‘Quantity has a Quality of Its Own’

Abstract

Facts about the capability of the Soviet Union to wage chemical warfare are hard to come by. There are no wholly reliable published statements from Western sources about the size of the Soviet stockpile of CBW agents and munitions, and analysts’ intelligence estimates vary by a factor of over 20. Although the Russians have now published a figure for their chemical weapon holdings, their declaration has not been accepted by Western governments as accurate. There is no definitive information in the public domain about Soviet chemical and biological research and development for military purposes. There is, and has long been, an abundance of propaganda on both sides, fed by secrecy and designed to influence public opinion and decision-making in the West — and occasionally in the Soviet Union.