| BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : NOVEMBER 29, 1999 ISSUE | ||||||||
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| BOOKS
Toxin Tocsin THE BIOLOGY OF DOOM By Ed Regis Henry Holt 259pp $25 Experts say it's so easy to make biological weapons these days that it's just a matter of time before a rogue nation or terrorist group launches an attack on America. It wasn't always so. In The Biology of Doom: The History of America's Secret Germ Warfare Project, Ed Regis describes the obstacles to developing such weapons during World War II, when the U.S. first thought it faced this danger. It was hard to make big enough batches of biological agents for a potent arsenal. And when the agents were delivered by bomb, the detonations killed much of the payload. The first third of the book, lamentably, is spoiled by unilluminating color. For example, in discussing British tests on an island near Scotland, the author notes that in 1881, six tenant farmers lived in cottages there. Who cares? The tale picks up when the war ends. The U.S. wanted to learn more about Japan's experiments on human subjects, but a local Japanese official announced that the program director, Major General Shiro Ishii, had been assassinated. That could have stymied American efforts, but U.S. intelligence learned that Ishii's funeral was fake. The U.S. tracked him down and offered him immunity in return for data that could keep Uncle Sam ahead of the Soviets--angering the Russians, who wanted to try Ishii for war crimes. In the end, the data weren't as useful as U.S. scientists had hoped. The Biology of Doom details everything from a secret test of benign agents inside the Pentagon to a fatal LSD experiment that led a scientist to commit suicide. Regis also uncovers interesting tidbits: He found that the Canadian program was bankrolled by Samuel Bronfman, head of Seagram Co., and some other executives. All in all, this volume offers a workmanlike account of how the world started down what could be a fateful biological-weapons path. By STAN CROCK _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP |
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