Book Description

        A Higher Form of Killing begins with the First World War, when poison gas killed or maimed one and a half million men in the mud of Flanders. It tells of the Japanese use of mustard gas and biological weapons in the l930s, the Nazis' discovery of nerve gas in 1937, and the huge arsenal of chemical weapons which Hitler, who used gas to kill millions in concentration camps, several times came close to using in battle. It tells of horrifying secret experiments with anthrax (in Great Britain in the l940s), the development of the plague bacillus, and futuristic attempts to tinker with the genetic code. A Higher Form of Killing reveals that Churchill planned to use gas in l940; that the British stored two million cattle cakes impregnated with anthrax for dropping on Germany; that the Americans made millions of biological bombs and debated plans to "drench" German cities with germs; and that anti-crop agents were used against Germany and Japan, causing widespread starvation. The United States used tons of chemical defoliants in Vietnam; there is strong evidence that that has been widely debated that the Russians used chemical warfare in Laos, Afghanistan, and Eritrea.

        Drawing extensively on American, British, European, and (where possible) Russian sources- most of them previously classified or unavailable- this timely book tells the secret history of chemical and germ warfare. Today the United States leads in the development of these weapons. Germ warfare has been outlawed, but the new and frightening prospect of a chemical weapons race is a subject of national and international concern. In writing this book, the authors have received wide support from soldiers and internationally renowned scientists

Reviews       

        A Higher Form of Killing by Robert Harris and Jeremy Paxman is a important addition to the very small number of written accounts available to the public on the subject of chemical and biological warfare. It presents an astonishing account of the British-U.S. World War II development and production of anthrax bombs, at Churchill's insistence, for possible use against German population centers. Now eclipsed by nuclear weapons, germ weapons have been outlawed by the 1972 Biological Warfare Convention, and, even before that, in 1969, such biological and toxin weapons were unilaterally and unconditionally renounced by the United States. But poison gas weapons have not been outlawed. U.S.-Soviet negotiations to do so have been suspended by the Administration, partly because of serious but unproven doubts about Soviet compliance with existing constraints on biological and chemical weapons and warfare. At the same time, with essentially no Congressional or public analysis of the real military and political issues, the United States is embarking on a multibillion-dollar program to produce a new generation of nerve gas artillery, shells, bombs, rockets, and missile warheads, generating much controversy among NATO allies. Against this background, the great value and importance of Paxman and Harris's book is as a reliable guide to the past history and possible future developments in this little-known and poorly understood but possibly momentous aspect of the arms race. --MATTHEW MESELSON, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Harvard University

        By far the best account of chemical/biological warfare available for the nonspecialist reader. Its use of newly opened archival material tells us a lot about how we got into the present mess over these hideous weapons, and may therefore help us to get out. It is an excellent book. --JULLIAN PERRY ROBINSON, University of Sussex Science Policy Research Unit

        President Reagan stands at the brink of a reckless decision to break a 12-year moratorium and produce a new poison gas weapon. He does not need it or the trouble it will bring.

        The Pentagon wants a new nerve gas primarily for European defense. That could ignite another row with the allies, who have not been seriously consulted and do not want the gas on their soil. It could trigger a new chemical weapons competition with Moscow, ending what hope remains for the long-pending treaty to ban such weapons. It could lead to even more repugnant chemical weaponry. And it could spread the industry until many nations and even terrorists gain access to poison gas, now stocked only by the two superpowers and France. --THE NEW YORK TIMES, January 21, 1982

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About the Authors

ROBERT HARRIS was born in 1957 and was educated at Cambridge University (where he was President of the Union). He is a producer and reporter on the BBC television program Newsnight.

JEREMY PAXMAN was born in 1950 and educated at Cambridge before entering journalism. His assignments have taken him to many of the world's trouble spots of the last ten years, including Northern Ireland (where he lived for three years), the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. He has written extensively for a number of publications, and is now a correspondent with BBC television's Panorama.

 

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