War Bureau of Consultants The War Bureau of Consultants ( WBC ) was a committee of 12 prominent scientists and several government consultants put together in November 1941 to investigate the feasibility of a U . S . bio - weapons program . The bureau ' s recommendations led to the creation of an official U . S . biological weapons program during World War II . Background . Despite World War I - era interest in ricin , as World War II erupted the United States Army still maintained the position that biological warfare ( BW ) was , for the most part , impractical . Secretary of War Henry Stimson was mindful of Imperial Germany ' s BW attack on the Romanian Cavalry using glanders during World War I and of its saboteurs introducing the disease into the United States among the military horses and mules being shipped to Europe ( see Anton Dilger ) . It was also understood that intelligence reports ( erroneous as it later turned out ) clearly stated that Nazi Germany had a BW capability . Other nations , notably France , Japan and the United Kingdom , had also began their own BW programs . However , by the outbreak of World War II the U . S . still had no biological weapons capabilities . History . Creation . The WBC was formed in 1941 . The Bureau was formed after a July 1941 meeting of representatives from the Office of Scientific Research and Development , the Chemical Warfare Service , the Surgeon General , and U . S . Army Intelligence . That meeting recommended that the U . S . further study the threat of bio - weapons and the feasibility of a U . S . biological weapons program . Secretary of War Henry L . Stimson requested that Frank Jewett , head of the National Academy of Sciences , issue a report on the topic . Jewett passed the task on to Edwin Fred , a University of Wisconsin biologist . Fred formed the WBC which consisted of himself and 12 prominent scientists . In addition the WBC included liaisons from the Chemical Warfare Service , U . S . Army Ordnance Corps , the U . S . Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery , the U . S . Army Surgeon ' s General Office , the U . S . Department of Agriculture and the U . S . Public Health Service . The War Bureau of Consultants ' work was to be conducted in extreme secrecy . The WBC met for the first time on November 18 , 1941 at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington , D . C . At that meeting it was decided that the WBC would perform a literature search building up to their report . Between the WBC ' s first meeting and its first report Pearl Harbor was bombed and reports began trickling in about the Japanese biological attack on the Chinese village of Changteh . 1942 report . On February 17 , 1942 the WBC produced and released its first formal report . The document was over 200 pages long , included 13 appendices , and an 89 page annotated bibliography . The report laid out the results of the WBC ' s literature search , which showed that there was relatively widespread interest in proposals geared toward BW . The report also made some key recommendations . The WBC recommended that the United States take seriously the threat of biological warfare and take steps to defend itself . Among those steps were the development of vaccine s , and protection of the water supplies . The consultants reported that a U . S . bio - weapons program was a feasible goal . Their report also concluded that the United States should take steps to develop its own offensive biological warfare capability . Response . Stimson forwarded the report , and his summary of its contents , to U . S . President Franklin Roosevelt on April 29 , 1942 . His summary emphasized the danger of biological weapons as well as the U . S . need for offensive and defensive biological capabilities . The value of biological warfare [ wrote Stimson ] will be a debatable question until it has been clearly proven or disproved by experiences . The wide assumption is that any method which appears to offer advantages to a nation at war will be vigorously employed by that nation . There is but one logical course to pursue , namely , to study the possibilities of such warfare from every angle , make every preparation for reducing its effectiveness , and thereby reduce the likelihood of its use . As a result of the recommendations made by the WBC , Roosevelt ordered Stimson to create the War Research Service to oversee the official , and secret , U . S . biological weapons program .