Al Austin, an American war veteran who fought in Vietnam, has suffered from leukemia as a result of Agent Orange exposure. Agent Orange is the common name of the herbicide and defoliant, chemicals used to kill invasive weeds and other foliage, used during the Vietnam War by the United States military throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. Over twenty million gallons of the herbicide was sprayed to eradicate the thick mangrove forests native to Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries, as to improve visibility for American soldiers and to deplete the Vietnamese of their food supplies. However, Agent Orange was later discovered to have highly toxic chemical properties that can cause cancers and birth defects in humans, and some of the compounds found in the herbicide are still present in Vietnamese soil today, rendering former croplands useless for growth. Because of Agent Orange, millions of Vietnamese and Americans suffer from severe adverse health effects, and the wasted farmlands continue to devastate the Vietnamese economy. Although Agent Orange 's use was effective in the United States' deforestation efforts, it has caused both significant health issues in Vietnamese civilians and soldiers and has devastated Vietnam’s environment. Agent Orange acted as a strong herbicide and defoliant that aided the United States in its defoliation efforts during the war. It was developed in the early 1940s by American chemists. The defoliant, coined “Agent Orange” because of the
48. The purpose of Agent Orange was to strip leaves from trees and shrubs to turn lands into wasteland.
Agent Orange was a strong and powerful herbicide used by the United States during the Vietnam War. Agent Orange was used to eliminate forest cover for the North Vietnam Army, and kill crops to try and starve them. It was very effective in its job and was used for 10 years during the Vietnam War. Agent Orange not oly kills the plants that it was targeting, but it also had a amjor affect on the people that were exposed to it. Agent Orange is a very deadly weapon, and people are still facing the consequences of it today.
Chemical Warfare was also something that the Americans used that was drastically negative. Many innocent South Vietnam citizens were killed from a chemical called napalm. This jelly like substance stuck to a surface and burned. Much of it was dropped on villages
The first chemical to be discussed is Agent Orange; Agent Orange has been identified as a human carcinogen; this chemical was introduced during the Vietnam War as a defoliant for the thick Vietnamese jungle. Although Agent Orange contained a variety of herbicides, most of the pesticide contained Phenoxyacetic acid – based herbicide 2,4-D and 2,4, 5-T. The most common mixture
The first chemical to be discussed is Agent Orange; Agent Orange has been identified as a human carcinogen; this chemical was introduced during the Vietnam war as a defoliant for the thick Vietnamese jungle. Although Agent Orange contained a variety of herbicides, most of the pesticide contained Phenoxyacetic acid – based herbicide 2,4-D and 2,4, 5-T. The most common mixture of the Agent Orange used during
“We were told, ‘it’s totally safe and it won’t hurt you at all,” he added. “We were told you can drink it, you can brush your teeth with it, or you can bathe in it. It won’t hurt you. Those were lies.” (“U.S. Soldiers Sprayed Agent Orange across Korea” 1) Agent Orange was an herbicide used by the United States military forces in Vietnam between 1962 and 1971 to destroy their enemies’ food supply, land, and protection. Twelve million gallons of this toxin were sprayed. (Department of Preventive Medicine 1) It affected the Vietnamese and the American troops who were fighting in the same jungle. Little did the United States military know the effects of this dangerous herbicide. It caused many long-term complications, including health problems
This article is about veterans who served in the Korean War in 1967 who has been affected by Agent Orange. AgentOrange is a defoliant chemical that was used for an herbicide warfare program that causes multiple health problems to people who have been affected by it.The veterans have asked Congress to grant them health care and compensation forgetting it. The Congress denied the grant and the veterans are furious. Because many of the veterans are currently suffering from diseases and illnesses that was caused by the Agent Orange, they wanted benefits. There has been more than1.4 million people who are trying to get the grant from the Congress. They had only granted veterans who served on the Korean Demilitarized Zone from April 1968 through August 1971 eligible for benefits and has at least one illness that is connected to the Agent Orange.
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 was used in the vietnam war from 1961-1971 and it is a mixture of 2 herbicides.
Near the end of 1964 the involvement of the American troops in the war was rising. During the 1970’s it became evident that there were serious long lasting effects because of the chemicals. Not only soldiers but children also experienced physical ailments. Veterans of war were experiencing abnormalities after conceiving children. Several veterans had come forward stating that it was Agent Orange that had affected their health or birth defects of their children. There were a lot of soldiers unable to come back home and live normally after some of the harrowing things they had experiences and their own countrymen were criticising their involvement, when a lot of them had been conscripted and had no choice in whether they joined the army or
In this paper, I will try to determine if the government attitude toward Agent Orange has changed. If it has changed, when
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 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 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.