1951年3月13日,中央人民政府卫生部部长、中国红十字会会长李德全发表书面声明,呼吁国际红十字会执行委员会(the Executive Committee of the International League of Red Cross Societies)正式谴责美国在朝鲜使用细菌武器和毒气[14][15]。4月11日,杜鲁门以“未能全力支持美国和联合国的政策”为由撤了麦克阿瑟的职,由马修·李奇微接任。5月8日,朝鲜外交部长电告联合国安理会:从1950年12月至1951年1月,美国在朝鲜使用细菌武器散播天花。[16]:6-25月19日、24日和25日,中华人民共和国政府发表声明说,美国正在准备使用细菌战,并且指责美国在朝鲜战场使用毒气,以便为细菌战做实验检查。9月22日,中国政府再次发表声明,重申上述指责。9月,民主律师国际协会决定派一个委员会赴朝鲜调查各类“违反国际法的行为”。“民主律师国际协会”在一年之前(1950年)就被美国众议院指为共产主义外围组织[17],一些学者的研究与中央情报局的报告也如此认为。[18][19][20][21][22]
根据谢尔登·哈里斯(英语:Sheldon H. Harris)的说法,尽管后来有确凿证据表明美国赦免731部队以换取他们的研究,但美国当局始终否认将研究结果用于实战中。美国及其盟国虽支持联合国的调查,但否认了全部关于其进行细菌战的指控。
1958年,美国政府宣布,“民主律师国际协会”为掩盖的共产党组织,并指控公布该组织“美国犯罪在韩国报告”的记者约翰·鲍威尔为煽动叛乱分子。[39][40]在1959年的一次颇受关注的审判中,鲍威尔被指犯有13条煽动罪,而他的两名助手被指犯有1条煽动罪。美国政府最终撤销了所有指控。但鲍威尔余生没有再从事记者工作,鲍威尔之子表示其父被列入黑名单中[41]。据审判期间的新闻报道,负责此案的美国检察官詹姆斯·B·施纳克 (James B. Schnake) 提交了一份宣誓书,其中表示美国政府准备规定“在1949年1月1日至1953年7月27日期间,美国陆军有能力在攻势和防御上发动化学战和生物战……国防部负责官员已确定,泄露有关这一主题的详细记录将对国家安全极为不利。”[42]
美军因此于1952年豁免日本陆军军医官佐1000余名。北野政次与美军C.B. Philip 上校之联系也被公开[12]。 (注:流行性出血热可能就是后来鉴定的由汉他病毒引起的汉他出血热。此外,藤井的说法存在基本错误,1952年乙级、丙级战犯的全体释放是由于旧金山和约第11条,及杜鲁门总统10393令允许日本政府减免战犯刑罚,之后在日本国内4000万人签字的戦犯赦免运动[63]背景下,1952年12月9日众议院所决定。“52年的东京大审判”更是匪夷所思,因为东京审判在1948年就结束了。且声称731部队军官如石井四郎参与战争早在五十年代就已提出。[64]
美国军医在1997年出版的《Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Warfare》中,引用了1952年8月细菌战指控达到高潮时,朝鲜政府给波兰的信,信中要求资金用来买衣服,而不是如以前用来买血清与疫苗。令人怀疑朝鲜政府是否相信真有细菌战[65]。
《Chemical And Biological Warfare》中引用了苏联外交官拉祖耶夫在1953年4月写给贝利亚的信,提到“经我检查中国人的说法是虚假的……疫区和坟墓是被人为造出来的”。原因是研究人员在接到这些羽毛后,仅做了细菌学的培养,发现在形态上有与炭疽杆菌相近的细菌,据说可能是枯草菌。[66]。
这些披露出来的文件引起了争议。凯瑟琳·韦瑟斯比和米尔顿·莱滕伯格认为他们的证据是确凿的,足以证明对美国细菌战的指控是虚假的。2001年,美国作家赫伯特·罗默斯坦(英语:Herbert Romerstein)支持韦瑟斯比和莱滕伯格,同时批评文忠志和哈格曼的研究,理由是他们的研究是基于中国政府提供的文件。[91]马里兰大学的研究员Milton Leitenberg出版了《朝鲜战争细菌战指控已解决》(The Korean War Biological Warfare Allegations Resolved)一书,就引用了这批苏联文献,称斯大林早已知道细菌战是朝中方的虚假宣传[92][93][94]。《CNN》、《美国新闻与世界报导》报导了他们的研究[95][48]。美联社也报道了韦瑟斯比的研究结果,但是对文忠志的报导要求置之不理[96]。除此以外,很多中国学者也认可这项研究。作家北明认为这些档案是真的,并将档案翻成中文发表于《北京之春》[97]。中国研究冷战历史的著名学者沈志华也相信这些档案是真的,不大可能假造,但是他认为事关重大,要到俄罗斯去把原件找出来才行[98]。这些文件也引起了许多人的质疑,文忠志和哈格曼指出这些文件实际上是手写副本,“原始资料没有披露,收藏的名称不确定,也没有卷号可以让其他学者找到和检查文件”。[99]他们声称,即使这些文件是真实的,也不能证明美国没有使用生物武器,并指出韦瑟斯比和莱滕贝格的分析存在的错误和不一致之处。[96][100]同时,俄罗斯政府从1990年开始解密部分前苏联档案,但没有学者见过这些档案的原件,因此这些档案的真伪还有争议。[101][102][103][104]中国军事科学院的齐德学认为:在俄罗斯没有公布完整的原始档案文献之前,在中国档案文献能够证明这些档案抄件的内容之前,任何对这些档案真实性的判定都只是一种推测,而不能形成确切的结论。美国《冷战国际史项目公报》在发表这一批抄件时专门指出,在正式的档案文献公布前,这批文件的真实性将始终受到怀疑[26]。澳大利亚作家迈克尔·彭布罗克称,韦瑟斯比和莱滕伯格研究文件中与贝利亚有关的文件大多是在斯大林死后的权力斗争时期创建的,因此值得怀疑。[105]
James W. Martin; George W. Christopher; Edward M. Eitzen, Jr. History of Biological Weapons: From Poisoned Darts to Intentional Epidemics(PDF). Zygmunt F. Dembek (编). Medical Aspects of Biological Warfare. Textbooks of Military Medicine. NB1325. Falls Church, Virginia: Defense Dept., Army, Office of the Surgeon General, Borden Institute. 2007: 7 [2020-10-31]. ISBN 9780160797316. (原始内容存档于2020-11-08) (英语). Polish medical personnel were sent to China to support the Communist war effort, accompanied by Eastern European correspondents, who made numerous accusations based on anecdotal accounts of patients. These allegations, however, were not supported by scientific evidence. Some stories, such as the use of insect vectors to spread cholera, had dubious scientific plausibility.
Neil L. O'Brien. Antecedents and Controversy. An American Editor in Early Revolutionary China: John William Powell and the China Weekly/Monthly Review. Psychology Press. 2003: 218. ISBN 0203492838.(英文)
Report on the National Lawyers Guild, legal bulwark of the Communist Party. United States Congress House Committee on Un-American Activities. 1950年9月17日 [2013年5月20日]. (原始内容存档于2016年4月3日). The current international Communist front for attorneys is known as the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. This organization is sometimes referred to as the International Association of Democratic Jurists.(英文)
Central Intelligence Bulletin(PDF). Central Intelligence Agency: 5. October 4, 1958 [2013-05-19]. (原始内容存档(PDF)于2013-07-16). pro-communist International Association of Democratic Lawyers(英文)
International Association of Democratic Lawyers. [2013-05-19]. (原始内容存档于2013-05-16). The Association was described in a CIA Report on Soviet Propaganda Operations prepared at the request of the House Intelligence Committee and published by the committee in 1978, as "one of the most useful Communist front organizations at the service of the Soviet Communist Party."(英文)
Report on the National Lawyers Guild, legal bulwark of the Communist Party. United States Congress House Committee on Un-American Activities. 17 September 1950. The current international Communist front for attorneys is known as the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. This organization is sometimes referred to as the International Association of Democratic Jurists.
Central Intelligence Bulletin(PDF) (报告). United States Central Intelligence Agency: 5. 4 October 1958 [2013-07-15]. CIA-RDP79T00975A004000200001. (原始内容存档(PDF)于2013-07-16). pro-communist International Association of Democratic Lawyers
Eitzen, Edward; Takafuji, Ernest. Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Warfare. United States Government Printing Office. 1997: 419. ISBN 9997320913.
Herbert Romerstein. Disinformation as a KGB Weapon in the Cold War. The Journal of Intelligence History (International Intelligence History Association). Summer 2001, 1 (1): 57–58 [2013-05-20]. (原始内容存档于2014-01-03).(英文)
China: Time for a Policy. The Atlantic. 1957年4月 [2014-06-12]. (原始内容存档于2014-04-13). Peking has fabricated intricate lies like germ warfare and forced them upon tortured American fliers.(英文)
Thomas Powell. Biological Warfare in the Korean War: Allegations and Cover-up. Socialism and Democracy online. 2019-04-17 [2020-12-11]. (原始内容存档于2020-11-26). The US government to this day denies ever having experimented or used biological weapons in North Korea and China during the Korean War. There have been various claims and counterclaims among historians. After many long years of digging in Pentagon records through FOIA, Powell was never able to find any document, not even a heavily redacted one, which proved or even admitted that the US Army used biological warfare in Korea.
Thomas Powell. Biological Warfare in the Korean War: Allegations and Cover-up. Socialism and Democracy online. 2019-04-17 [2020-12-11]. (原始内容存档于2020-11-26). 16. “As for developments during the Korean War, much of the US documentation on biological warfare at that time has been destroyed, is lost, is still classified, or has been painstakingly and more or less successfully laundered before being provided for public viewing…. We have documented that at least nineteen ‘secret’ category communications of 1952 between the Far East Command and the organization within the US responsible for biological warfare were pulled out of the Chemical Corps records before they were finally turned over to the US National Archives in 1969.” Endicott and Hagerman, The United States and Biological Warfare, 187-88.
Dr. Conrad C. Crane. "No practical capabilities": American biological and chemical warfare programs during the Korean war. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine: 241–249. [2002 Spring] [2014-07-18]. (原始内容存档于2014-07-25). Though the American military services did try to increase their abilities in the fields of chemical and biological warfare during the Korean conflict, the American military forces possessed neither the ability, nor the will, to utilize offensive chemical and biological warfare in the manner described in Communist accusations.(英文)
杨念群. Disease Prevention, Social Mobilization and Spatial Politics: The Anti Germ-Warfare Incident of 1952 and the“Patriotic Health Campaign” [《卫生防疫、社会动员与空间政治学一-1952 年的反"细菌战"事件与"爱国卫生运动"的兴起]. 《中国历史评论》. Fall 2004, 11 (2): 155−182. doi:10.1080/1547402X.2004.11827202.