In 1951 and again in 1952, China, North Korea, and the Soviet Union alleged that the United States conducted biological warfare (BW) in areas of the PRC and in the DPRK. Although the United States denied doing so and the Communist bloc was unable to produce reliable evidence to substantiate its claims, the allegations were not shown to be complete fabrications until the release of Soviet-era records in the late 1990s. Although even today China and North Korea have not publicly repudiated the allegations, it is now clear that the accusations of the use of a weapon of mass destruction were false and part of a grand piece of political theater. For more coverage of the Korean War on the Digital Archive, see the collections: Korean War Origins, 1945-1950; Korean War, 1950-1953; Korean War Armistice; and China and the Korean War. For a collections resource guide see The Korean War: Collections & Resources on DigitalArchive.org. (Image: Chinese propaganda poster from the Korean War era: "Vaccinate everyone, to crush the germ warfare of American imperialism!" )
