Renunciation

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 6 examines President Richard Nixon’s 1969 renunciation of bioweapons. This case study is a crucial example as it represents an explicit and total rejection of biowarfare. Renunciation is typically attributed to self-interested calculations of military utility. In contrast to this accepted thinking, the chapter offers an original and alternative interpretation of events based on the taboo. The analysis identifies a range of causative factors pertaining to the taboo: scandal relating to biowarfare (e.g. Vietnam); public opinion, which was galvanized by (what is termed within this book) ‘taboo advocates’; and the continued international stigmatization of biological aggression. The chapter also considers the dynamics between the perceptions of biowarfare among the military and in the wider public to ascertain how transparency relates to the taboo.