Dissertation Research: Reimagining Anthrax: Constructing the Threat and Science of Biological Warfare at Fort Detrick, 1943-1969

1943至1969年间，美国的生物科学家参与了一项秘密武器开发的重大计划。他们这样做在很大程度上是对一种感知到的威胁的回应：即德国和日本的科学家，以及后来的俄罗斯人，正在研究他们自己的生物武器计划。美国科学家的成功只是为他们证实了他们所感知到的威胁的现实。如果美国生化武器科学家能够解决生产和向军事和民用目标运送病原体(如增强的炭疽杆菌)的复杂问题，他们有充分的理由想象美国的主要敌人也能做到这一点。美国科学家早期对有机武器威胁的概念影响了他们后来研究的方向，并在此过程中对生物战科学的发展产生了核心影响。在第二次世界大战和冷战期间，对敌人威胁的感知是美国武器研发的关键刺激因素。故事涉及物理科学的这一方面已经得到了深入的研究和众所周知，特别是在核武器、雷达和洲际弹道导弹的发展方面。相比之下，故事中涉及生物科学和生物武器发展的方面才刚刚开始被描述。最近的研究为我们提供了美国在何时何地推行冷战生物武器计划的大致轮廓，但这一发展的内在动力尚未被曝光，并以任何有意义的方式进行审查。由于关键档案文件的解密，这样的分析现在是可能的。这篇论文的研究项目的目的是考察对敌人生物武器项目的恐惧如何催化美国生物武器的研发，以及对威胁的持续感知如何构建美国冷战期间生物武器科学家的假设、动机、理由、合理化和科学技术成就。由于美国生物武器计划的非常敏感的性质及其与国家安全的关系，大多数关于细菌武器的报告、备忘录、通信等都是保密的，因此直到最近才为人所知。在过去的二十年里，由于解密、信息自由法以及前生物防御研究计划的科学家、政客和军官愿意谈论他们的经历，新的材料变得可用。2000年5月，研究人员对乔治·华盛顿大学的国家安全档案馆和学院公园的国家档案馆进行了一次初步的研究旅行，使研究人员能够准备一篇论文章节的草稿，一场关于生物战及其发展的讲座，一篇于11月在科学学会年会上发表的会议论文，并确认这一主题对科学史的重要性。这笔资金将使研究人员能够继续并完成在国家档案馆-大学公园的研究，特别是关注化学战服务局的大量文件收集(记录组175.3-7)。这些大型记录组包括办公室间备忘录、会议概述、向高级军事和文职官员进行的小组演示，以及最重要的是，关于有关期间大部分时间的实验室研究的月度、季度和年度报告。

Between 1943 and 1969, biological scientists in America engaged in a major program of secret weapons development. They did so in large measure in response to a perceived threat: namely, that, German and Japanese scientists, and later the Russians, were pursuing biological weapons programs of their own. The successes of the American scientists only confirmed for them the reality of the threat they had perceived. If American bioweapons scientists could solve the complex problems of production and delivery of pathogenic organisms (such as enhanced Anthrax bacilli) to military and civilian targets, they had every reason to imagine that America's major foes could do the same. American scientists' earlier conception of the threat of organic weapons served to shape the direction of their subsequent researches and in so doing had a central influence in the development of the science of biological warfare. The perception of enemy threat was a critical stimulus for American weapons research and development during World War II and the Cold War. The side of the story involving the physical sciences has been intensively studied and is well known, particularly with respect to the development of nuclear weapons, Radar, and intercontinental ballistic missiles. In contrast, the side of the story involving the biological sciences and the development of biological weapons hasonly begun to be described. Recent studies have provided us a general outline of when and where the United States pursued its Cold War biological weapons program, but the intimate dynamics of that development have yet to be brought to light and examined in any meaningful way. Such an analysis is now possible, thanks to the declassification of crucial archival documents. The goal of this dissertation research project is to examine how fears of enemy biological weapons projects catalyzed American biological weapons research and development, and how the continued perception of threat proceeded to structure the assumptions, motivations, justifications, rationalizations, and scientific and technical accomplishments of American Cold War biological weapons scientists. Because of the very sensitive nature of the U.S. BW program and its relationship to national security, most reports, memoranda, correspondence, etc. concerning bacteriological weapons remained classified and thus little known until relatively recently. Over the last two decades, as the result of declassification, the Freedom of Information Act, and the willingness of former Biological Defense Research Program scientists, politicians, and military officers to talk about their experiences, new material has become available. An initial research trip to both the National Security Archives at George Washington University and the National Archives at College Park in May 2000 allowed the researcher to prepare a draft of a dissertation chapter, a lecture on biological warfare and its development, a conference paper delivered in November at the History of ScienceSociety's annual meeting, and to confirm the importance of this topic for the history of science. This funding will allow the researcher to continue and complete research at the National Archives-College Park, with particular attention to the large documents collection of the Chemical Warfare Service (Record Group175.3-7). These large record groups contain interoffice memos, overviews of meetings, group presentations to senior military and civilian officials and, most importantly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly reports on laboratory research for a significant portion of the period in question.