home > by publication type > backgrounder > VX
Email
Updated: January 2006
VX is the deadliest nerve agent ever created. Known by its U.S. Army code name, it is a clear, colorless liquid with the consistency of motor oil. A fraction of a drop of VX, absorbed through the skin, can fatally disrupt the nervous system. Although a cocktail of drugs can serve as an antidote, VX acts so quickly that victims would have to be injected with the antidote almost immediately to have a chance at survival. VX is the only significant nerve agent created since World War II.
It’s unlikely but possible. Synthesizing VX is complicated and extremely dangerous. It requires the use of toxic and corrosive chemicals and a sophisticated chemical laboratory. Still, the Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo, which recruited trained chemists from Japanese universities, managed to synthesize small quantities of VX to use for assassinations. Terrorists lacking access to trained organic chemists might be more likely to steal a munition containing VX from a poorly guarded chemical weapons depot. Breachable depots may exist in Russia.
If terrorists obtained or produced a significant quantity of VX without killing themselves in the process, they might try to spread VX over a large, highly-populated area. But experts say that because of the hazards involved in handling VX, terrorists might turn first to other forms of attack.
There is no evidence that it does. It is also extremely unlikely that Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network has the technical capability to produce VX, although it might try to purchase or steal munitions containing VX.
The only countries that have admitted to having VX or a closely related agent are the United States and Russia. (The United States has destroyed about 9 percent of its VX stockpile, and Russia has promised to eliminate its own supply of a VX-like agent.) Experts say Iraq successfully weaponized VX sometime in the late 1980s. There were reports that Syria successfully produced VX or a similar agent and tested missile warheads armed with VX.
Although there is no conclusive evidence, some experts and an Iraqi defector say that Saddam Hussein used VX against Iranian forces in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War, and then again in a 1988 chemical attack on Iraqi Kurds in the town of Halabja. That massacre reportedly killed 5,000 people and created serious health problems for thousands more.
Aum Shinrikyo, which killed twelve people in a March 1995 sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway system, also used VX injections in assassination attempts on enemies of the cult in 1994 and 1995; one person died.
In the early 1950s. A British industrial scientist developed the basic compound of the V-series of nerve agents in the course of researching pesticides (the “V” stands for “venom”), but the new compound was deemed too deadly for commercial use. In the late 1950s, the British government shared the formula with the United States, which began full-scale production of VX in 1961. Between 1964 and 1968, the U.S. Department of Defense conducted a series of “live-agent tests” designed to give it practice defending ships against VX and sarin attacks.
Weigh in on this issue by emailing CFR.org.
In Termites in the Trading System, Jagdish Bhagwati reveals how the rapid spread of preferential trade agreements endangers the world trading system.
America Between the Wars explores how the decisions and debates of the years between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Twin Towers shaped the events, arguments, and politics of the world we live in today.
In The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State, Noah Feldman tells the story behind the increasingly popular call for the establishment of the sharia—the law of the traditional Islamic state—in the modern Muslim world.
Complete list of CFR Books.
This report argues that the United States must lead with domestic action on climate change and proposes a U.S. negotiating strategy for a global UN climate agreement that includes commitments from all major economies, while also promoting a less formal Partnership for Climate Cooperation that would focus the world's largest emitters on implementing aggressive emissions reductions.
This Task Force report examines changes in Latin America and in U.S. influence there, while taking account of the region's enduring importance to the United States. The Task Force offers an agenda for U.S. policy toward Latin America and identifies four critical areas that should provide the basis of a new U.S. approach.
About Independent Task Forces at CFR.
This report outlines the nature of the challenges in Pakistan's tribal areas, formulates strategies for addressing those challenges, and distills the strategies into realistic policy proposals worthy of consideration by the incoming administration.
This report analyzes the debate over U.S. use of assurances against torture, explaining the contexts in which they are used, how they can be conveyed, and what they can contain, and recommends a number of ways to respond to criticism so that the United States can continue using assurances.
Complete list of Council Special Reports.
“The Right Way to Engage China” Henry M. Paulson argues that the prosperity of the United States and China depends on helping China to further integrate into the global economic system.
To order Task Force reports, Council Special Reports, and Critical Policy Choices, please call, fax, or order online from our distributor, the Brookings Institution Press: phone +1.800.537.5487, fax +1.410.516.6998.
For information on other reports that are not for sale, or for general publications information, please call +1-212-434-9516 or email publications@cfr.org.
To request permission to reuse Council materials, please email publications@cfr.org or fax +1.212.434.9859.
Please include the complete information of the requested work—author, title, sections/pages to be copied or reprinted, and number of copies to be made—along with a brief description of where and how you would like to reuse the work.
You may also request permission for Council material through Copyright Clearance Center. For more information, please click on the link below.
Copyright 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.
