Iraqi Use of Gas Spurred U.S. Action on Issue

U.S. intelligence agencies monitoring the Iran-Iraq War were chagrined to discover last year that they had grossly underestimated the impact of chemical weapons on the conflict. Confounding U.S. expectations, Iranian troops who marched fearlessly through Iraqi mine fields would “cut and run” when faced with poison gas.

And in the wake of Iraq’s unexpected success, several Third World nations have quietly sent missions to study the way chemical weapons were used to bring a vastly larger Iran to the peace table--contrary to U.S. estimates that Tehran could absorb almost indefinite Iraqi punishment on the battlefield.

Major Factors to U.S.

Factors such as these played a major role in spurring the Reagan Administration’s current crusade against the proliferation of chemical weapons.

At least theoretically, the threat posed by such weapons--and the relative ease with which they now can be produced--have been known for years. And world reaction was relatively muted when Iraq began using mustard gas and nerve gas against Iran, even though it broke an international taboo that had held since World War I.

What galvanized the Reagan Administration to action--and contributed to the current confrontation with Libya--was the dawning realization that U.S. intelligence agencies had sharply underestimated the terrifying impact of chemical weapons in practice and the fact that smaller nations are beginning to look closely at the giant-killer potential of poison gas.

As CIA Director William H. Webster told a recent Council on Foreign Relations meeting, chemical weapons have become “the poor man’s answer to nuclear weapons.”

“By the year 2000,” he said, “at least 15 developing countries will either have produced or be able to build their own ballistic missiles,” many with ranges of greater than 200 miles.

Possessing ballistic missiles would substantially increase the ability of a country--or terrorists if they should obtain them--to strike with chemical weapons. Ballistic missiles can penetrate virtually all existing defenses. They can also carry the relatively large quantities of chemical toxins needed for a militarily effective attack.

In retrospect, American intelligence agencies have concluded that Iraq’s use of poison gas had a major impact on Iran’s decision to halt its eight-year war with Iraq last year. Iranian troops did not fear walking across mine fields, one U.S. source said, but Iraqi nerve and mustard gas “scared hell” out of them and made them “cut and run.”

What happened in the gulf war was particularly disturbing because, unlike the Soviet Union--which has long integrated chemical weapons into its military doctrine--the United States has given such weapons a relatively low priority.

The recent U.S. efforts have focused on seeking ways to halt the proliferation of chemical weapons.

In addition to the United States and the Soviet Union, nine nations have such weapons or are acquiring them, according to intelligence sources. These include not only Libya but Syria and Israel.

Another 11 nations, including Argentina and South Africa, are seeking to acquire the capacity to produce chemical weapons, U.S. officials say.

The 22 nations that possess or are seeking chemical weapons could double by the end of the century, officials fear. The potential for delivering chemical warheads with ballistic missiles, which are also proliferating, adds to the alarm.

In countries with access to modern technology, most factories producing fertilizers and insecticides can make chemical warfare agents relatively easily and clandestinely.

Limiting the spread of such technology is extremely difficult, however, because legitimate uses involve what are basic economic needs--especially the agricultural chemicals that are vital to increasing agricultural output in the Third World.

U.S. officials worry that Third World nations might use chemical weapons against U.S. forces in brush-fire wars or during naval missions in hostile waters, such as the recent U.S. Navy escorting of oil tankers in the Persian Gulf.

Only two of the Navy’s fleet of 436 surface ships are equipped to operate for an extended period in contaminated environments. Recognizing the new threat, the Navy will “back-fit” about 90 vessels with protection against chemical attack by 1992, although a gas bomb that penetrates a ship’s skin and discharges into its internal ventilation system could still “create a slaughterhouse,” one authority on chemical warfare said.

Similarly, most active military personnel have received some training in use of protective clothing and equipment. The Pentagon spends about $900 million a year on chemical defenses. But tests have shown that soldiers wearing the hot and heavy protective clothing lose half of their efficiency within a few hours and become exhausted within 12 hours.

The United States stopped producing chemical weapons in 1969 and has been slowly destroying old chemical stocks. In October, 1987, however, the Reagan Administration won congressional approval to begin producing two new types of chemical weapons, largely on the grounds that they were safer than existing stocks.