Agent Orange : History, Science, And Politics Of Uncertainty

     Through meeting Li Van Hgoc the reader learns the “true enemy” in the novel. According to Li Van Hgoc, “The land is your true enemy.” He mentions that the soldier is the representative of the land and the land is also fighting a battle. Through listening to Li Van Hgoc at the “tea party” the platoon realizes the land actually is the enemy and notices the natural defenses: the tunnels, dangerous trails, the land mines, the hedges and paddies, and the jungle itself. The platoon thought that their enemy were the Vietcong, but they began to come to the realization that the Vietcong used the land; what they were protecting, why they were fighting, how they were fighting, to destroy foreign troops sent there. Li Van Hgoc telling the platoon of “Xa,” meaning community, soil, home, that “a man’s spirit is in the land, where his ancestors rest and where the rice grows,” helped show that the land was the “true enemy.”

The Agent Orange Act of 1991 is the only legislative pathway to add ailments to the presumptive list of service connected illnesses for Vietnam Veterans. It is set to expire on September 30th, 2015. If the Act is allowed to expire comprehensive research reviews will end. Without continued research reviews, some Vietnam Veterans will never be covered for the ailments caused by their exposure. If this legislation is not extended there will be no new ailments added to the service connected presumptive list for Vietnam Veterans (after the 2014 report is released this December).

Napalm is a highly flammable sticky jelly used in incendiary bombs and flamethrowers, consisting of gasoline thickened with special soaps, they were very deadly weapons used during the war. Operation Agent Orange is a herbicide and defoliant chemical, one of the tactical use Rainbow Herbicides. This devastating chemical sprayed more than 20 million gallons all over vietnam, Cambodia and laos from 1961 to 1971. The chemical contained these diseases Al Amyloidosis, Chronic B-cell Leukemias, Diabetes Mellitus type 2 and many more diseases but whoever survived this I feel sorry for.

Agent Orange is a herbicide that was used to defoliate the jungles, meaning the United States military was trying to kill off the trees in Vietnam in order to take away places for North Vietnamese military men could hide (1). The Viet Cong did not fight conventionally against the American military, they could not do so and expect to win. This caused them to resort to guerilla warfare in order to strike and weaken parts of a division or unit. The Americans used Agent Orange as a defense strategy in order to take away hiding places for the Viet Cong to run to after hitting the American units (2). What is especially harmful to those who were around Agent Orange and where it was sprayed was the dioxin, which is a byproduct of one of the chemicals components. People still worked and breathed even with the residue of the toxin still in the air and in the soil, civilians and military personnel alike. The toxin carried in it a carcinogen that got its way into the water and in the soil. Slowly as the years have passed and Vietnam has been hit with a lot of monsoons clean water has washed away the toxic water, but not before it entered into the food chain and then started to accumulate into body fat and tissue in humans that was able to passed from a mother to their child threw breast milk. The American military, by word of the American government, dumped millions of gallons of Agent Orange onto the southern half of

The war in Vietnam was, and continues to be, one of the most controversial hot button topics in American history. The military’s use of dangerous pesticides, like Agent Orange, is a major part of this controversy. Agent Orange is a defoliant that was widely used to deforest dense jungle areas to reduce both hiding places and food sources for the Vietnamese. During the war, American B-52 bombers released over nineteen million gallons of Agent Orange over the Vietnamese countryside. After ten years of continuous dumping, 1971 finally marked the end of America’s use of Agent Orange and other herbicides. In 1974, the United States government, headed by Richard Nixon, swore the country would never again use chemical weapons in a first strike. (Levy and Scott-Clark)

Agent Orange was and herbal defoliant that had proven effective on large area and afforded the ability to be sprayed aerially. It was dispersed from the air on everything and everyone below. The hardest hit was the ground troops because massive amounts were dropped at times in top of them and they would breathe in the fums. The jungle , wildlife men it knew no difference it's jobs was to kill and kill it did the jungles withered and died in a matter of hours exposing the enemy and our brave uniform service members, medical personnel and other support liaison

“If the tiger ever stands still, the elephant will crush him with his mighty tusks. But the tiger does not stand still. He lurks in the jungle by day and emerges by night. He will leap upon the back of the elephant, tearing huge chunks from his hide, and then he will leap back into the dark jungle. And slowly the elephant will bleed to death.” This quote by Ho Chi Minh emphasises his belief that Guerrilla tactics would be what would result in a win for the Vietcong. The Vietcong made use of tunnels, known as the Cu Chi Tunnels , which was a network of underground tunnels that the Vietcong resided in, and used to store supplies and care for the sick and injured. The use of underground hiding places meant that the US was unaware of the Vietcong’s whereabouts from ground level, allowed them to be

Agent Orange may not have been the first herbicide, however, one could argue that it is the deadliest. Dao Chemical made agent orange in 1943. Taking 2 commonly used herbicides and mixing them together created Agent Orange. They mixed, “2,4-D and 2,4,5-T.” (Agent Orange.” UXL Encyclopedia of Science). Dao Chemical knew how dangerous the chemicals that they were mixing together. There was previous knowledge that2,4,5-T can cause problems in humans, and they only mixed it with something more dangerous: “One chemical used to make Agent Orange was contaminates with a dioxin, TCDD” (Agent Orange.” UXL Encyclopedia of Science). Dioxins are very toxic to humans, animal, and the environment. Once a dioxin is released, the dioxin will remain present in the soil. During the Vietnam War the United Sates army covered over 4 million acres with Agent Orange. During the years, “1962 and 1971, over 10.5 million gallons of Agent Orange were sprayed on Vietnam.” (Agent Orange).

During the Vietnam War, Americans dropped millions of gallons of a pesticide onto Vietnamese soil -- the goal was to eliminate jungle growth and the food supply from local plantations; the pesticide was called “Agent Orange, which contained the chemical dioxin, the most effective of the colored chemicals. Later revealed to cause serious health issues - including tumors, birth defects, rashes, psychological symptoms, and cancers - among servicemen and families of the Vietnamese population” (History.com). The use of Agent Orange had a significant impact on the lives of the Vietnamese people, since it often destroyed their land and crops. As a result, food was in short supply. They were required to rely on supplies brought in from allied or neighboring countries; this was difficult because combatants blockaded many ports where the Vietnamese could possibly receive supplies.

plenty of forests to hid in. As Rosenberg wrote “Since Viet Cong hid in the dense brush, U.S.

Agent Orange was another of the Dow’s horrific innovations. This time it was with another company, Monsanto with Dow being the principal manufacturers. Agent Orange, a chemical defoliant containing dioxin, was used during the US military’s chemical warfare in Vietnam. US air force planes bombed jungles and paddy fields with Agent Orange to destroy forest cover and food crops used by the Vietnamese resistance and villagers. The defoliant which was poison in itself was also contaminated with dioxins which caused serious health effects in generations of humans. In 2005, a lawsuit was filed by Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange against Dow and Monsanto Co. The lawsuit was dismissed whereas, Dow settled for $180 million with 4,000 American veterans exposed to the herbicide during the Vietnam War in 1984. The Vietnamese victims are still waiting for justice to be delivered.

The destruction this chemical caused to the vegetation should have been the first clue that what destroys nature will in due time destroy us. We are the cause for this mess; but we should have been notified much earlier about the potential risk associated with Agent Orange. According to the Executive Summary on Operations Trail Dust and Ranch Hand, "On April 17,1995 Researchers have found that during the spraying of Agent Orange in southern Vietnam, dioxin levels in human tissue were as high as 900 times greater in Vietnamese living in southern Vietnam than those living in Northern Vietnam where Agent Orange was not used."(Arison5) It was not until 1993, when the Institute of Medicine News reported, "Evidence exists linking three cancers and two other health problems with chemicals used in herbicides used in the Vietnam War, a committee of the Institute of Medicine has concluded. Those diseases are soft tissue sarcoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and Hodgkin's disease as well as chloracne and prophyria cutanea tarda (PCT)."(Turner-Lowe1) An explanation of each disease follows: Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma refers to any group of cancers of lymphoid tissues that multiply. These are found mainly in the lymph nodes and the spleen. The symptoms are related to painless swelling of the lymph nodes in the neck or groin region. There is an attempted

In 1970’s, Monsanto had produced a chemical known as Agent Orange. Agent Orange contained dioxin; a chemical that caused a legal nightmare for Monsanto, a lawsuit was filed against Monsanto on behalf of hundreds of veterans. The repercussions of dioxin would plague the company for years.

Agent Orange is a powerful mixture of chemical herbicides, whose main component is the toxic dioxin, that causes serious health issues as well as extensively contaminates the environment. More than 19 million gallons of herbicides was spraying deliberately over 4.5 million acres of Vietnam’s land from 1961 to 1971 by the U.S. military for the purpose of defoliating the farmland and the forestation, thus, depriving Viet Cong troops of food and cover. It was the

During the Vietnam War the United States military fought what seemed to be an invisible enemy. Viet Cong fighters who quickly attacked then slipped back into the cover of the dense jungle. For the United States military this guerrilla style of fighting was unlike anything the US forces have ever fought against. With little to no success in fighting the Viet Cong the American strategists suggested a new technology that will help US troops seek out and destroy the enemy. In 1962 American forces responded to these vicious guerrilla warfare attacks with operation “Ranch Hand”. The operation entails the spraying over an area about the same size of Massachusetts with defoliants. A spokes person for the United States military stated