrawing armies leaving behind corpses in the wells of besieged towns even in prehistoric times, the first written record dates from 1346, when a Tatar tribe, the Kypchaks beset the town of Kaffa. There was an outbreak of plague among the troops of the attackers, and according to the chronicles, thousands — and perhaps tens of thousands — had died as a result of the epidemic. The corpses were flung behind the walls of the castle with a catapult, infecting defenders, who surrendered due to the outbreak of plague. The next record is from the 15th century, the era of Hussite wars.

The besiegers of the castle of Karlstein shot the defenders with dead bodies and human faeces collected in barrels, since that time the science of medicine was convinced that contagious diseases are spread by stench, therefore the procedure chosen by the besiegers was not an accidental one. And the corpses and faeces used for this purpose may be considered biological combat substances.

Americans did not want to lag behind others in this ‘race’ either — they infected Native Americans, who were very sensitive to illnesses, with smallpox. When in 1763 the Delaware besieged Fort Pitt, the commander of the fort recorded accurately in the ledger the number of blankets infected with smallpox, which had to be replaced for they were given to Indians as a special gift.

Hungarian Experiments

In the history of modern warfare, this weapon was used again in the First World War. Among neutral states, the Germans operated secret laboratories in Romania and at their embassies in the USA, where they reproduced anthrax and glanders bacteria. With these substances the German agents infected the horse and mule stock purchased by the Entente in the harbours. There are data indicating that they applied this method not only in the aforementioned states but in Norway, Spain, and Argentina as well, where they were engaged in a similar warfare. And though historians reckon that on behalf of Entente it was France that led similar experiments against the Germans, no exact evidence was found. Between the two world wars several states, for instance the Kingdom of Hungary made intensive developments.

In 1938, the Health Inspection Post of the Royal Hungarian Defence Forces was established in Budapest. The institute led by Dezsõ Bartos was highly restricted: it consisted of four experts and two laboratory assistants, who could not leave the barracks. Behind the walls they were dealing with the reproduction of anthrax, paratyphoid, tetanus and plague, and examined the methods of deployment. In addition to projectiles and bombs, they also researched the use of the water supply network. The institute was annihilated in 1944 in a bomb attack, and after that its activity faded away with the past. The issue was raised in 1955 again, when Dezsõ Bartos sent a letter to Mihály Farkas, the Minister of Interior at that time, urging the work to be continued, but the Warsaw Pact prohibited such developments for the member states.

And The Japanese Came

In WWII, biological weapons were not deployed even though the Allied states had them at their disposal. Advancing German forces found documents and designs proving their existence in a French laboratory, the Epidemic Prevention Laboratory of La Bouchet. England also started intensive developments. They experimented with anthrax, and had plans for the annihilation of the British cattle stock with a special cow disease, in case of a German invasion. The so-called N-bomb was a British invention, too, which could have spread anthrax spores in the air. However, the bomb designed to be the final weapon never got to the stage of serial production. The reason for intensive developments was the fact that Allied forces were informed that the Germans had a biological weapon. Nevertheless, the Allied states did not deploy them because of the Geneva Convention, since it would have meant that the Third Reich could have deployed its weapons as well, and this time legally.

But the situation was different in the Far Eastern font. Following the invasion of Manchuria in 1932, the Japanese army relocated its Water Purification Unit No 731 in the area. The task of the unit — led by General and MD Shiro Ishii — was the production of human pathogens, for which they used British and American POWs and local people, and killed them with extreme brutality. In 1939, Shiro Ishii was ordered to deploy the weapons the development of which took the life of thousands of victims. His crew infected the wells and foodstuff with cholera, and they gave the starving locals food treated with typhoid. They dropped porcelain bombs, from which fleas infected with plague swarmed the population. Corps No 100, led by Major General and veterinary surgeon Vakamacu, experimented with materials capable of annihilating the flora and fauna in the first place, with which they wanted to destroy Chinese agriculture. Some say that the number of the victims of Japanese biological weapons competes with the number of the victims of the Nagasaki and Hiroshima nuclear attack.

Combat Pigeons

The most absurd idea for the use of biological weapons came from the British Air Force. Since in 1949, during the Cold War they learned about the nuclear weapon developments of the Soviets, they started their own experiments with new devices. According to the documents of the secret service — available in the National Archives — the British would have used carrier pigeons to send materials, even small capsules to various destinations. And they could have filled these capsules with biological substances as well. Birds were used for combat tasks even before, since agents active in enemy territories communicated with carrier pigeons (among others). Their plan was that each bird would have carried a 60 gram charge, and a thousand pigeons would have been deployed in each mission. In the opinion of the British, the deployment of animals would have been a significant strategic breakthrough, since birds are so small that radars cannot detect them. Nevertheless, the developments embraced by William Rayner were halted.

The Russian developments started in 1973. There were 32,000 experts working for the ‘affiliates’ of the plant called Biopreparat all over Russia. The plant had a site which was capable of producing 45,000 kilograms of frozen plague in a single week. However, in 1992 Boris Yeltsin cut the subsidies first to 50 percent, then 30 percent. Following these measures the plant switched to vodka production. In the course of experimenting with weapons, they successfully developed a special warhead which was capable of keeping viruses and bacteria alive until the missile reached its target. In 1989, they were experimenting with a new kind of anthrax charge with success. They could also produce a genetically modified version of plague pneumonia, which was resistant against vaccination. They completed productive experiments with a mutation of the Marburg virus — there is documentary evidence that its poisoning efficiency exceeded that of anthrax 8,000 times. Biopreparat put an end to experiments in 1991, before their sources ran out.

Fear And Loathing In San Francisco

In addition to various bacteria and viruses, the category of biological weapons includes other substances as well. CIA, the American intelligence service launched their programme under codename MK-Ultra in 1953, in the scope of which they examined the impact of LSD on the human body. There are opinions stating that the programme is one of the ten most cruel human experiments in the world. In the course of the experiments they injected CIA employees, soldiers, civilian personnel, and even prostitutes with drugs. The latter had a purpose, since the main reason for the introduction of the programme was to examine how men disclose secrets while making love. They were watching the reactions of the victims drugged with LSD behind a detective mirror. There are data proving that in addition to New York, there were experiments conducted in San Franisco as well. In most cases, the victims did not even know that they were a part of an experiment. The programme was revealed in 1973. According to the data, there were 150 experimental projects.

It was the Far East again, which set a ‘good example’ in this field, too. The Japanese army used drugs to prepare kamikaze pilots. And some western observers found that the Soviet Union achieved a breakthrough in the use of psychotropic substances, since for them it was a proof that American soldiers captured during the Korean war were hailing Communism. And this is how they explain Cardinal József Mindszenthy pleading guilty to the charges against him at his trial. MK-Ultra was justified by the fear of Soviet progression. In spite of all this, it is highly debated that there were experiments with the drug-weapon in the member states of the Warsaw Pact. Many people say that psychiatric institutes in these countries served political purposes as well, but the data published indicate that these were simple medical abuses, rather than military developments.