I'm just sitting here thinking (yes, i just randomly start thinking about the cold war ) but, why was the US and Soviet Union so focused on building nukes and space technology, when they could have just developed biochemical warfare much more easily with the same effect? Like, each side was so worried about defending themselves from bombs, nukes and ICBM's, and had all these bomb shelters and anti-missile deffence areas... Yet, neither one of them thought to themselves "Hm, we could just release some deadly disease into the country instead of launching missiles..." I just don't get why each side kept building up their space programs, focusing entirely on that... when they could have just invested in biochemical warfare instead...? Same effect, yet much easier... and much more difficult to stop.
Biochemical warfare has been seen as immoral since after World War 1, and was outlawed in the Treaty of Versailles. Since then, in many countries, they are very politically and socially unpopular. Which limits the usage, development, and publication of chemical warfare to some extent. Also; the Cold War was a very political, sociological thing. They were focused on defense as much as offense, and much more focused on publicity. But both countries did dabble in the creation and testing of chemical agents of war. Especially things like truth serums. It was during this period the CIA gave birth to LSD. EDIT: I was wrong about the LSD thing -- never trust a duck
largest chemical weapon attack against civilians in history... Halabja poison gas attack.. [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgJ2xdek3Ro&feature=youtube_gdata
I didn't know biochemical warfare was outlawed in the Treaty of Versailles, interesting! But yes that also makes sense, seeing as how the cold war was very politically strategical, I don't think either side really wanted to make a move, just neither of them wanted to be the one to back down. Seeing as how backing down would show signs of weakness, and nobody wants to be on the weak side. And considering this was an era of influence, USA wanting to spread democracy and the Soviets wanting to spread communism, neither side wanted to seem weak. But seeing as how both sides were pretty much equally matched when it came to missiles and space programs, it would have been smarter to gain the upper hand by doing a bit more research in biochemical warfare. But who knows, maybe they both did and we were just never told about it!
Are you sure? Spreading ideology was the root cause of the cold war and mostly all wars fought within that time period. Unless all of history has been lying to us... lol
It had much more to do with preserving strategic (read: economic) interests and very little to do with ideologies. "Democracy" is a junk term in this case. The U.S.' actions in the Cold War prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that it had no interest in propping up the self-governance of nations in its sphere of influence: look how many democratically-elected regimes it opposed or overturned, and how many totalitarian regimes (can anyone say Pinochet?) it supported. Its real interest was in preserving systems of governance favorable to U.S. Policy and receptive to U.S. corporations. The USSR was doing the same thing within its sphere of influence.
That's true, neither side actually cared about ideology, but the reason they tried spreading their ideology was to gain allies in case of another war. So, yes it was over preserving strategical interests, but it was still about spreading their ideology, because that was their way of strategy. The whole thing seems pretty pointless though, like most wars i guess
You could view the causal relationship in the other way: The spectre of a looming "next war" was the justification they used in order to brutally consolidate their power and strengthen their spheres of influnce.
War United States Style is not about defense, never has been. War United States Style is about increasing the profits of our ruling class, always has been. Always as in "since 1776". The Cold War was all about propping up the military-industrial complex.
Damn, I really had that wrong. To correct myself -- the CIA tested it as a truth serum, it was called Project MKULTRA and wasn't until the 50s.
Chong isn't in that one but Cheech is pretty funny. The overall movie is ok as well, although a bit cheesy and in the end high on morals (something you don't have to worry about with a cheech & chong movie)
It wasn't. It was made by Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman. Duck did edit his post tho. The CIA did however conduct experiments with it.
The whole cold war went over your head. Somewhere between 1984 and Dr. Strangelove is the truth. And tactically, biological agents are useless in a cold war style match, compared to nuclear weapons. Actual launch requires agents (who are all double agents, or double double agents, or double double double agents, or double double double double agents, mind you), coordination, and does not assure any more destruction than a few people who forgot their gas masks. It's all about that mutually assured destruction, baby:afro:
