Washington Post Rejects Op-Ed Critiquing Charges of Communist “Hoax” on Germ Warfare

Photos of U.S. propaganda leaflet bombs modified during the Korean War to carry insects and other materials infected with biological pathogens (from 1952 report of the International Scientific Commission, from photos supplied by the People’s Republic of China)

The history of this period is a press forgery. Falsified news manipulates public opinion. Democracy needs facts. — George Seldes, as quoted in Russ Bellant’s Old Nazis, the New Right, and the Republican Party (1991, South End Press)

Democracy Dies in Darkness — Masthead of The Washington Post

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I recently received a rejection email for a submission I made to the Washington Post. Rejections of submitted material is a regular occurrence for all authors, and would-be writers are well-advised to steel themselves for such an experience.

I am posting the original opinion submission here at Medium because I believe it addresses claims made recently by both the Post and the U.S. State Department in regards to seventy-year-old claims that the U.S. used biological weapons during the Korean War. These are claims I have spent years now researching and corroborating, claims that I believe have not received the critical evaluation they deserve in the public marketplace of ideas.

The State Department position was reiterated as recently as March 14, 2023, in an unsigned statement titled, “The Kremlin’s Never-Ending Attempt to Spread Disinformation about Biological Weapons.”