Date of Award
5-2026
Degree Type
Dissertation/Thesis
Department
History
Advisor(s)
Claire Strom
Second Advisor
Hannah Ewing
Third Advisor
Jay Pieczynski
Abstract
This thesis examines the relationship between racial and ethnocentric ideologies and the use of chemical weapons in twentieth‑century Asia. While chemical warfare is often analyzed as a technological or legal issue, this study argues that its deployment was deeply shaped by racial hierarchies that rendered Asian populations acceptable targets for forms of violence considered illegitimate in Europe. Chemical weapons were not merely military tools but instruments embedded in imperial, colonial, and Cold War worldviews. Through six case studies—the Second Sino‑Japanese War, the Korean War, the Malayan Emergency, the Vietnam War, and covert American operations in Laos and Cambodia—this project traces how racial assumptions influenced both the selection of chemical weapons and the justifications for their use. Imperial Japan’s chemical warfare against China was rooted in ethnocentric claims of racial superiority. During the Cold War, British and American forces employed napalm and chemical agents under the guise of counterinsurgency, drawing on representations of Asian societies as backward, irrational, or politically incapable of self‑governance. In Vietnam, the extensive use of napalm and herbicides reflected a military culture that blurred distinctions between civilians and combatants, devaluing Vietnamese lives. Covert operations in Laos and Cambodia further reveal how secrecy and racial indifference shielded chemical violence from accountability. By situating chemical warfare within broader histories of racism, empire, and international law, this thesis demonstrates a consistent pattern: populations denied full recognition as civilized or equal were denied protection from chemical violence. The study challenges narratives that present chemical warfare as aberrational, showing instead that it was repeatedly normalized when directed at racially marginalized peoples.
Recommended Citation
Lipscomb, Caitlin, "The Racial and Ethnocentric Implications of Modern Chemical Warfare in Asia" (2026). History. 3.
https://scholarship.rollins.edu/honors-in-the-major-history/3
