ABSTRACT
The Geneva Protocol of 1925 prohibits the use of chemical and biological weapons, but it does not ban the development of such weapons. The Biological Weapons Convention of 1972 goes further than the Geneva Protocol. It bans not just the use, but also the production of biological weapons. A number of senior officers within North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have argued that it is necessary for NATO to have a modern chemical capability to match the threat posed by Warsaw Pact capabilities. In spite of the considerable efforts made by the Reagan Administration to persuade them, the United States Congress refused, in 1984, for the third year running, to provide funds required to move from research and development to full-scale production of new binary nerve-gas weapons. The Soviet Union has a large number of soldiers specially trained in chemical warfare, and the Soviet Union has a large stockpile of chemical munitions.
