A review of the book Germs: Biological Weapons and America’s Secret War by Judith Miller, Stephen Engelberg and William J. Broad about the potential threat of chemical warfare .
This paper presents a detailed examination of the book Germs: Biological Weapons and America’s Secret War and analyzes the authors’ theory that there is a real threat in the near future of something that will be the poor man’s hydrogen bomb i.e. chemical warfare. The paper begins with a chronological history of germ warfare in the past, looks at the potential threat and discusses security issues and the devastation that would be caused by such an attack.
The issue was brought back to the forefront when Saddam Hussein began to promote the manufacture and use of germ warfare against its enemies, both real and perceived. The book also details significant details about the program that was being conducted in the former Soviet Union concerning germ warfare. At its peak according to the authors the program employed thousands of scientists who developed pathogens that were bio-engineered in mass quantity for the purpose of war.