Changes

==Banning gas in 1920s==

==Banning gas in 1920s==

After years of agitation by women's groups in Europe and the U.S. (led by [[Jane Addams]]). the 1925 Geneva protocol banned poison gas as an illegal weapon of mass destruction.<ref> Allison Sobek, "How Did the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom Campaign Against Chemical Warfare, 1915-1930?" ''Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000'' (2001) #5; Cook (2000)</ref> Nevertheless in the pacifistic decade of the 1920s, dire predictions struck fear worldwide that the next war would see long-range bombers gassing millions of civilians in the large cities. Technologically that was quite impossible (it would take hundreds of thousands of bomber sorties to gas New York City or London), but the fears presaged the nightmares in the 1960s about nuclear weapons that were all too true. Apart from chemists who insisted that gas was far more humane than high explosives, the military did not want chemical warfare. It therefore acquiesced in the international consensus reached in the 1920s that poison gas was an illegal and immoral weapon of mass destruction. Nations pledged never to use it first--but they nevertheless prepared masks and their own stocks of poison in case they needed to retaliate. Since 1918 gas has occasionally been used in remote areas against civilians or soldiers with no protection. (Washington vehemently denies undocumented allegations that it ever used poison gas, nerve gas, or biological weapons.) Since 1918, no nation has used poison gas against a foe that had masks or gas of its own.<ref> Italy used mustard gas in Ethiopia in 1935.</ref>  During [[World War II]] the Nazis experimented with killings using carbon monoxide, but switched to a special purpose poison called Zyklon B, the poison gas used to murder millions of Jews in the [[Holocaust]].

After years of agitation by women's groups in Europe and the U.S. (led by [[Jane Addams]]). the 1925 Geneva protocol banned poison gas as an illegal weapon of mass destruction.<ref> Allison Sobek, "How Did the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom Campaign Against Chemical Warfare, 1915-1930?" ''Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000'' (2001) #5; Cook (2000)</ref> Nevertheless in the pacifistic decade of the 1920s, dire predictions struck fear worldwide that the next war would see long-range bombers gassing millions of civilians in the large cities. Technologically that was quite impossible (it would take hundreds of thousands of bomber sorties to gas New York City or London), but the fears presaged the nightmares in the 1960s about nuclear weapons that were all too true. Apart from chemists who insisted that gas was far more humane than high explosives, the military did not want chemical warfare. It therefore acquiesced in the international consensus reached in the 1920s that poison gas was an illegal and immoral weapon of mass destruction. Nations pledged never to use it first--but they nevertheless prepared masks and their own stocks of poison in case they needed to retaliate. Since 1918 gas has occasionally been used in remote areas against civilians or soldiers with no protection. (Washington vehemently denies undocumented allegations that it ever used poison gas, nerve gas, or biological weapons in Korea or Vietnam or anywhee else.) Since 1918, no nation has used poison gas against a foe that had masks or gas of its own.<ref> Italy used mustard gas in Ethiopia in 1935.</ref>  During [[World War II]] the Nazis experimented with killings using carbon monoxide, but switched to a special purpose poison called Zyklon B, the poison gas used to murder millions of Jews in the [[Holocaust]].

Nevertheless poison gas still strikes fear--as evidenced in the [[Gulf War]] of 1991, when no gas was in fact used. In World War II, the major armies had large supplies of poison gas ready to retaliate in case the other side used it, but were very reluctant to use it under any circumstances.<ref> On December 2, 1943, German warplanes bombed an American transport ship in the harbor of Bari, Italy, that contained canisters of mustard gas. The gas was released and killed 1000 Allied soldiers and more a thousand civilians. Gerald Reminick, ''Nightmare in Bari: The World War II Liberty Ship Poison Gas Disaster and Coverup'' 2001. </ref>  

Nevertheless poison gas still strikes fear--as evidenced in the [[Gulf War]] of 1991, when no gas was in fact used. In World War II, the major armies had large supplies of poison gas ready to retaliate in case the other side used it, but were very reluctant to use it under any circumstances.<ref> On December 2, 1943, German warplanes bombed an American transport ship in the harbor of Bari, Italy, that contained canisters of mustard gas. The gas was released and killed 1000 Allied soldiers and more a thousand civilians. Gerald Reminick, ''Nightmare in Bari: The World War II Liberty Ship Poison Gas Disaster and Coverup'' 2001. </ref>  

</ref> When one local Polish unit used mustard gas against the Nazi invaders in 1939, the Germans did not retaliate. Britain deliberately ignored Japanese use of gas against China and Italian use against Ethiopia.<ref> Jeffrey W. Legro, "Military Culture and Inadvertent Escalation in World War II." ''International Security'', Vol. 18, No. 4 (Spring, 1994), pp. 108-142 [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0162-2889(199421)18%3A4%3C108%3AMCAIEI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-W in JSTOR]</ref>

</ref> When one local Polish unit used mustard gas against the Nazi invaders in 1939, the Germans did not retaliate. The Allies deliberately ignored Japanese use of gas against China and Italian use against Ethiopia.<ref> Jeffrey W. Legro, "Military Culture and Inadvertent Escalation in World War II." ''International Security'', Vol. 18, No. 4 (Spring, 1994), pp. 108-142 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2539179 in JSTOR]</ref>

 

==Further reading==

==Further reading==

*  Fries, Amos Alfred, and  Clarence Jay West. ''Chemical Warfare'' (1921) 445 pages [http://books.google.com/books?id=kGGpuj9s-tIC&pg=PA126&dq=phosgene&num=30&as_brr=1 online edition]

*  Fries, Amos Alfred, and  Clarence Jay West. ''Chemical Warfare'' (1921) 445 pages [http://books.google.com/books?id=kGGpuj9s-tIC&pg=PA126&dq=phosgene&num=30&as_brr=1 online edition]