To understand how US imperialism works to create pretexts for war and attempt to deflect away from its own criminal activity, it is instructive to remember the case of “yellow rain” in the 1980s.
The “yellow rain” campaign began in 1981, when then Secretary of State Alexander Haig gave a speech to the Berlin Press Association on September 13, where he alleged that the Soviet Union was supplying mycotoxins to Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia for use against pro-US insurgencies and of employing the same toxins in Afghanistan. Haig claimed, “We have now found physical evidence from Southeast Asia which has been analyzed and found to contain abnormally high levels of three potent mycotoxins—poisonous substances not indigenous to the region and which are highly toxic to man and animals.”
Like today, sweeping statements were made with only minimal evidence and had vast implications. The Reagan administration was directly implying that, by developing a new dimension in chemical and biological warfare through the use of mycotoxins, that the Soviet Union was violating both the 1925 Geneva Protocol and the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. The former banned the use of chemical and biological weapons in war, after the deployment of various
— source wsws.org | 2 Jun 2021