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

1943年至1969年，美国生物科学家参与了一项秘密武器开发计划。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感知的威胁的现实。如果美国生物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（如增强型炭疽杆菌）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。美国科学家对有机武器威胁的早期概念有助于塑造他们随后的研究方向，从而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究和发展的关键刺激因素。涉及物理科学的故事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才刚刚开始描述。最近的研究为我们提供了一个大致的轮廓，美国在何时何地推行其冷战时期的生物武器计划，但这种发展的内在动力尚未被揭示出来，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。本论文研究项目的目标是研究如何对敌人的生物武器项目的恐惧催化美国生物武器的研究和发展，以及如何继续感知威胁进行结构的假设，动机，理由，合理化，和科学和技术成就的美国冷战生物武器科学家。 由于美国生物武器计划的敏感性及其与国家安全的关系，有关细菌武器的大多数报告、备忘录、信函等仍属机密，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科学家，政治家和军官愿意谈论他们的经历，新的材料已经出现。2000年5月，研究人员前往乔治华盛顿大学的国家安全档案馆和大学公园的国家档案馆进行了初步研究，准备了论文章节的草稿，关于生物战及其发展的演讲，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。这笔资金将使研究人员能够继续并完成在国家档案学院公园的研究，特别注意化学战服务的大型文件集（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的小组报告，最重要的是，在相关时期的很大一部分时间里，每月、每季度和每年的实验室研究报告。

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.