alternatehistory.com

Inspired by this half-joke.

So, to take the premise seriously...

The US had a biowar research program during WWII. There were lots of things that could have stymied the Manhattan Project.

So, let's imagine that the US has either not gone with the MP or cut it short. There's more time, effort, and $$$ to put into bioweapons. Let's say that allows the War Research Service to sort out their production problems. (OTL, according to the article above, tests of the production facility in Terre Haute, Indiana showed a lack of "adequate engineering safety measures" resultingb in "contamination of the plant and environs".) By 1945, a usable weapon is available. Truman, looking at the nasty casualty estimates, says go ahead and soften up the SOBs....


Plausable?

What pathogens would work best? Anthrax is likely out. Weaponized Rice Blast wasn't part of the program, but would likely have been wickedly effective. Ebola's wasn't discovered yet (too bad for the Ebola Gay...). Smallpox was ruled out by OTL programs at the time due to widespread vaccines. I'm thinking Cholera or Q Fever would probably be good choices as agents.
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