6.2. Other conspiracy theories (AIDS)
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This article is from the AIDS FAQ, by Dan Greening with numerous contributions by others.
6.2. Other conspiracy theories (AIDS)
One school of thought holds that the "AIDS was a U.S. biological
warfare experiment" myth was extensively spread as part of a
disinformation campaign by Department V of the Soviet KGB (their
`active measures' group). They may not have invented the premise
(Soviet disinformation doctrine favored legends originated by third
parties), but they added a number of signature details such as the
name of the supposed development site (usually Fort Meade in Maryland)
which still show up in most retellings.
According to a defector who was once the KGB chief resident in Great
Britain, the KGB promulgated this legend through controlled sources in
Europe and the Third World. The Third World version (only) included
the claim that HIV was the result of an attempt to build a "race
bomb", a plague that would kill only non-whites.
From the CDC AIDS Clearinghouse:
"Soviets Secretly Tried to Blame U.S. for AIDS--CIA" Reuters (09/30/93)
Langley, Va.--For more than five years, the former Soviet Union
attempted to blame the AIDS virus on a plot by U.S. military
scientists, according to newly declassified CIA documents. The papers
reported that the Soviets launched a campaign in 1983 aiming to tie
the emergence of AIDS to American biological weapons research. The
disinformation was circulated in 25 different languages in over 200
publications, as well as in posters, leaflets, and radio broadcasts,
in more than 80 countries before the campaign was finally abandoned by
the Soviets, according to a study cited by the CIA in the
documents. The Soviets dropped the campaign in 1988 when the United
States refused to cooperate with them on a research program on AIDS,
which was by then spreading in the U.S.S.R., said the CIA article. The
Soviet campaign was apparently retaliation for the Reagan
administration's claims of Soviet-produced "yellow rain," or yellow
traces found on vegetation due to a Soviet biological weapon.
Reproduction of the above excerpt is encouraged; however, copies may
not be sold, and the CDC Clearinghouse should be cited as the source
of this information. Copyright 1993, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD
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