AGENT ORANGE

Defoliant

Another chemical at the center of controversy was Agent Orange. Agent Orange was a defoliant used extensively in the U.S. war in Vietnam to deny ground cover and food to North Vietnamese guerrillas by destroying forests and crops. Named for the orange stripe painted on fifty-five-gallon barrels for identification, it was developed by the army in the 1950s as an alternative to biological weapons. It was a combination of two herbicides—2,4-D (n-butyl-2,4, dichlorophenoxyacetate) and 2, 4, 5-T (n-butyl~2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetate)—and was tremendously effective. By 1970, 1.1.2 million gallons had been dropped by airborne C-123 cargo planes, destroying the plant life of 4.5 million acres. In addition to the areas officially targeted, fruit trees, man-grove swamps, and crops were also destroyed by leaky spray nozzles, wind drift, and vaporization from the heat. The cumulative effect crippled the Vietnamese economy and did substantial damage to the environment. In 1971, following criticism from the National Academy of Sciences, international organizations, and the American public, the military agreed to halt the herbicide campaign.

Vietnam Vets

In the spring of 1978 Paul Reutershan shocked the audience of the Today show, saying, "I died in Vietnam, but I didn't even know it." Reutershan had flown almost daily missions through clouds of Agent Orange as a member of the 20th Engineering Brigade during the war. He believed it responsible for the cancer from which he ultimately died nine months later. Many Vietnam veterans suffered health problems when they returned home, but the Veterans Administration (VA) said they were not caused by Agent Orange. Perhaps, the VA suggested, the psychological impact of fighting an unpopular war had made veterans ill. The herbicide, they believed, could cause skin rashes, but nothing more. At issue was the extent of dioxin contamination of Agent Orange. Dioxin, a by-product of Agent Orange, is an extremely toxic chemical, believed to cause birth defects, cancer, and nerve damage. While dioxin was present in all samples of Agent Orange tested, federal chemists and health officials believed it existed in quantities too small to be harmful. Despite lawsuits, the Department of Defense never agreed that Agent Orange could have damaged the health of veterans.

Sources:

Neil Sheehan, A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam (New York: Random House, 1988);

Fred Wilcox, Waiting for an Army to Die: The Tragedy of Agent Orange (New York: Random House, 1983).