CONGRESSIONAL RECORD -- SENATE

August 11, 1969

Page 23224

Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, for more than 50 years poison gas has been an instrument of warfare, and for all that time Americans have been repulsed by the thought of poison gas being used to kill and maim people.

As a nation, America traditionally has viewed the case of poisonous gases as inhumane. We have sought to make gas an illegal weapon of war, and in two world wars we declined to use it to kill our enemies.

Despite our public stance, American military contracts have continued to be let and military personnel have been assigned to the task of researching, developing, manufacturing, and storing poison gas and biological agents.

Until a year ago, gas and germ warfare seemed a subject for science fiction. Members of Congress were vaguely aware of the research and development programs, but regarded them as contingency operations, first, to deter other nations from using such weapons first; and second, to aid in research on countermeasures. The first major rumbling of complaint came with the use of tear gas, defoliants, and napalm in Vietnam. More vigorous complaints erupted with news of dangers from testing and disposal of chemical and biological materials and weapons in the United States.

The first major incident came last year when more than 6,000 sheep died in Utah, near the Dugway Proving Ground, where chemical and biological warfare materials were tested. The sheep fell victims to a nerve gas released by a plane. For a long time military secrecy cloaked the cause of the deaths. Now, thanks in large part to the work of Representative RICHARD D. MCCARTHY, Democrat, of New York, the facts about that incident and other threats from our chemical and biological warfare program are being given to the Congress and to the public.

The second major incident -- or near incident -- was the Army's plan to transport 27,000 tons of poison gas containers by rail from Colorado to the east coast where it would be loaded on barges and dumped in the ocean. That plan has been shelved, temporarily, but additional opposition to the chemical and biological warfare program has been stirred up by the fact that the Army was prepared to ship such dangerous materials across the country through large cities without major precautions against accidental discharge of the gases and without serious attention to the environmental hazards posed by ocean disposal.

In retrospect, the Dugway Proving Ground accident and the ocean dumping proposal may have been blessings in disguise. They have alerted the country to a clear and present danger from chemical and biological warfare operations, in peace and in war.

Materials containing anthrax, tularemia and Q fever germs, nerve gas, and other toxic materials are not minor weapons, and secrecy about their development and use does not guarantee safety.

Americans have a right to expect their Government to use great caution in approaching such an awesome set of weapons. They have a right to expect their Government to use more than ordinary care in handling such weapons. They have a right to expect their Government to develop considerable energy to eliminating the danger of such weapons being used in time of war.

The packet of amendments we are considering now will enable us to meet this responsibility.