Chemical Warfare Tactics since 1945

Abstract

Although chemical warfare has recurred in the post-war period, any study of its tactical applications is beset by difficulties. Of the major reported instances of chemical attacks, only the use of riot control agents and herbicides by the United States in the Vietnam War has been openly acknowledged. The employment of chemical weapons in the Gulf War has been confirmed by international inquiry,¹ but all the other chemical attacks have merely been reported or alleged by various sources. Those charged with using chemical weapons have generally denied the allegations and have sometimes frustrated international inquiries by preventing access to combat zones. Investigators, too, have encountered problems in collecting evidence from remote and relatively inaccessible terrain and their findings have rarely proved conclusive. The enquiries have often become politicised, with governments choosing to act upon their findings or, sometimes, not to act when such action seemed to conflict with their broader foreign policy interests. As a consequence, any study of tactics in the larger post-war chemical operations (such as the reported attacks in the Yemen, Southeast Asia, Afghanistan and the Gulf War) lacks authoritative testimony. Evidence from a variety of sources, though, strongly suggests that chemical weapons were used in various forms and in different ways in each of these conflicts.