The Biology of Doom: The History of America's Secret Germ Warfare Project

This book isn't just a history. Regis's story of the U.S. and British biological warfare program leaves the reader very relieved upon reaching the part about how the program was abandoned when the Biological Weapons Convention of 1972 was signed. Unfortunately, the next part of his book discusses how the USSR responded to that agreement -- which it signed -- by launching an all-out biological warfare program that created weaponized stocks of superlethal smallpox, bubonic plague, etc. Those stocks still exist and threaten the world today. Nor were the Russians the only violators. Apparently, once the US abandoned the field, other nations concluded that it had become possible for them to obtain a decisive advantage by doing research; before, they had assumed that the US would promptly match any developments, preventing them from achieving any advantage. A devastating example of the Law of Unintended Consequences, and something to remember when other calls for relinquishing technology appear.

I picked this book up at the airport, opened it on the plane and I couldn't put it down. Edward Regis turns this topic into a narrative that is as interesting as a Tom Clancy novel. The book is clearly well researched, and is filled with wit, as well as with a rather disturbing picture of our military development of biological weapons.

Ed Regis tells the fascinating and complete history of biological warfare. The people, places, devices, and organisms. The book is well written, the story unfolds in a way that makes it easy to understand and interesting. One does not have to be interested in warfare or microbiology to appreciate the book.

I am a general surgeon and have practiced since 1956 in Frederick, Maryland - the location of Fort Detrick. I have had intimate knowledge of and direct relationships with the researchers at Fort Detrick. And, as a Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) church member, I have had direct relationships with many of the 2,200 SDA soldiers who volunteered as experimental subjects in what was known as "Project Whitecoat." These projects were conducted by the United States Army Medical Corp Biological Research Division at Fort Detrick from 1954-1973. "Biology of Doom" is extremely well written, very readable and certainly informative. Dr. Regis extensively reports the biological historical events that preceded & followed the 44 years of my contacts with the researchers and volunteers. The book "For God and Country" by Mole & Mole, describes the biological research events of those intervening years. Now that Dr. Regis has made us aware of the biological research of other countries, we can more readily accept the need for the United States to develop it own program. I can personally attest to the factual accuracy of the two chapters that deal with the Whitecoat research projects and I have therefore concluded that the information in the remainder of the book must also be factually accurate.

This is a superior account of a difficult subject-biological weapons. It shows exhaustive research, careful weighing of evidence, and a balanced assessment of these horrible weapons. It is also a great read as Regis finds a compelling, surprising, and at times heroic narrative line in a mountain of government documents and assembles a clear history of what had been fragmentary bits of information.Statements by anyone claiming to know anything about bioweapons need to be checked against this clear, comprehensive, compulsively readable book.