Weapons Pioneer
In 1943 Ira Baldwin, then chair of the Bacteriology Department of the University of Wisconsin, was appointed by the United States military to lead the nation in the development of biological weapons. For the rest of World War II, while he directed the biological weapons program at Camp Detrick, Maryland, Baldwin remained a full-time employee of the university. He also joined the nation's Chemical Corps Advisory Council and served as a consultant to the CIA.
Baldwin returned to Wisconsin and served as a professor of Bacteriology, dean of the Graduate School, dean of the College of Agriculture, and vice president of Academic Affairs and continued to advise the U.S. military during the Cold War. When the university began an oral history program, Baldwin became its fourth interview subject in a series of conversations with Donna Taylor Hartshorne in 1974; additional recordings were made in 1985 and 1987. In 1999 at the age of 103, Ira Baldwin died in his home in Tucson, Arizona.
Listen to Baldwin's candid recollections on the process of developing biological weaponry as a civilian researcher.
Justifications for Biological Weaponry
"The immorality of war is war itself."
Safety Measures
"We developed many new techniques to handle things much more safely."
Civilian Command
"I wasn't even on the payroll of the Department of Defense."
page created on 12.15.2006