Agent Orange: Encyclopedia II - Agent Orange - Use in Vietnam

Agent Orange - Use in Vietnam

During the Vietnam War, the US instituted a massive herbicidal program that ran from 1961 through 1971. The aim of the program was two-fold, one to destroy the "cover" provided by the jungle-like forest, and another to deny food to the enemy.

A variety of chemicals, fifteen in total, were tested or used operationally during this program. The primary broad-leaf herbicides sprayed during the "testing" phase of the program between 1962 and 1964 were Agent Orange, Agent Purple and Agent White. The chemicals themselves had no color, the names refer to colored stripes painted on the 55 gallon barrels to identify their contents. Much smaller amounts of other herbicides were also tested, including Agent Pink, Agent Green, Dinoxol, Trinoxol, Bromacil, Diquat, Tandex, Monuron, Diuron and Dalapon. Agent Blue was an unrelated herbicide based primarily on arsenic used to kill rice plants which were not susceptible to the phenoxy-based agents. A variety of Paraquat-related chemicals were apparently also tested in this role. For spraying, the various agents were mixed with kerosene or diesel fuel.

By 1964 the testing phase had ended, and Agent Orange was selected as the most effective agent for "territory denial". Operational use started in January 1965, increasing in breadth as logistical problems were solved. Most of Agent Orange sprayed during the program was delivered from modified US Air Force C-123K Provider aircraft under a program known as Operation Ranch Hand. Other delivery methods included helicopters, truck and hand spraying, notably for the areas directly around US bases. From 1968 on, an improved version known as "Orange II" or "Super Orange" was used as well.

Spraying reached its maximum during the most intense period of the war, between 1967 and 1968. After that the program "drew down", and ended in 1971. By this point an estimated 19 million gallons of herbicide had been sprayed on Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, somewhat more than half of that Agent Orange. Early estimates from 1974 had placed the amounts lower, between 12 and 14 million gallons. In total about six million acres were sprayed in Vietnam alone.

The military effectiveness of the program appears debatable. Many of the areas sprayed were not directly involved in later military actions. Of course, this could be considered as evidence for the effectiveness of the program. Nor does it appear there is any measurable effect on the warfighting abilities of the groups involved, the NVA were able to mount full scale assaults in 1972 with little US intervention prior, which suggests that the program was, militarily, a failure.

==Effects of the program In 1980, New Jersey created the New Jersey Agent Orange Commission, the first state commission created to study its effects. The Commission's research project in association with Rutgers University was called "The Pointman Project". It was disbanded by governor Christine Todd Whitman in 1996.

An April 2003 report paid for by the National Academy of Sciences concluded that during the Vietnam War, 3,181 villages were sprayed directly with herbicides. Between 2.1 and 4.8 million people "would have been present during the spraying." Furthermore, many US military personnel were also sprayed or came in contact with herbicides in recently sprayed areas. The study was originally undertaken for the US military to get a better count of how many veterans served in sprayed areas and researchers were given access to military records and Air Force operational folders previously not studied. The re-estimate made by the report places the volume of herbicides sprayed between 1962 and 1971 to a level 7,131,907 liters more than an uncorrected estimate published in 1974 and 9.4 million more liters than a 1974 corrected inventory. It was produced under contract for the Army by Diamond Shamrock, Dow, Hercules, Monsanto, T-H Agricultural & Nutrition, Thompson Chemicals, and Uniroyal.

The National Academy of Sciences has also noted the harmful effects of the herbicides on US soldiers.

On January 31, 2004, a victim's rights group, the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (VAVA), filed a class action lawsuit in a US Federal District Court in Brooklyn, New York, against several US companies, for liability in causing personal injury, by developing and producing the chemical. Dow Chemical and Monsanto were the two largest producers of Agent Orange for the US military, and were named in the suit along with eight other companies. A number of lawsuits by American GIs have been won in the years since the Vietnam War.

On March 10, 2005, the District Court judge dismissed the suit, ruling that there was no legal basis for the plaintiffs' claims. The judge concluded that Agent Orange was not considered a poison under international law at the time of its use by the US; that the US was not prohibited from using it as an herbicide; and that the companies which produced the substance were not liable for the method of its use by the government. The US government, which has sovereign immunity, had not been a target of the lawsuit. However, in 1984, chemical companies that manufactured Agent Orange paid $180 million into a fund for United States veterans following a lawsuit.

The VA has listed prostate cancer, respiratory cancers, multiple myeloma, type II diabetes, Hodgkin’s disease, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, soft tissue sarcoma, chloracne, porphyria cutanea tarda, peripheral neuropathy, and spinal bifidia in children of veterans exposed to Agent Orange as side effects of the herbicide.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Use in Vietnam", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki