Strategic ambush, The Vietnam War (16), Chemical defoliants “US chemical companies that made Agent Orange, the government and military authorities who ordered its spraying on Vietnam knew the human health toll it could take, according to official and unofficial documents detailing the history of the deadly defoliant.” …quot; Jon Dillingham (Journalist/International Journal of Socialist Renewal) August 10, 2009, was the first Orange Day organised in Vietnam …quot; not only to be remembered by victims of Agent Orange but to mark Vietnam's common pain. One of the most controversial aspects of the US military effort in Southeast Asia was the widespread use of chemical defoliants between 1961 and 1971. They were used to defoliate large parts of the countryside. These chemicals continue to change the landscape, cause diseases and birth defects, and poison the food chain. Early in the American military effort, it was decided that since the enemy were hiding their activities under triple-canopy jungle, a useful first step might be to defoliate certain areas. This was especially true of growth surrounding bases (both large and small) in what became known as Operation Ranch Hand. Corporations like Dow Chemical and Monsanto Company were given the task of developing herbicides for this purpose. The defoliants, which were distributed in drums marked with colour-coded bands, included the "Rainbow Herbicides" …quot; Agent Pink, Agent Green, Agent Purple, Agent Blue, Agent White, and, most famously, Agent Orange, which included dioxin as a by-product of its manufacture. About 12 million gallons (45,000,000 L) of Agent Orange were sprayed over Southeast Asia during the American involvement. A prime area of Ranch Hand operations was in the Mekong Delta, where the US Navy patrol boats were vulnerable to attack from the undergrowth at the water's edge. In 1961 and 1962, the Kennedy administration authorised the use of chemicals to destroy rice crops. Between 1961 and 1967, the US Air Force sprayed 20 million US gallons (75,700,000 L) of concentrated herbicides over 6 million acres (24,000 km2) of crops and trees, affecting an estimated 13 per cent of South Vietnam's land. In 1965, 42 per cent of all herbicide was sprayed over food crops. Another purpose of herbicide use was to drive civilian populations into South-controlled areas. As of 2006, the Vietnamese government estimates that there were over 4,000,000 victims of dioxin poisoning in Vietnam, although the US government denies any conclusive scientific links between Agent Orange and the Vietnamese victims of dioxin poisoning. In some areas of southern Vietnam, dioxin levels remain at over 100 times the accepted international standard. The US Veterans' Administration has listed prostate cancer, respiratory cancers, multiple myeloma, type II diabetes, B-cell lymphomas, soft tissue sarcoma, chloracne, porphyria cutanea tarda, peripheral neuropathy, and spina bifida in children of veterans exposed to Agent Orange. Although there has been much discussion over whether the use of these defoliants constituted a violation of the laws of war, the defoliants were not considered weapons, since exposure to them did not lead to immediate death or incapacitation. The number of military and civilian deaths from 1959 to 1975 is debated. Some reports fail to include members of South Vietnamese forces killed in the final campaign, or the Royal Lao Armed Forces, thousands of Laotian and Thai irregulars, or Laotian civilians who all perished in the conflict. They do not include the tens of thousands of Cambodians killed during the civil war or the estimated one and one-half to two million that perished in the genocide that followed Khmer Rouge victory, or the fate of Laotian Royals and civilians after the Pathet Lao assumed complete power in Laos. In 1995, the Vietnamese government reported that its military forces, including the NLF, suffered 1.1 million dead and 600,000 wounded during Hanoi's conflict with the US. Civilian deaths were put at two million in the North and South, and economic reparations were expected. Hanoi concealed the figures during the war to avoid demoralising the population. Estimates of civilian deaths caused by American bombing in Operation Rolling Thunder range from 52,000 to 182,000. The US military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died in the war. Dear Egyptian Mail readers, Your contributions and/or comments are welcome. We promise to publish whatever is deemed publishable at the end of the series. [email protected]
