Title:

Letter from Joshua Lederberg to the Federation of American Scientists

Creator:

Lederberg, Joshua

Recipient:

Federation of American Scientists

Date:

10 June 1949

Location:

Box: 7. Folder: 14

Rights:

Public Domain

Genre:

Letters (correspondence)

Format:

Text

Extent:

3 pages

Language:

English

Legacy ID:

BBADPP

NLM ID:

101584906X2400

Profiles Collection:

The Joshua Lederberg Papers

Shareable Link:

https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/101584906X2400

Annotation:

Author: Joshua Lederberg. Date Written: August 6, 2001. Node: Biological warfare; BW; biological weaponss; KW: BW; FAS; Kabat; Rosebury; Wolfe; 6/49 perhaps my first comment on BW - difficulties of international control; solicited by Wolfe; Without recourse to the context, the report being commented upon, it is hard to reconstruct the tonality of the response. The issue seems to be about the intrinsic feasibility of BW, rather than the policy issues, although some kind of reciprocal arms control would seem to be in mind. The overriding threat in 1949 was the nuclear arms race, and at this point no significant arms control agreement had been negotiated. Although I discuss retroactivity, I do not believe this has reached my conscience to the level that it did in the 1960's; and I am not aware of any other effort on my part to deal with BW issues through the 1950's. I was acquainted with figures like Werner Braun and Riley Housewright, who were still actively involved in the Ft. Detrick research programs, but had only a vague idea of what they were doing. Not to be blindsided by what the USSR might be doing in this arena (to match their competitive developments in nuclear arms) would have appeared to be an imperative. As of 6/99 I am still seeking further documentation of FAS role; 11/99 Milton Leitenberg has searched the FAS files, with little success, but did uncover an FAS newsletter, by internal evidence < May 1949, referring to Rosebury book about to be published, and a "draft report of an FAS Study Group on BW". Evidently FAS was trying to assess the relative hazard of nuclear, CW, BW.; jl 10/15/98; 6/5/99; 8/6/01;

Lederberg Grouping:

CB. Correspondence B.