Chemical Weapons:
In 1975, the United States ratified the 1925 Geneva Protocol which prohibited the use of chemical and biological agents.  However, the U.S. inserted a reservation to the convention, preserving the right of the United States to respond in kind to a CW attack.  The U.S. relinquished that reservation in 1997 when it ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention which bans all use and possession of CW by member states.

In 1985, Congress directed the U.S. Army to destroy its CW stockpile.  Destruction efforts began at the Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System in 1990, making the U.S. the first nation to begin destruction of its CW stockpile.

In 1997, the U.S. declared stockpile of CW consisted of over 30,000 tonnes of unitary CW agent and approximately 700 tonnes of binary components.  Agents included sarin and VX nerve gases as well as mustard gas.  The U.S. is currently disposing of its CW stockpile both at Johnston Atoll and at the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Tooele, Utah.  By the end of the year 2000, it is projected that CW destruction on Johnston Atoll will be completed.  As of July 1999, workers at the Tooele facility have successfully destroyed ½ of the Sarin gas stockpile stored at the Deseret Chemical Depot in Utah.

To date, the United States is the only country with an active chemical weapons (CW) destruction program.

Biological Weapons:
On November 25, 1969, then President Richard Nixon signed an executive order renouncing the use of BW and promising to confine further U.S. BW research to "defensive measures."  The U.S. retains one of the two known stockpiles of the smallpox virus (the other is in Russia).  Though the U.S. had previously planned to destroy its smallpox stockpile, both Russia and the U.S. have decided to retain their stockpiles until further research can be done towards combatting the disease.