Canada used scientists to cover up US’ Korean War biological weapons usage

 

An examination of declassified documents shows that the Canadian government discussed at high military levels “probable” U.S. plans to launch a biological warfare (BW) campaign in 1952, presumably on the Korean peninsula. The documents also reveal that Canada’s government would soon approach and assist three Canadian scientists in writing a public statement condemning those who affirmed Communist allegations of U.S. “germ warfare” in Korea and China.  

Since 1947, Canada had been part of a secret three-way, or tripartite, agreement with the United States and the United Kingdom, coordinating research and development of both offensive and defensive capabilities in the use of bacteriological and other toxic agents.

While a “probable” biological warfare campaign plan was being developed, the Korean War was the only “hot” conflict underway involving the United States, having begun in 1950. Canada had joined with the U.S. and thirteen other nations under the auspices of an ad hoc UN organization known as UN Command to fight the Korean People’s Army and their Chinese allies.

In February 1952, both the Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the Peoples’ Republic of China (PRC) publicly alleged that U.S. planes were involved in hundreds of sorties, which dropped various kinds of bacteriological or “germ” munitions on military and civilian targets. In particular, they accused UN forces of using insect vectors to spread disease, utilizing in part methods and personnel from Imperial Japan’s World War II biological warfare program.

The charges of the use of such “germ” weapons were corroborated decades later by the CIA’s declassification in 2010 of highly secret U.S. communications intelligence reports documenting some of the biowarfare attacks.  (more...)

Canada used scientists to cover up US’ Korean War biological weapons usage