U.S. Chemical Warfare Service
Starting in 1919, the United States, with much of the public advocating a return to international isolationism, began a period of military disarmament as well. This included pressure to disband the Chemical Warfare Service (CWS). The CWS was formed during the war on June 28, 1918, with the primary mission of conducting offensive and defensive chemical operations. In 1919, Brig. Gen. Amos Fries, appointed during the war by General Pershing to organize the 1st U.S. Gas Regiment, lobbied the government and military to keep the CWS a permanent part of the military. Fries gave speeches and wrote articles advocating the use of chemical weapons and sensationalizing the danger to the United States of disbanding the CWS. He also used the domestic chemical industry and the American Chemical Society to advocate on behalf of the CWS. Fries succeeded in his task when the CWS was made a branch of the U.S. Army by the National Defense Act of 1920.
The efforts of Fries and his supporters in the chemical industry may have been largely successful, but ironically the constant barrage of speeches, articles, and lobbying produced an unintended consequence. Fries successfully advocated for a robust American chemical warfare capability, but at the same time his efforts, along with a substantial public relations campaign by the chemical industry, created a heightened fear of chemical weapons and generated pressure to regulate the use of gas in future warfare. Sensationalizing the threat of chemical weapons in order to justify the usefulness of the CWS and further study of chemical weapons also caused a greater demand for regulation of chemical warfare. Fries and the chemical industry had succeeded in retaining the CWS, but had sown the seeds for the eventual international prohibition against chemical warfare.
