![]() The application of the term to specifically nuclear and radiological weapons is traced by William Safire to the Russian phrase "Оружие массового поражения" – oruzhiye massovogo porazheniya (weapon of mass destruction). įollowing the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ended World War II and during the Cold War, the term came to refer more to non- conventional weapons. Italy used mustard agent against civilians and soldiers in Ethiopia in 1935–36. ![]() Their use was outlawed by the Geneva Protocol of 1925. Japan conducted research on biological weapons (see Unit 731), and chemical weapons had seen wide battlefield use in World War I. Who can think at this present time without a sickening of the heart of the appalling slaughter, the suffering, the manifold misery brought by war to Spain and to China? Who can think without horror of what another widespread war would mean, waged as it would be with all the new weapons of mass destruction? Īt the time, nuclear weapons had not been developed. The first use of the term "weapon of mass destruction" on record is by Cosmo Gordon Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1937 in reference to the aerial bombing of Guernica, Spain: Nuclear weapons are considered to be weapons of mass destruction Early uses of this term Originally coined in reference to aerial bombing with chemical explosives during World War II, it has later come to refer to large-scale weaponry of warfare-related technologies, such as chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear warfare. The scope and usage of the term has evolved and been disputed, often signifying more politically than technically. A weapon of mass destruction ( WMD) is a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or any other weapon that can kill or significantly harm many people or cause great damage to artificial structures (e.g., buildings), natural structures (e.g., mountains), or the biosphere.
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