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July 12, 1973
Senate Urges U.S. to Seek End To All ‘Environmental Warfare’

By Linda Charlton; Special to The New York Times

WASHINGTON, July 11 —The Senate gave overwhelming approval today to a resolution calling on the United States to take the lead in seeking an international agreement to prohibit “environmental warfare” such as past American rainmaking practices in Southeast Asia.
The “sense of the Senate” resolution, which was sponsored by Senator Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island and 18 others, was adopted by a vote of 82 to 10.
Mr. Pell, a Democrat, noted in a statement released today that the potential military use of environmental modification ranged “from simple rainmaking to possible earthquake stimulation, steering of ocean currents or tidal wave stimulation,” as well as “the danger of unforeseeable repercussions from such tampering with natural forces.”
He noted that the Department of Defense has “failed to deny” reports that weather modification techniques were used in North Vietnam, Laos and South Vietnam for military purposes. He added that he “would be very much surprised if some of the other superpowers have not taken steps to develop their own offensive military weather ‐ modification capabilities.”

Rainfall Pattern Altered
In July, 1972, The New York Times disclosed that the United States had been altering the natural rainfall in Southeast Asia through an Air Force cloud‐seeding program in an effort to cripple North Vietnamese troop movements and reduce the effectiveness of antiaircraft missiles.
The use of cloud‐seeding was said to have provoked an intense internal debate during the Johnson Administration. There were reports that the then Secretary of Defense, Robert S. McNamara, ordered a halt in all such rainmaking late in 1967, but the secret program was said to have continued at least as late as 1971.
Scientists have projected number of other possible methods of tampering with natural forces for military purposes. Among those listed by Dr. Gordon J. J. MacDonald, a geophysicist, in 1968, were the alteration of the earth's temperature, setting off tidal waves and creating a “hole” in the shielding layer of ozone that absorbs much of the sun's ultraviolet radiation. Others have warned of the potential for “possibly uncontrollable and unpredictable destruction.”