On several occasions over the past half century, the U.S. government has had to address the issue of biological weapons use. In two of those instances, during the Korean War and in Cuba repeatedly since the 1960s, the United States itself was the target of allegations of having used biological weapons. In another case, that of the Yellow Rain, the U.S. government was the accuser against the Soviet Union and its allies in Southeast Asia and Afghanistan. And, in a fourth, the 2001 mailings of the Bacillus anthracis spores in Florida, New York, and Washington, DC, U.S. citizens were the victims. In each of these cases, U.S. officials have confonted different aspects of the biological weapons attribution problem.
School Authors: Elisa Harris