Editing Fort Detrick (section)

====Cold War years (1956–89)====
Camp Detrick was designated a permanent installation for peacetime biological research and development shortly after World War II, but that status was not confirmed until 1956, when the post became Fort Detrick. Its mandate was to continue its previous mission of biomedical research and its role as the world's leading research campus for biological agents requiring specialty containment. 
 
The most recent land acquisition for the fort was a parcel of less than {{convert|3|acre|ha}} along the Rosemont Avenue fence in 1962, completing the present {{convert|1200|acre|ha}}.

On Veterans Day, November 11, 1969,  President [[Richard M. Nixon]] asked the Senate to ratify the 1925 [[Geneva Protocol]] prohibiting the use of chemical and biological weapons. Nixon assured Fort Detrick its research would continue. On November 25, 1969, Nixon made [[Statement on Chemical and Biological Defense Policies and Programs|a statement outlawing offensive biological research]] in the United States. Since that time any research done at Fort Detrick has allegedly been purely defensive in nature,<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=History :: U.S. Army Fort Detrick|url=https://home.army.mil/detrick/index.php/about/history|access-date=2021-12-15|website=home.army.mil}}</ref> focusing on diagnostics, preventives and treatments for BW infections. This research is undertaken by the [[United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases|U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases]] (USAMRIID) which transitioned from the previous [[United States Army Medical Unit|U.S. Army Medical Unit]] (USAMU) and was renamed in 1969.

As he ended the offensive biological research done at Fort Detrick, Nixon pledged to make former laboratories and land available by the disestablishment of the offensive biological warfare program transferred to the [[United States Department of Health and Human Services|U.S Department of Health and Human Services]] during the 1970s and later. The Frederick National Cancer Research and Development Center (now the [[Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research]]) was established in 1971 on a {{convert|69|acre|ha|adj=on}} parcel in Area A ceded by the installation.<ref name=":0" />

In 1989 base researchers identified the [[Ebola]] virus in a monkey imported to the area from the Philippines.<ref name="washingtonpost.com"/>