Mangold, Tom and Goldberg, Jeff. Plague Wars: The Terrifying Reality of Biological Warfare. New York: St.Martin's Press, 2000. 477 pages.

This book is probably the most comprehensive account to date of incidents, issues, and defensive efforts concerning biological warfare from the 1930s to 1999. Most of the material is from the last twenty years. Although the U.S. printing of this book got little attention, it is more interesting and more detailed than "Germs" by Judith Miller, Stephen Engelberg, and William Broad, which appeared two years later.

Two topics are covered especially well in this book. One is the nature and extent of the Soviet program in biological warfare. Ken Alibek (a.k.a. Kanatjan Alibekov), who had a high position in the Soviet program, defected in 1992. Also, there have been official inspections of biological facilities by U.S. experts since the end of the Cold War. All of this is recounted in great detail. The other topic is the secret South African program in biological warfare during the 1980s, which involved one Dr. Wouter Basson. In recent years the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has brought much of this story to light, and we now know that the apartheid security services actively used biological warfare against their enemies around the world. Other chapters concern the UNSCOM weapons inspection programs in Iraq, the situation in North Korea, and the Aum Shinrikyo cult in Japan. These chapters are much less detailed and seem somewhat alarmist.
ISBN 0-312-20353-5

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