Warsaw Pact

Swatter is in service with USSR and Warsaw Pact armies and in Egypt and Yugoslavia Refs 1) M.J.H. Taylor J.W.R. Taylor, Missiles of the World , Charles Scribner s Sons, NY (1976), 144 2) D.H.R. Archer, Ed, Jane s... 

During the Cold War (ca. 1945-1991), the United States and the former Soviet Union stockpiled massive chemical and biological weapons arsenals. Yet, in the years following the collapse of the Soviet Evil Empire, the threat of Warsaw Pact forces employing chemical and biological (CB) weapons against the Western... 

Figure C-2. Threat Markers. Former Warsaw Pact.

The attraction of such an attack was obvious enough. If the staff of the early warning stations could be disabled, the United States would be defenceless. General Gestewitz told Frucht that the Warsaw Pact had developed a chemical agent which would remain liquid and effective even at forty degrees below zero. It would knock the technicians at the bases out for twelve hours. 

Like a number of other western secret agents, Frucht had become a spy because he was convinced that the Warsaw Pact planned to initiate World War Three. In the early sixties he had been... 

In this manner Professor Frucht passed to Western intelligence details of almost the entire Warsaw Pact chemical armoury details of agents, code-names and protective measures. Among the information he sent to the West was the chemical formula for what he believed to be a new agent, unknown in the West, a variant of the V agents developed in Britain and the United States.19... 

I never dreamed that I d be sitting here in 1980 after we started this back in 1969 and we d have reports of twenty-five Warsaw Pact divisions able to use it. That s what we were trying to stop. Apparently it has not succeeded. Richard Nixon, BBC Panorama, 2 June 1980. 

U.S. and Allied decisions to use pyridostigmine followed established doctrine, taking into account Iraqi capabilities and intentions. Iraq was known to have substantial stocks of sarin and VX, for which pyridostigmine pretreatment is unnecessary, as discussed above. However, Iraq was also known to be keenly interested in acquiring any compounds that might defeat Allied protection, such as soman. The security of Warsaw Pact stocks of soman, for example, was a growing concern in 1990. 

First of all, we need to clarify some definitions. With the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union and the opening up of China, there is a clear need now to look at developments in the lead and zinc industries in global terms i.e., including every country in the world. However, in looking at historic development trends, one encounters the problem of consistency and accuracy of reporting in the former communist countries, particularly the Soviet Union, as well as continuing problems in the collection and collation of data in some of these countries and in China. For this reason, we continue to make the distinction between the transitional economies, which we define as China, North Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, the Former Soviet Union (FSU) and the Warsaw Pact countries of Eastern Europe, and the Western World which comprises all other countries. Much of the subsequent discussion refers solely to the Western World but, where possible, we also quote global numbers and/or numbers for the transitional economies. 

The proliferation of chemical and biological weapons involves a spread in the possession of weapons or of the capability to produce them. Like nuclear proliferation, this phenomenon can have a vertical as well as a horizontal dimension - that is, it can involve the development, refinement, or accretion of weapons by the great powers as well as the spread of capabilities to countries outside the orbits of NATO and the former Warsaw Pact. It can also imply qualitative as much as quantitative developments, since the use of new agents or combinations of agents or new delivery systems could affect the tactical utility of chemical weapons or their effectiveness as a deterrent. 

An approach to chemical protection which is so comprehensive in scope and extensive in provision has several attributes. In the first place, it should enhance the ability of Warsaw Pact forces to conduct sustained operations. First echelon units on emerging from a contaminated area would be expected to decontaminate partially and to continue the advance. If this was not practical, they could move aside while second echelon units rode through decontaminated zones to maintain the momentum. The original assault units could then be decontaminated rapidly (in about four hours for a battalion) before... 

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