FOREWORD
After all peaceful means of settling disputes between nations have been resorted to and have failed, war is often declared by one of the disputants for the purpose of imposing its will upon the other by force. In order to accomplish this, a superiority must be established over the adversary in trained men and in implements of war.
Men are nothing in modern war unless they are equipped with the most effective devices for killing and maiming the enemy’s soldiers and thoroughly trained in the use of such implements.
History proves that an effective implement of war has never been discarded until it becomes obsolete.
It is impossible to humanize the act of killing and maiming the enemy’s soldiers, and there is no logical grounds on which to condemn an appliance so long as its application can be so confined. Experiments in this and other countries during the World War completely established the fact that gas can be so confined. The range of gas clouds is no greater than that of artillery and the population in the area behind the front line must, if they remain in such range, take their chance. The danger area in the future will be known to all.
As the first Director of the Chemical Warfare Service, U. S. Army, I speak with some experience when I say that there is no field in which the future possibilities are greater than in chemical warfare, and no field in which neglect to keep abreast of the times in research and training would be more disastrous.
Notwithstanding the fact that gas was used in the World War two years before the United States entered the fray, practically nothing was done in this country before April, 1917, towards the development of any chemical warfare appliances, offensive or defensive, and had it not been for the ability of an ally to supply our troops with such appliances, they would have been as defenseless as the Canadians were at Ypres when the Germans sent over their first gas cloud.
This book recites the troubles and successes of this new service under the stress of war for which it was unprepared and I trust that its perusal will create a public opinion that will insist upon chemical preparation for war.
I feel that this book will show that the genius and patriotism displayed by the chemists and chemical engineers of the country were not surpassed in any other branch of war work and that to fail to utilize in peace times this talent would be a crime.