ENMOD CHRONOLOGY
PRELUDE
1967: The United States begins a top secret rainmaking operation in Southeast Asia to hamper the movement of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops and supplies. It runs until July 1972. During the Vietnam war, the U.S. also carries out massive herbicide spraying operations (Agent Orange, etc.) and mechanical vegetation removal with ÒRome PlowÓ tractors.
March 1971: Citing a leaked US government memorandum, a US news report reveals indications of a super secret US rainmaking operation over Laos.
June 1972: Meeting in Stockholm, the UN Conference on the Human Environment adopts Recommendation 218, asking governments to carefully evaluate the likelihood and magnitude of climatic change.
July 1972: Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird testifies to the US Congress that the US has never engaged in environmental modification activity over North Vietnam.
1972-74: US Congress "doves", led by Senator Claiborne Pell, press the Defense Department for release of information about alleged secret US weather modification programs in Southeast Asia.
11 July 1973: The US Senate adopts a resolution (S.71) urging an international agreement prohibiting environmental warfare. S.71 includes a draft treaty with the commitment "to prohibit and prevent, at any place, any environmental or geophysical modification activity as a weapon of war".
28 January 1974: Acknowledging that his 1972 testimony was false, Laird (by then counsel to President Nixon) privately admits that the US used weather modification in North Vietnam in 1967-68. Contents of the letter are leaked.
20 March 1974: In a top secret Senate hearing, the US military admits to "Operation Popeye", a cloud seeding program in Cambodia, Laos, North and South Vietnam. The Pentagon says Popeye ran from 1966 through 1972. At least 2,600 flights spent over 47,000 units of cloud-seeding materials.
19 May 1974: Pell forces declassification of the transcript of the "Operation Popeye" hearing.
NEGOTIATIONS
3 July 1974: Environmental warfare is on the agenda at a superpower summit in Moscow. The US and USSR issue a Joint Statement on Environmental Warfare pledging to hold discussions to consider the dangers of weather modification.
October 1974: President Ford commits the US to negotiate ENMOD; but instructs US diplomats to limit the treaty to a partial ban.
November 1974: One step ahead of the US, at the 29th Session of UN General Assembly (UNGA). the USSR tables a draft treaty for an international convention prohibiting all hostile environmental modification.
9 December 1974 UNGA adopts Resolution 3264 (XXIX), requesting the Conference of the Committee on Disarmament (CCD) to negotiate a convention as soon as possible. No countries vote against. The US and four others abstain. The General Assembly attaches the Soviet draft text.
December 1974 - August 1975: In secret bilateral talks, the US and USSR negotiate a new draft convention.
July-August 1975: The CCD hears experts on environmental modification; but does not begin to negotiate treaty text.
21 August 1975: The USSR and US simultaneously submit the same draft text of an ENMOD Convention (the "identical texts"). The new text's scope is substantially narrower than the original Soviet proposal and that called for by the US Senate.
11 December 1975: UNGA adopts Resolution 3475 (XXX), requesting the CCD to continue negotiations. Reflecting many countries' dissatisfaction with the identical texts, UNGA instructs the CCD to continue work "bearing in mind existing proposals, suggestions, as well as relevant discussion at the General Assembly."
February-September 1976: The CCD negotiates the ENMOD Convention. At superpower insistence, debate is based on the identical texts. Although it fails to achieve consensus, on September 2, the CCD transmits a draft text to the 31st Session of UNGA.
November: The First Committee debates the draft convention.
3 December 1976: Following a difficult debate, the First Committee approves the draft text, burying alternative proposals for states to assess the treaty text and/or to return it to the CCD for further negotiation.
10 December 1976: UNGA approves ENMOD, requests the Secretary-General to open the Convention for signature at the earliest possible date, and refers the text to States for consideration, signature and ratification.
18 May 1978: ENMOD is opened for signature in Geneva.
5 October 1978: ENMOD enters into force with the deposit of the instrument of ratification of Laos, the twentieth State Party.
REVIEW CONFERENCES
10 September 1984: The First ENMOD Review Conference begins in Geneva.
February 1992: Iraqi troops set fire to Kuwait's oil infrastructure with devastating environmental consequences.
18 September 1992: The Second ENMOD Review Conference begins in Geneva.