 Thereafter, the official policy of the United States was first to deter the use of BW against U.S. forces, and secondarily to retaliate if deterrence failed.Throughout the war years, Dr Ira L. Baldwin, professor of bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, was scientific director of the Laboratories.The USBWL were the United States' front-line defense against BW during the first half of the Cold War.