War of Nerves: Chemical Warfare from World War I to Al-Qaeda (review)

Jonathan Tucker's War of Nerves is a splendid history of nerve gas. Beginning with chapter three, the author, in clear language, offers both the experts in the field and the layperson a gripping narrative, interspersed with analysis. Proceeding in chronological fashion, he casts new light on aspects of the various nerve gas programs and deepens the reader's knowledge of the formidable challenge posed by these deadly weapons. Dr. Tucker describes the secret nerve gas program, undetected by the Allies, developed by Nazi Germany, in the later 1930s, and the debate within high Nazi circles during World War II as to whether it should be unleashed against the Western allies and the Soviets. He then covers the postwar race between the U.S.S.R. and the Western Allies to secure the expertise of the former German scientists who worked on the nerve gas program; the chemical weapons [CW] build-up of the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., and the lesser programs of the U.K., France, and other players. In comprehensible language, he provides information on the production processes involved in the manufacture of the first nerve agents (tabun, sarin, soman) and the later V (venomous) agents, each new entry more deadly than its predecessor. The process of producing and testing the nerve gases was plagued with accidents and fatalities: in 1953, RAF volunteer Ronald Maddison was killed in a trial at Porton Down, England; in 1987, a Soviet scientist, Andrei Zheleznyakov, was badly injured in a Moscow laboratory by fumes released while he was conducting a CW experiment. He died five years later.

One of the more fascinating cases is that of the Soviet scientist, Vil Sulanovich Mirzyanov, who blew the whistle on a new secret CW program, the Novichok (newcomer) binary weapon. After he publicized the existence of the program at a time when Gorbachev had declared that the U.S.S.R. had renounced poisons, he was prosecuted and temporarily imprisoned. Only international pressure secured his release. Familiar to readers is the Skull Valley accident in which over 6,000 sheep were killed or permanently injured when a U.S. Air Force jet fighter sprayed them with VX. Tucker also provides a gripping account of the Aum Shinrikyo sarin attacks in Japan.

In the final chapter, "The Emerging Threat," and in a sober epilogue, "Toward Abolition," Tucker both sounds caution and offers hope. Although the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention prohibiting the development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons was widely accepted throughout the international community, a number of holdouts (especially in the volatile Middle East) pose continuing concern.

Moreover, a new threat has emerged: the rise of world-wide terrorist organizations, especially Al Qaeda, who have expressed determination to secure weapons of mass destruction and who are unlikely to show any compunction in using them. This challenge could prove far more difficult to counter than the danger posed during the Cold War when deterrence could fix on geographically identifiable opponents. The need to destroy the existing stocks of chemical weapons has become imperative. Unfortunately, participating nations (especially the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.) are discovering that it is easier to build them than to destroy them.