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

1943年至1969年间，美国的生物科学家从事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为了应对一种感知到的威胁：即德国和日本的科学家，以及后来的俄罗斯人，都在追求自己的生物武器计划。美国科学家的成功只是向他们证实了他们所觉察到的威胁的现实。如果美国的生物武器科学家能够解决生产和运送致病菌（如增强型炭疽杆菌）到军事和民用目标的复杂问题，他们完全有理由想象，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认识影响了他们后来的研究方向，并因此对生物战科学的发展产生了重要影响。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。这个故事涉及物理科学的一面已经得到了深入的研究，并且是众所周知的，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，涉及生物科学和生物武器发展的故事的一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进行其冷战生物武器计划的大致轮廓，但这种发展的亲密动态尚未以任何有意义的方式被揭露和审查。由于关键档案文件的解密，这样的分析现在成为可能。本论文研究项目的目标是研究对敌方生物武器项目的恐惧如何催化美国生物武器的研究和发展，以及对威胁的持续感知如何继续构建美国冷战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敏感性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，信息自由法案，以及前生物防御研究计划科学家，政治家和军官愿意谈论他们的经历，新的材料已经成为可能。2000年5月，他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初步的研究，这使他准备了一篇论文的草稿，一篇关于生物战及其发展的演讲，一篇11月在科学史学会年会上发表的会议论文，并确认了这一主题对科学史的重要性。这笔资金将允许研究人员在国家档案馆-学院公园继续并完成研究，特别关注化学战服务的大量文件收集（记录组175.3-7）。这些大型记录组包含办公室间备忘录、会议概述、向高级军事和文职官员进行的小组报告，最重要的是，在有关时期的相当一部分时间里，每月、每季度和每年都有实验室研究报告。

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.