Psychological warfare agent

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Psychological warfare agents are chemical warfare agents that cloud victims' consciousness and are all potent intoxicants . Your goal is to incapacitate your opponent without killing him. As with all non-lethal weapons , however, permanent damage to health or even death cannot be ruled out, since the dose and the duration of exposure cannot be precisely controlled. In addition, intoxicated people, especially when armed, pose an unpredictable danger to themselves and to others.

The main representatives of this class of warfare agents are benzilic acid esters (BZ) and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD).

history

The development of psychological warfare agents was accelerated in the 1960s . The American military conducted clinical studies between 1959 and 1975 , in which approximately 2,800 soldiers are said to have been contaminated with BZ. During this time, comparative tests with LSD were also carried out. It turned out that, in contrast to LSD, BZ is much better usable as a warfare agent. BZ is the only psychological warfare agent that has made it to military use. An alleged use by the United States of America in the Vietnam War , by the Yugoslav People's Army in the Bosnian War or government troops in the Syrian Civil War has not been proven.

The Chemical Weapons Convention , which almost all states have ratified, has prohibited development, manufacture, storage and use since 1997.

See also

literature

  • Charles Edward Stewart: Weapons of mass casualties and terrorism response handbook. Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2006, ISBN 978-0-7637-2425-2

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Markus Schnedlitz: Chemische Kampfstoffe, GRIN Verlag, 2008, ISBN 978-3-640-23360-1 , page 46 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  2. ↑ Dieter Wöhrle: Science-Armament-Peace. Volume 9, Springer, 2007, ISBN 978-3-531-15057-4 , page 207.
  3. ^ Human Rights Watch : Chemical Warfare in Bosnia? . November 1998.
  4. ↑ Chemical weapons in Syria - The mystery about the use of Agent 15 in Homs , spiegel.de, January 16, 2013.