A Higher Form of Killing: The Secret History of Chemical and Biological Warfare

The authors have done a great job detailing the history of biological and chemical weapons. I was hoping they would also deal with older history such as the use of chemical and biological weapons in the middle ages etc, but that's the only downside to the book; It's really only a modern history of these weapons and their uses. But an entertaining read about a very worrying subject.

This is the kind of military history that has a special exciting and personal kick to it, revealing as it does, a whole new underworld and understructure of secrecy practiced by all the major military powers in one of the scariest areas of military technology and research known to man; secrecy that infiltrated some of the most obscure communities around the globe, including my own hometown of Pine Bluff, Arkansas. It seems that while this, the art of a "higher form of killing" with CW, may have been invented by the Germans and first used to good effect by them at Ypres during WW-I, other nations, including the U.S., UK, Russia, and Japan, quickly got in the act and followed suit. At the end of the WW-I, research and production on CW continued unabated. The 1925 Geneva Convention (which essentially was a "no first use" protocol) was signed but several of the key players including the U.S., failed to ratify it until 1972. As a result, Germany maintained, and even extended its advantage throughout the end of WW-II, where much to its surprise, the Allies discovered that its intelligence had missed German development of both Sarin and Tabun, two of the most deadly chemicals known to man. What is most significant about this historic intelligence failure is that had the German's not conned themselves into believing that the Allies had also discovered Sarin and Tabun (which of course they had not), they (the Germans) could have recognized their own insurmountable CW advantage and could have then used it to unleash a CW defensive (or counter-offensive) to repel the Normandy D-Day invasion. Such a defense could well have changed the course of history. For we can only imagine the horror the invasion forces would have confronted in the face of a full-scale Tabun or Sarin CW defensive or counter-attack by Germany. Experts all agree that under such circumstances the much herald Allied-invasion would have surely failed, giving Hitler the much-needed breathing space to shore up his crumbling forces across the military landscape. This is just one of the many stories told about the massive "Chemical Manhattan Project" of "Public health in reverse" taking place in our own backyard hidden from view, as the world's primary military actors tried to "out poison each other" with newer and more deadly "insecticides for people." Although once restricted only to governments with advance technological capabilities, today with advances in computer technology and the wide availability of information on fabricating CBW, it has now correctly been "dubbed" "the poor man's nuclear weapon." Even today, eight years later, we still do not know who was responsible for the Anthrax that killed five in Washington DC in the aftermath of 911. For me there is another important footnote to this story. I was a part of the U.S. delegation to the CBW Talks in Geneva at the same time that my stepfather had spent a whole career of 35 years as an "instrumentation Specialist" at the Pine Blu

The book was written before the events of 9/11, however the topics are even more poignant today then they were when it was originally written. Not too technical a read and this book exposes a lot of valuable information about the (expected) double-speak of governments regarding secret research projects. This book is a definite read for anyone interested in the history or possible future of biological and chemical weapons.

Terrorism thrives on fear and imagination in designing weapons of mass destruction to inflict the most damage and death. Massive planes flown into prominent symbols of American pride, bomb-laden trucks exploding in front of U.S. embassies or Marine Corps barracks, explosive charges on a small boat rammed into a United States warship, these are the events that come to mind when one envisions terrorist attacks. Chemical and biological warfare seem an improbable choice for terrorists to use due to inability to procure materials or test for reliability. Or is it? A Higher Form of Killing offers another area for terror to grasp hold. Dubbed the "The best account of gas and germ warfare available" by the Washington Post, A Higher Form of Killing presents the history of chemical and biological warfare through several first hand accounts as well as declassified documents that grimly describe its effects. Concentrating primarily on the UK-U.S. relationship developed out of World War One continuing through to today, authors Harris and Paxman shed light on several bio/chem warfare programs developed including releasing "inert" gases over populous cities to see how far the gases would penetrate, full blown experiments using live germs and gases over deserted islands, CIA experiments using prostitutes who administered bio drugs into unsuspecting clients and many more. With several research facilities conducting experiments throughout the western world, germ and gas warfare is a mature industry capable of producing and delivering a crippling blow if employed in a devilish manner. A Higher Form of Killing is a must read for anyone wishing to learn more about the history of bio/chem warfare and for those who dare dream of its future if these deadly weapons were possessed by terrorists; however, it is NOT recommended for those with a weak stomach (graphic descriptions and pictures of physical effects from weapons in this book). A Higher Form of Killing was written in 1981 and thus is a bit outdated; however a revised edition was released in 2002 (still outdated).

This is an outstanding book that outlines the history of chemical warfare through the 1980s. It's an outstanding text and one that was in everyone's personal library when I was a student at the Army Chemical School.Buy it and understand the storied past of our most frightful weapons.