Incapacitating Agents

Incapacitating agents were developed through intensive study and research. They are used to wage and win a war without resorting to the massive killing, enormous destruction of property, and immense monetary cost, as in past wars, which undeniably will characterize any future conflict in which nuclear weapons are used. Incapacitating agents are the latest discovery. Many are still in the research, development, and testing stage; much remains to be learned about them.

Effects of these incapacitating agents are not predictable, and with any person, the effects may even change from dose to dose. During a single exposure, a person's feelings may range from impatience, restlessness, and anxiety to an exuberant sense of happiness. He may suffer from delusions of persecution or grandeur. He may reach a catatonic state where he cannot move voluntarily and will hold any position in which he is placed. In this state, a person may suffer from hallucinations, panic, and make violent outbursts.

An agent of this type is BZ, a slow-acting aerosol. It enters the body by inhalation and interferes with mental processes that control bodily functions.

Although there are many unanswered questions concerning the physiological action of these incapacitating compounds and much research remains to be accomplished, they offer many advantages. Some of these advantages are listed below: . They are flexible. The effects can be

tailored to meet a commander's needs-ranging from drowsiness or mild hallucinations and confusion and lack of physical coordination to hysteria, irresponsibility, or complete withdrawal. . They are economical. They are far less

expensive to produce, pound for pound, than fissionable materials or even some of the more advanced conventional weapons,

. They are not destructive. An enemy nation subdued by the use of incapacitating agents against its armed forces and against its support services will not pose to the victors the mammoth problems of reconstruction and rehabilitation. Factories will remain standing; cities will still be alive. . They are less injurious. Properly employed, these agents are likely to cause far less

loss of life, less maiming or crippling, and less permanent aftereffects than has been true of high explosives used in past conflicts.

. They area simpler weapons system. Agents of this type are easily stored, loaded into munitions, and delivered on target. They may be projected from generators upwind of the enemy as an aerosol; they may be introduced clandestinely into his food and water supplies; they may be injected, by one well-placed agent, into the ventilating systems of large headquarters.

Table 9-2.-Chemical Agent Detection Capabilities

. They are difficult to detect. Most agents of this type are colorless, odorless, tasteless, and produce no immediately recognizable physiological symptoms. Sprays can be made to resemble obscuring smoke; artillery shells can be designed that display the same burst characteristics as HE rounds.

Effective personal protective measures can be adopted with incapacitating agents as with other chemicals-the protective mask, protective clothing, highly sensitive alarms, or detectors.

Toxins

Toxins are poisonous products of animal or vegetable cells. When injected into animals or people, they cause the formation of antibodies called antitoxins. The most important toxins are those produced by bacteria, the most potent of which is botulin. Boutlin is hundreds of times more poisonous than phosgene, mustard gas, or cyanide, and it is several times more toxic than rattlesnake or cobra venom. Toxins can be used

in two ways: (1) They can be produced outside the body and introduced into food, water, or wounds, or (2) the organisms producing them can be used as agents. In peacetime, control is exercised over diseases of this group by strict sanitary measures and thorough medical inspection of all foods prescribed by the Food and Drug Administration.

Incendiaries

Incendiary weapons, unlike other chemical agents, are concerned primarily with material damage rather than with inflicting casualties. Incendiaries have been used against personnel. However, their greatest application is in the destruction of industrial installations, housing, ammunition, fuel dumps, and so on.

Modern military incendiaries may be divided into three categories-oil, metal, and a combination of oil and metal. They may also be divided into spontaneously flammable materials, such as phosphorous, and those agents requiring ignition, such as magnesium and thermite.