Seven years of reviewing for this journal failed to prepare your correspondent for such a book as this. Taking what is called a “dispassionate look at the nature of the threat” in eight chilling, doom‐laden chapters, it covers the history and background of the development of NBC weapons and (the only sign of hope in this otherwise terrifying book) the attempts to control their use. Starting with the use of gas by Germany against French, Russian and Canadian troops, and retaliatory attacks by all the Western Allies, in the First World War, and bringing the story forward; chronicling the accidental discovery of Tabun in Nazi Germany; postwar research on the adrenergic and cholinergic, or V agents; incapacitating agents; delivery methods; the long‐term stockpiles of NBC weapons; and the effects of a nuclear explosion, this introductory chapter closes with a none‐too‐reassuring sketch of post‐Cold War arms control negotiations, and the menacing conclusion that the NBC threat is actually increasing rather than diminishing, as renegade scientists work for rogue states who possess a petrochemical industry to produce stockpiles of chemical weapons relatively cheaply.
After this appetizing starter, we embark on three chapters, one for each of the NBC formula. First the chemical agents, distilled mustard, Lewisite, hydrogen cyanide, phosgene, and chlorine gases; then nerve agents like tabun, sarin, soman, and VX; and two incapacitants, CS and BZ. Biological agents deal with anthrax, plague, and “yellow rain” ‐ that is either a tricothecane toxin (US expert opinion) or a naturally occurring product from the droppings of wild honey bees (UK expert opinion): take your pick. The chapter on nuclear weapons outlines their effects and nuclear delivery systems. With some slight relief we change tack to NBC protection systems, encompassing treatments for biological, chemical and nerve agents, respirators and protective clothing, collective protection and medical centres, decontamination water treatment, Gulf War syndrome, and the future (it is supposed that the world has one). “Predictions of future trends in operational roles on the battlefield suggest an increase in specialized combat systems being developed for improved troop survivability”, we are comforted: “infantrymen will have special combat suits.” So that is the message: join the Army and survive an NBC war. A chapter on detection and early warning systems takes in hand‐operated and electronic detectors and radiation. Finally, “The future of NBC warfare” traces the proliferation of nuclear weapons and the attempts to counter this, and ends, appropriately enough for the upward march of human progress, with a statement that a more frightening prospect (!!!) is that of organized crime or terrorist gangs holding the world to ransom with the threat of unleashing a nuclear, biological or chemical attack against a civilian target.
Acquisitions librarians who have persevered this far may perhaps be interested to note that this work is generously illustrated (in many ways the photographs are more frightening than the text), has a glossary and a thankfully short bibliography of only three items. Pax vobiscum.
