The target this time was a draft scheme to enforce the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC), a 1972 treaty banning germ war.

ECONOMIST: A running feud

The Soviet Union developed formidable expertise in the art of assassination, and (as a by-product of its germ-war and poison-gas efforts) in making toxins.

ECONOMIST: Assassinations and technology

There were fearsome enough weapons before World War II, including poison gas and germ warfare.

NPR: Revisiting the Birth of the Bomb