Message to the Senate Transmitting the Geneva Protocol of 1925 on Chemical and Bacteriological Methods of Warfare.

To the Senate of the United States:

With a view to receiving the advice and consent of the Senate to ratification, I transmit herewith the Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare, signed at Geneva June 17, 1925. I transmit also the report by the Secretary of State which sets forth the understanding and the proposed reservation of the United States with respect to the Protocol.

In submitting this Protocol for approval, I consider it desirable and appropriate to make the following statements:

--The United States has renounced the first-use of lethal and incapacitating chemical weapons.

--The United States has renounced any use of biological and toxin weapons.

--Our biological and toxin programs will be confined to research for defensive purposes, strictly defined. By the example we set, we hope to contribute to an atmosphere of peace, understanding and confidence between nations and among men. The policy of the United States Government is to support international efforts to limit biological and toxin research programs to defensive purposes.

--The United States will seek further agreement on effective arms-control measures in the field of biological and chemical warfare.

Today, there are 85 parties, including all other major powers, to this basic international agreement which the United States proposed and signed in 1925. The United States always has observed the principles and objectives of this Protocol.

I consider it essential that the United States now become a party to this Protocol, and urge the Senate to give its advice and consent to ratification with the reservation set forth in the Secretary's report.

RICHARD NIXON

The White House

August 19, 1970