U.S. Envoy Protests Soviet Allegations on AIDS

U.S. Ambassador Arthur A. Hartman on Thursday released the texts of letters he wrote to two Soviet newspaper editors protesting published allegations that AIDS is a result of Pentagon germ warfare experiments.

The letters, addressed to the chief editors of the weekly Literary Gazette and the daily Soviet Russia, said the allegations were “as reprehensible as they are false.”

On April 27, Soviet Russia quoted from what it said was a book published in 1984 in Paris by an immunologist identified as Jack Leibovic.

The newspaper claimed that Leibovic wrote that the AIDS virus in the United States was different from viruses found in Africa and in Haiti and “as J. Leibovic concludes, could have been born in the course of experiments to form bacteriological weapons.”

On June 8, the newspaper cited unidentified French and British virus specialists as not ruling out that the AIDS virus could have resulted from materials being released from laboratories conducting bacteriological experiments.

AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome, attacks the body’s immune system, leaving it vulnerable to a host of usually fatal diseases. There is no known cure for AIDS, which is believed transmitted through sexual contact and blood transfusions.

Literary Gazette alleged in October that AIDS might be a result of CIA and Pentagon experiments and, according to Hartman, repeated similar allegations May 7.

In letters to Valentin Chikin, editor of Soviet Russia, and Alexander Chakovsky, editor of Literary Gazette, Hartman cited two articles in Soviet journals last December and April that stated there is scientific evidence indicating that AIDS originated in Africa.

Hartman said Thursday he was releasing the letters because he had not received a response from the editors.

In his letter to Chakovsky, Hartman said the story about AIDS was only one of many objectionable articles that “are nothing more than a blatant and repugnant attempt to sow hatred and fear of Americans among the Soviet population and to abuse a medical tragedy affecting people all over the world, including the Soviet Union.”

Hartman said the publication of the articles seemed strange, especially in light of “the protests of Soviet public figures over Western press coverage of the Chernobyl disaster and constant complaints by the same persons about Western portrayals of Soviet citizens.”

The official toll from the April 26 explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is 26, even though immediately after the disaster some Western news reports said a much greater number of people had died.